National Sales Meetings: How to Time Sales Training for Maximum Impact

by Steve Gielda, Ignite Selling CEO

If you plan to deliver sales training at your national sales meeting, it’s important to schedule training thoughtfully for maximum impact.

Over the past 20 years, we’ve participated in hundreds of our clients’ national sales meetings as trainers, coaches and observers. When it comes to training at such events, we’ve seen firsthand what works and what doesn’t. We recently pulled our collective learnings into the following “7 Unbreakable Rules for Delivering Effective Training at Your National Sales Meeting”.

 

 
This guide drills into these rules a bit deeper to give you some practical guidance to get the most impact from your efforts.

Rule 5. Timing matters

The time you slot training on your national sales meeting agenda has a big influence on the uptake and impact that training has on your team and your business.

National sales meetings have several objectives, including socializing, networking and recognizing outstanding achievements from the prior year. Additionally, if you want to deliver an engaging learning experience that’s interactive and where you expect people to think crucially, then they need to have the focus and energy get engaged.

So don’t schedule training the morning after your awards banquet. After the awards banquet, allow some free time for activities such as golf and informal networking.

It’s best to schedule training following sessions that present key strategies that you expect your sales managers and reps to execute to drive growth and success.

For example, if you’re launching an important new product or trying to overcome a new competitive threat, schedule the training right after the sessions that introduce these strategic initiatives. Participants will be more alert, and more focused on developing better awareness, knowledge and skill to execute these initiatives in the coming year.

In most cases, you should view training at a national sales meeting as the first step in a long journey to develop new behaviors. This still requires proper follow-up activities and coaching, but getting the timing right ensures the first step is in the right direction.

 

 

Using Sales Simulations to Deliver High-impact Training at Your National Sales Meeting

We believe that sales simulations are the most effective approach for delivering high-impact training at national sales meetings. Sales simulations create a high-energy, competitive, active learning experience that helps salespeople and managers overcome the common obstacles they encounter in the market every day.

For more information on how we can help you, please call us at (703) 234-5275 or email [email protected].