Train the Trainer - creating inspiration, driving sales

“When you’re training trainers, you know that every nugget of knowledge and each nuance in style will be magnified across the workforce. Everything has to be just right.”

^“Sales performance increased as training courses were delivered with a new-found passion and enthusiasm.^”

Faced with increasing competition, new products and delivering more value to its customer one of the ‘jewels in the crown’ of the News Corporation media empire, Sky, had ambitious expansion plans. They needed to rapidly expand their sales force and ensure their people had the skills to deliver consistently high performance levels. Easier said than done if you want to do it well.

Sky knew training was the key. Business planning had demonstrated that the best return would come from leveraging their internal training capability. However, the trainers at Sky were relatively inexperienced. Few had any real exposure to a sales environment, and this limited their credibility when it came to training or coaching sales skills. Would they be able to deliver?

Preparing for expansion

It was decided that an external partner was needed to provide internal trainers with the competencies and tools necessary to raise skill levels and performance across their entire sales operation and prepare it for significant expansion. The Head of Training said, “Choosing a company to develop your internal training team is a difficult task. They had to be the kind of people who would work with our team, be able to demonstrate considerable skill and knowledge and have the ability to inspire.”

When the Blue Sky team started work their challenge was clear. They had to inspire 190 in-house trainers to deliver more effective training in a period of rapid expansion. Training had rarely been so close to the heart of a high stakes business strategy, and with a number of issues

already affecting the impact of training at Sky, the pressure was on.
As well as having little experience of selling, which affected their confidence, the in-house trainers at Sky had limited awareness of different learning needs and styles. This meant they were unable to adapt to the training needs of individual delegates. There was also an inability to facilitate discussions or control disruptive delegates, which meant issues remained unresolved and delegates failed to buy in to new ideas.

Encouraging creativity

The Train the Trainer programme comprised a suite of tailor-made training products that covered the complete induction training programme and advanced skill development. The focus was on encouraging creativity, using a variety of different classroom, coaching and facilitation skills. The Head of Training at Sky was focused on the impact of the behaviours the new programme was developing. “When you’re training trainers, you know that every nugget of knowledge and each nuance in style will be magnified across the workforce. Everything has to be just right.”

The Road to Damascus

Happily they did get it just right. After the Train the Trainer programme, everything was in place to deliver effective sales training in-house.

Sales performance increased as training courses were delivered with a new-found passion and enthusiasm. The Head of Training recalled, “I chatted with a trainer in the corridor who had been one of the most resistant to acknowledging his own development needs. He raved about the train the trainer programme as if he’d found the road to Damascus.” Quality scores increased by 33% when the new sales trainers went live and sales conversion rates almost doubled at a time of increased competition.

Other trainers said: “My outlook towards training has completely changed.” “I wouldn’t have missed this learning experience for anything.” “My knowledge and skills have increased 100%.”