Any teacher in any classroom will tell you that one of the biggest challenges is to make the teaching relevant for every student in the room. To put this in context, imagine the delight on the faces of a group of young boys being shown how to wire up an electric racing car toy. Now imagine a group of teenage girls faced with that very same lesson. (For members of the PC brigade that might be reading this – Yes, I do know that some girls will love this activity too, but if we are honest with ourselves we know that most of them won’t!)
In a grown-up world, the differences can be even greater.
There’s no doubt that context aids learning – which is why traditional sales courses very often fail to deliver for technical businesses and technical people.
The technical sales process is substantially different from other sales processes; it’s more complex, involves more people in the decision-making process and often with much longer lead times. It is not the same as selling ice creams.
Not only is the process different but technical people often come from a very different background to your average salesperson. Their experience is different, their learning styles are different and their social confidence can take a beating in a room full of extroverted salespeople intent on being heard.
The bottom line is that traditional sales training often fails to engage technical sales people and is not truly relevant (to their experience or their sales process) so it leaves them feeling disillusioned or worse; set up to fail. So it’s not just – not working – it can actually damage your business and the people on whom you depend.
That’s why for me it’s been so essential to create the ‘TechBiz Success Academy’. I’ve used proven methodologies, tried and tested in a host of technical industries. The courses are run as one-on-one coaching sessions or in-house training with small groups. We cover strategy, goals and management, technical communication skills through to specialist sales skills such as Trade Fair preparation. Our purpose is to give people the skills they need in a way they can fully utilise so they can achieve much greater success.