The IT training industry has certainly seen some major changes over the last couple of years. The majority of the "top-flight" training companies have experienced substantial reductions in the revenues they enjoyed several years ago.

Although, there is still a strong belief that training has a significant role to play in developing a company-s goals and business objectives, the nature of the industry is changing.

One of the most significant challenges facing the IT training industry, I believe, is the fact that sales people do not receive the relevant sales training, mentoring, or career direction compared to others in the industry. This is more pertinent in times of turndown.

In terms of risk to their jobs, those who do not receive the appropriate sales training are always the most vulnerable. Some would argue, that without a strategic training plan for employees, a company in the long run will suffer by losing revenues and shareholder confidence. More importantly, lose valuable talent that is expensive to replace.

Sales People

As sales people we do share some of the responsibility and many still go to work with the mind-set that, being in a selling role, we do not have the time or requirement to develop our professional sales skills.

To be fair, in my own experience the majority of sales training courses attended by sales people have been delivered by either technical or end-user trainers who are exceptional and very professional people, but are not sales people!

"..the majority of sales people in the industry do not feel there is enough training, coaching and development.."

This has led to scepticism and an unfair balance of career building. But like with any other career, there are those top sales earners who understand the need to constantly develop and maintain their sales skills, where necessary, adjust their patterns to fit in with current climate conditions and learn new skills. In return earn more money. After all, we are sales people.

Back to training......

Surely a technical trainer without the relevant experience and qualification would not be let loose in a classroom with fee paying clients. However, at all the training companies where I have worked, it has always been frustrating trying to convince people that sales people also need relevant coaching, mentoring, structured and continuous sales training.

I suppose the question most would ask, is sales training delivery not the responsibility of the sales director? Fair point and certainly they should always advocate training, but delivery? I don-t think so.

A sales director, and a sales manager, should certainly have elements of being able to deliver training, but their main duty is to lead, motivate, coach and ensure the strategy and business objectives for their company is being met.

Sales consultancy and training

Sales consultancy and training is about focusing on the challenges sales people face. It's about developing a longer term plan to over-achieve targets. And I mean long term! Sales training (classroom) is only part of the solution.

Typical organisations have sales training once a year within a conference style environment. More like a day out than anything else! It-s like an after dinner speech where you listen to the stories; very enjoyable at the time, by the end of the evening you struggle to remember ten of the good stories, next morning even fewer, by the time you get into work the next morning most of what was said the previous evening has gone.

There are some very good sales consultancy and training companies offering practical solutions to the training industry. I am convinced though, that the majority of sales people in the industry do not feel there is enough training, coaching and development to properly address the skills shortage within a sales environment.

In a market place where profits are low and cost is high; is it not better to take the approach that sales people are important in maintaining revenues? Sales people need to be trained and developed as much as any trainer, project manager or senior manager. Are they not at the forefront of the client relationship?

Without the proper development they may, and in many cases do, ruin a client relationship.

How much revenue do you think is being lost?

Ironic then, that most IT training companies do not advocate both the training and development of their sales people
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Kevin McLaren   www.blueeskimo.com e-learning and training recruitment | Sales Recruitment | Sales Training

Kevin is co-founder of Blue Eskimo Solutions and has had a successful track record in business management, sales and marketing for over twenty years.

Kevin spent ten years with Bass plc where he held various senior positions within operations and general management. For the last ten years Kevin has enjoyed a very successful career working in the IT training industry with companies such as Informatics Group, as business development director, and at QA Training where he served first as e-learning director then sales and marketing director helping the company achieve some ¸45M revenue per annum. Before setting up Blue Eskimo, Kevin was also the managing director of Vizual Learning plc a subsidiary company of OneClickHR plc delivering HR software solutions.