What is the single most important factor that accounts for the effectiveness of a sales trainer? The answer has less to do with sales knowledge and more to do with trainers’ know-how about achieving results. But aren’t all trainers specialists in driving results? Yes, but in the way that all automobiles are designed for transportation. That is, the issue involves a qualitative difference between how sales training is conducted and training initiatives are developed. But the answer to the original question is not just quality — it’s the process that improves quality. I’ll explain.

We know that all sales are a result (they don’t occur spontaneously). All results involve a process. If we look at a standard sales process, we may recognize that each step in the process involves an objective. The steps and their respective objectives may be something like this:

As trainers, we know that in order for a sales process to be effective, salespeople must execute the steps successfully. So, we train salespeople on how to qualify prospects, engage a prospect, conduct a presentation, negotiate, etc. The effort to improve in this work is ongoing because sales is a dynamic profession, and there are several factors — technology, buyer trends, competition, new strategies, economy, etc. — that make it so. If your approach to sales improvement doesn’t have its own process for improvement in each area that is essential to sales, your effectiveness as a sales trainer may stagnate.

Sales involves several steps, well-developed skills, effective strategies and ongoing refinements across all areas of the sales process. The trainer’s ability to achieve progress on these fronts is what leads to significant sales improvement. What, then, is the process that drives a qualitative difference among sales trainers?

IDEAL

It may seem obvious, but it’s a point that is often overlooked by those who have a goal: There’s a difference between having a goal and knowing how to achieve it. Sales trainers are most effective when they have broad-based knowledge about sales and follow a training process that supports their initiatives. Ideally, such a process should be cyclical — able to be revised as initiatives themselves require changes.

A complete process for a trainer’s improvement and the achievement of their initiatives is IDEAL, an acronym for five aspects essential for goal attainment. The aspects of IDEAL are: Intend, Direct, Engage, Assess and Learn. Let’s cover each aspect. Along the way, consider how IDEAL might apply to your initiative for sales improvement.

Intend

“Intend” is concerned with clarity of a primary goal and the strategy by which that goal is possible. The more clearly a goal is defined, the more complete the steps may be for its achievement. Through the clear articulation of a primary goal and its strategy, the goal becomes actionable. An actionable goal includes a time frame and measurable or verifiable targets.

Take Action:

Determine a primary goal for a training initiative. This might be to improve sales by X%. Next, determine a main strategy. This is your explanation of how the primary goal is possible. These components establish a basis for what you intend from your training initiative.

Direct

While the “Intend” step of IDEAL establishes how the success of goal is actionable, “Direct” establishes the process — the specific steps and their respective objectives — that’s expected to make the strategy successful. “Direct” centers on making decisions about how, specifically, to achieve what is intended; it is the explanation for how a strategy may be successful.

Take Action:

What you intend for your sales initiative is clear. Now, focus on your strategy. Identify the actions, their results and the skills that are required in order for the strategy to be successfully executed.

Engage

In the “Direct” aspect of IDEAL, a process was established. “Engage” is about productivity related to that process. Productivity is not about activity; it’s about results and everything related to producing those results. “Engage” includes preparation for and support of one’s success at each step of your sales process. This may involve the use of tools, setting performance standards and milestones, creating a productivity schedule of weekly objectives, etc.

Take Action:

Refer to the activities, results, and skills identified in the “Direct” step. Decide how you will support activities with technology, new materials, strategies, training, etc. Next, identify safeguards against possible pitfalls.

Note: A complete initiative for sales improvement can’t be limited to consideration for progress; it must also consider possible points of failure. If you don’t know how an initiative could fail, then you will not be fully prepared for it to succeed.

Assess

If you don’t know where you stand relative to a pursuit, then you can only guess about what is and is not working in your effort to progress. “Assess” is all about validation of your training initiative, as defined by the first three aspects of IDEAL, and identification of where change or improvements with the initiative are needed. “Assess” requires accurate, relevant and objective information by which to confirm one’s productivity.

Take Action:

Identify the data that must be measured or verified in order to confirm productivity — the results of each step in your sales process. Identify what is and is not working in key activities and their respective strategies. Adjust training accordingly.

Learn

Finally, there must be a means for improvement. If productivity targets are not being met, or if issues with the sales process or primary strategy have been discovered, you must be able to know where to focus your attention. Rarely is a sales improvement initiative perfectly conceived. Revisions are often necessary in order for the initiative to lead to success. The ability to learn is dependent on, but not limited to, data from the “Assess” step. Broad-based and ongoing learning — of all things related to your goal — may be critically important in order for progress and success to be achieved.

Take Action:

Once you have insight from the “Assess” aspect of IDEAL, determinations can be made about what, if anything, needs to change in your initiative or training to allow you to be productive or more productive. Factor in your experience, new knowledge and other valuable input from sales meetings to improve your application of IDEAL. Remember, IDEAL is a cyclical process; it evolves with you as you apply the steps and discover how to improve in order to achieve your sales improvement goal.

Without a process for the success of your sales improvement initiative, your initiative is unsupported. If you intend to improve sales, be clear about what success requires: an accurate perception of what is involved and the potential challenges, inclusion of essential knowledge in planning your initiative, and attention to IDEAL, the five-step process for the achievement of goals. These areas will give you a solid basis upon which to plan and make your best effort for greater sales success.