Lately I have been thinking a lot about about training strategies to use with my sales teams. I have been working with a lot of mixed groups comprised of veterans, rookies and newbies (great categorizations which can be attributed to RK, a District Sales Manager I work with). This has introduced an interesting challenge. How do I keep the attention of the people who have heard it before, while providing the right information for those who need it, without overwhelming the fresh crop?
Today I had my AHA! moment. I need to provide training, but also be entertaining – EnterTraining! I’m sure (in fact 100% sure after I Googled it) that I am not the first person to come up with this witty term. However, I am really excited about the concept. Even though I’d like to think I am already quite entertraining, I now plan to embrace it and apply it to all my sessions.
My Top 5 Ideas:
1. Call your audience out by saying what they are thinking. Ex) In my last session I started with a whiteboard saying “WTF is Twitter?”. This gets a laugh and lets the group know you “get it”.
2. Ask the veterans to be responsible for “dumb questions”. This way the newbies don’t feel stifled and incase they are too shy to ask, someone else will.
3. Create interaction. Everyone loves themselves as much as you love yourself. Especially sales reps. Ask lots of questions (especially ones people will get right), role play, make up a game or competition…
4. Entertain! Even if you are not particularly funny yourself (like me), add some comic relief with relevant jokes or YouTube clips.
5. Provide Food. I don’t care who you are, without food, you are nothing. lol 
These are a few things I’ll be doing this week.
- Aleya Suleman
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