A Day in The Life of a Sales Trainer

Here at Pareto, we’re all about unleashing talent and potential.

Whether this is through supporting graduates into a new role, or upskilling more experienced staff, we’re passionate about developing skills across the board. In fact, we’ve trained over 150,000 sales people over four continents.

As part of our commitment to young people, we’ve recently hired our first Apprentice. Will joins us with a keen passion for digital marketing and education. This week, he sat down with Rick Taylor, one of our sales trainers, to find out what he gets up to, and why training is essential to the world of sales.

Will: So, what does a typical day look like for you?

Rick: My day mostly revolves around the classes I’m teaching in the week coming up. Say if I’m delivering one of our open sales training courses, Sales Fundamentals for example, I’ll start to develop an understanding of the delegates attending; who they are, the companies they’ve come from, and from there I can start to build an idea of the conversations we’ll be having in the training to tailor it to their world.

For some of our delegates who have recently left university they’ve become accustomed to a learning experience completely unlike ours at Pareto, so that’s why we want to make the experience as interactive, and hopefully fun, as possible in the hope that it makes the training more relatable and therefore easier for them to apply in the real world.

"Prepare to be challenged, and welcome it with open arms."

Will: What do you love about your job?

Rick: When I’m training the most inspiring moments from day to day are when we’re having a discussion in the workshop and I see a delegate take an idea or theory we’ve been focusing on and really run with it, taking an idea that was previously abstract to them and discovering how they can then implement that in their own environment. I want our delegates to walk away from Pareto thinking; “That’s the best training experience I’ve ever had” so, I think that ‘penny-drop’ moment of realisation is the reason I’m a Sales Trainer.

Will: What kinds of salespeople do you typically train?

Rick: The typical cohort at a training day can vary in size from eight to 20-22 depending on the intake and the course that we’re delivering. The training session in a Sales Fundamentals course for example usually consists of a variety of levels of experience; there will be delegates straight out of Uni starting their first sales job wanting to build the fundamental skills, and then others who’ve been in the job six months to a year who just want to brush up on their cold calling technique. A big part of the courses are about getting people to share their own experiences and insights and using them to guide others who don’t have the same level of experience.

This is an idea that remains relevant the more experienced the cohorts become. It’s this scope that I think is part of what’s so unique about the courses that Pareto offer, there is a course that could benefit sales-people with any range of experience. From the complete novice in their first sales job who wants to hone his basic technique – to the ten year veteran who thinks there’s room to improve in his presentation skills.

“I want our delegates to walk away from Pareto thinking: ‘That’s the best training experience I’ve ever had’"

Will: What are some of the benefits that an experienced Salesperson could get from external training?

Rick: I think, regardless of your experience in sales, there will always be an element of your technique that you yourself will believe you can improve upon. The idea of marginal gains is one that i believe really resonates with the role of trainer, and should be at the forefront of an experienced salesperson’s mind. If the idea is that as experience goes up the the skill level among those of similar experience plateaus, it’s these marginal gains in skill base that you can find the extra step in performance to be the best in your field. “prepare to be challenged, and welcome it with open arms.”

Will: So finally, what piece of advice would you give to any aspiring salesperson?

Rick: I would tell anyone wanting to enter the world of sales to come in with an open mind, as it’s a field in which you’re going to be constantly challenged, but I’m a firm believer in the idea that it’s when you’re out of your comfort zone that you tend to learn the most. So prepare to be challenged, and welcome it with open arms.

Rick is one of more than 25 worldwide time sales trainers in the Pareto team.

Whether you want to take your whole team to the next level or brush up your own sales skills, we can recommend (or create!) a programme which suits your requirements. 

Speak to one of our Training and Development Experts today by calling 0333 011 0721 or click here.