The Importance of Becoming a Professional Sales Trainer
There is some evidence that professional sales training is a relatively recent phenomenon. Prior to World War II, organizations often realized that selling failure was directly related to the skills of their sales representatives.
In view of that, sales representatives were often assigned traveling supervisors who roamed the country, filing in as many as 100 reports on salesmen in a week.
Introduction to the Field of Sales Training:
There is some evidence that professional sales training is a relatively recent phenomenon. Prior to World War II, organizations often realized that selling failure was directly related to the skills of their sales representatives. In view of that, sales representatives were often assigned traveling supervisors who roamed the country, filing in as many as 100 reports on salesmen in a week. Often, the salespeople subsequently hired the salespeople on the spot and then trained them themselves. Although it is regrettable that sales training is still under-advocated, underutilized, and underappreciated, there are a growing number of sales trainers across the United States. The Society for Sales Training Personnel was established in 1965 to meet the unique needs of college and commercial sales trainers; the college sales trainer faces different, heretofore unresearched problems.
It is interesting to note that this literature in the field of sales training is limited. All too often, we focus upon the aesthetics of selling, how to go about closing sales, and the skills needed to handle customer objections. Rarely do we think about the act of sales training for our professional needs. With one in every five positions in the United States being classified as a sales job and increasing numbers of two-year technical sales degrees, it is remarkable that we have overlooked this rather significant player in our business organizations.


Qualifications and Skills Required for Professional Sales Trainers
Qualification to become a professional sales trainer can take many paths: formal higher-education institutions; short-term public and private professional development programs; sales training and management professional societies; direct life experience; and graduated internal company-sponsored mentoring programs. These qualifications are necessary, not necessarily sufficient. In our two-step approach, we present a necessary first step that all potential sales training personnel critically confronts. This first step encompasses a well-defined set of personal, social, and analytical skills that will determine a given person’s potential effectiveness in professional sales training. However, skill in one of these qualifications has minimal economic value in a given sales organization if the dropout rate before career development and a first-line field leadership role becomes large. These skills together build what we define as sales leadership, a mission-critical role answerable only to sales executive management in a given sales organization. Even so, some lateral collateral contact and communication with support personnel not in the sales division is required to ensure that both productive output and accuracy in operational systems are fashioned. The final product is designed to support a sales representative’s field operation.
From our distinct perspective, initial training, ongoing education and training, and reinforcement training are the principal components of a comprehensive sales training program. ‘Initial’ denotes entry-level training, and ‘reinforcement’ training serves to maximize the utilization of a bulletin board. The distinction between ‘ongoing education and training’ and ongoing ‘reinforcement’ training involves both subject matter content and the costs of delivery in time, effort, and money. For example, reinforcement training supports knowledge and skills learned previously in the context of their current employment; the sales representative learns how to apply factors and benefits on-the-job in the field. This is the mission of the sales manager or field sales coordinator, and we will explore this role subsequently.

Benefits and Opportunities of a Career as a Professional Sales Trainer
They also create win-win situations for clients, whereby the organization sees the sales trainer as a long-term resource, and both value and personal integrity are inherent in the training practice. Sales trainers keep a finger on the heartbeat of organizations in the field and witness the rapidly evolving sales education needs. Sales trainers become involved in professional services as part of an extensive network of lawyers and investment bankers, accountants, and consultants. Lastly, a professional practice in sales training is a unique vehicle to transform society, commerce, and the human spirit. Trainers, besides being on the podium or classroom providing instructions, coaching, or facilitating the programs, are engaged in tasks such as needs assessment, curriculum development and research, planning and organizing, managing meetings and customers.
There are a number of benefits and opportunities of pursuing sales training professionally. If you love sales, teaching others how to sell is a natural career that puts you in touch with the cutting-edge development of the sales profession. You keep your sales knowledge fresh and current, and not only do you stay energized, but also such energy is contagious and you create highly productive and excited students. For being in a non-profit organization, sales trainers are often paid their earned fees in advance of delivery of the services, generate visions, and even help the organization to become aware of sales training needs.