The Value of Training to Train – Sales Management Skills

Give your staff the training to train. For example, students of our Rainmaker Academy are asked to teach what they learned at the Academy to other people at their offices. No matter what the content area, research shows that teaching enhances learning.

1. People who are expected to teach pay more attention and learn more than students who do not expect to teach. Preparing to teach will help embed the newly learned information more deeply into the attendees. We highly recommend the material be taught within seven days of learning it.

2. Training gets passed on to managers and others in the firm who have not attended the training session. Everyone who aspires to leadership in professional firms must develop sales and marketing skills. Training just one person from a firm im- pacts only that person, whereas training three to five people is obviously more fruitful.

3. Students subtly develop a mentoring and coaching program in selling skills. One student should train three to five others in the firm. Training only a few others puts less pressure on the student and requires less logistical planning time. For ongoing training, teaching the same protégés over time creates strong relationships among the team members. If the teaching and coaching works well, the firm can expect to double the effects created from the student.

4. Students develop leadership and teaching skills. Good leaders model the activities for less experienced people to adopt. As students implement training and are held accountable for doing what they say they’ll do, they become model leaders for their firm. When others are also held accountable, they develop significant credibility within the firm.

5. Skills are delivered in a more cost-effective way. When the participants teach the material they’ve learned to three other people, the per-person training cost to the firm drops considerably.

Summary

While the return on investment is still very powerful for one person’s training participation, the return on investment becomes overwhelming using the training to train concepts.