North Carolina Company Adds Bounce to Sales Training

Cary NC-based Boston Professional Group "plays catch" to make sales training not boring.

(PRWEB) September 20, 2004 -- North Carolina Company Adds New Bounce to Sales Training

Two associations recently invited Cary NC-based Boston Professional Group to present its signature sales training seminar to their members. The Capital Banks Regional Branch Managers and The Triangle chapter of The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) brought Boston Professional Group to their meetings because of the companys innovative approach to sales training.

Boston Professional Groups seminar topic was suitable for our organization; engineers in a sales environment," says Lee Alcorn, President of ASHRAE. I thought it would be a great way to kick off the year, have some fun, and make it an interesting meeting."

Rather than lecture about sales best practices or account case studies, Jan Delory, Boston Professional Groups President, starts her seminars by pulling balls out of a toolbox and tossing them into the audience. There are sales and marketing problems written on each ball, and whoever catches one must respond with a solution.

What the exercise does is enable the people who catch the ball to talk about problems they might be having," says Delory, but they can talk about it in a generalized way so that no one knows theyre talking about themselves." Delory believes that this anonymity is key because it gives participants an opportunity to identify a problem, realize that the problem might be their own, and then talk about ways to correct the problem.

Anonymity is one thing but, more important, the training program is fun. Following a recent presentation for Time Warner Telecom, the office general manager approached Delory saying, This must have been one great training session because I heard a lot of laughing." Delory took the managers statement as validation of her program because, as she states, most traditional sales training is extremely boring. Sales training, to put it bluntly, has been something that people never wanted to do, but have had to do." In a more traditional" environment, session attendees are often forced to listen to a speaker for hours, or theyre only shown a PowerPoint presentation. What's interesting about doing the program that we do, is the fact that participants get involved. That involvement helps them to learn better."

By creating a more interactive sales training program Boston Professional Group helps increase training retention. According to Delory, when people are having fun, they don't mind being in the room. Jess McLamb, President of the Wake County Women Business Owners Network, agrees with Delory. Boston Professional Group was entertaining and educational, and they made the learning experience fun. I'm a trainer, so I look for those things. When you make training entertaining and educational people listen a lot more."

Let's face it, nobody has rewritten the sales manuals," says Delory. There are still only six basic steps to selling, so it's how you present them, how you use your time during training sessions, and how the program is customized for each group's unique personality and specific industry that makes all the difference."

About Boston Professional Group
Based in Cary NC, Boston Professional Group specializes in custom, interactive sales training for IT, Financial, and Professional Services companies. Additional information about Delory, or her company, is available at www.bostonpg.com, or by calling 919-467-4477.

Contact:
Jan Delory, President
Boston Professional Group
919-467-4477
JDelory@bostonpg.com
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