Own Your Sales Training

You Are Responsible for Your Own Learning: How to Get the Most from Sales Training

This one is for you, the salesperson who is about to sit in a training room.

Perhaps it’s a course on sales techniques. Perhaps it’s prospecting, negotiation, objection handling or something else entirely. Honestly, the topic doesn’t matter. What matters is the mindset you walk in with, because that decides what you walk out with.

Do the pre-work. It’s there for a reason

Any good facilitator will send you some pre-work before the session. It might be a short questionnaire, a little reading, or a few questions about your current pipeline and the challenges you face.

It can be tempting to leave it until the night before, or skip it altogether. Please don’t. The pre-work is designed to:

• Get you up to speed, so the session can start where you are rather than at the very beginning
• Get your head in the game, so you arrive thinking about your own deals, customers and goals
• Get you ready and prepared for the training that’s about to come, so you get more from every hour in the room

When I design training, I look closely at where each team’s gap is. The pre-work helps me see that gap clearly, and it helps you see it too.

Nobody else owns your learning

Here’s the part some people don’t want to hear: you are responsible for your own learning. Nobody else.

Not your facilitator. Not your manager. Not the colleague sitting next to you. A trainer can share the tools, the techniques and the practice, but only you can decide to use them on your next call or in your next meeting.

“My manager put me on this course”

That’s awesome. It means someone has invested in you and believes you’re worth developing.

But being sent isn’t the same as showing up. You have to give it everything you’ve got. Ask the questions. Join the role plays, even the uncomfortable ones. Take notes you’ll actually use. Then go back to your desk and put one new idea into practice straight away.

If you sit at the back, check your phone and wait for it to finish, you’re going to miss out on an incredible opportunity.

Your checklist before sales training

1. Complete the pre-work properly, not at midnight the night before
2. Bring one or two real deals or challenges you want help with
3. Clear your diary and switch off notifications for the session
4. Decide what you want to be able to do differently afterwards
5. Commit to using one new technique within 48 hours

Ready to build a sales team that owns its growth?

At The Training Establishment, I scale sales teams and train salespeople into dynamic sales teams. I find the gap, write training to bridge it, and follow up afterwards to make sure the learning sticks.

If you’d like your team to walk into training ready to learn and walk out ready to sell, let’s chat. Book time with me here.

Bec Wiles

Watch the original video on TikTok: @mytrainingestablishment