How to Pick a Sales Trainer.

Send a link to this post to your manager! It can save you from wasting days in sales training classes that's aren't going to help you sell.

Sales training takes time and costs money. That investment only makes sense if, after the class, you can sell better and faster. But that can only happen if your management picks the right training with the right training firm.

Unfortunately, there are dozens of sales training firms, so picking the right one isn't easy. To help out, here's a nine-step process, based upon a recent conversation with Dave Stein, CEO of ES Research Group, a firm that helps companies evaluate, select, implement and measure third party sales training firms:

1. Assess your customers' buying habits. Don't assume that the selling methods that worked in the past (or even today) will work in the future. Go to your customers and find out how they want to buy.
2. Create a unique go-to-market strategy. You can't afford to sell like everyone else. You need to figure out how to sell your offerings in a way that sets your company away from the crowd. This strategy will drive the kind of sales training you need.
3. Make an internal reality check. Now that you know what the customer wants, and have a strategy to meet those needs, take a good hard look at your firm and decide what's missing when it comes to executing that strategy. Obviously, you'll want sales training that can fill in the gaps.
4. Write a brief RFP of your training needs. Create a short document (five to six pages should be sufficient) describing the type of training that you believe will bring your sales team up to speed on executing the new strategy.
5. Create a short list of qualified vendors. Google up some sales training firms and find at least five who, at the brochure level, look like the can deliver what the kind of training your team will need. Give them your RFP and ask them to present how they can help.
6. Drill down during the vendor presentations. You know what's important for your firm, right? So make sure that you ask probing question to make sure that the sales training vendor really has the depth that they'll need to get it right the first time.
7. Do your due diligence. Before you make a final decision, find some companies that the vendors have trained. Don't talk to the training managers or the sales managers. Call some sales reps and get the straight scoop. Then you'll find out what's real and what not.
8. Make your selection. Based upon all of the above, pick the sales training vendor who's most likely to give you the help that you need. You may want to contract for more that just sales training, by the way. In many cases, it may make sense to train marketing, management and customer support, too.
9. Negotiate a contract with measurable results. Since you're the sales team, you should know how to negotiate a good contract, right? Well, make sure that any sales training contract you sign has measurable milestones and quantifiable results -- with payment penalties if those results aren't acheived.

P.S. (Dave Stein is a frequent and thoughtful contributor to the comments in this blog.)