Forward

Forward
In a recent professional development seminar, I was challenged to blog about my experiences
as a sales trainer in hopes of learning from my own trials & tribulations. Always wanting to learn more, I accepted that challenge and now embark on an exciting journey to self-discovery. Also, self-deprication and self-embarrassement. Jetlag and language barriers. Miscommunications and revelations. Expense reports and lounge access. It’s the nature of the beast.

A little bit about myself. I am actually new to my role as Sales Trainer – officially Account Director in my company however not new to the company itself. I am coming from another role called Project Manager which happened to be a much more administrative role. I did this for 7 years. While I was good at my job, I lacked motivation and a challenge and therefore switched to this new role. However, I have no real sales background other than being surrounded by the crazy lot for 7 years. I have never sold airtime or ad space. I have never managed a sales team. All these things are usually bare minimum requirement to be considered for an Account Director role. However, I know the our process and procedure well. I figure I’ll just pick up the rest of the sales experience as I go along. How hard could it be, right?

Who ever came up with the phrase “those who cannot do, teach” was obviously never a sales trainer because when it comes to training sales teams, you NEVER stop selling. You are
encouraging people to question the norm, step outside of their comfort zone and challenge their beliefs. You are selling ides, suggestions, attitude adjustments and shock therapy. It’s a never ending process and your relationship with your customer (which in this case is a sales rep) ebbs and flows as much as any typical rep/client relationship would.

To that end I begin the journey. I hope you laugh and maybe even learn a few things along the way with me. Perhaps you can also share your insights in hopes of making us all better sales trainers/people in the future!