For work I was flown to Dallas, TX to help with a program that The Brooks Group provides. It is called ?Train The Trainer?.

The Program

The facilitator trains the class for three days about the IMPACT selling system. The class is made up of future trainers that will take the material that The Brooks Group supplies and train their salespeople in their organization. The organization purchases a license for use of our selling system, so they can train their sales team. It is recommended that the class last four days. Three days for the facilitator to train the future trainers and the final day for the future trainers to present the material to the classmates. That helps the trainers get better aquatinted with the material and opens up any questions they may have about the material. On the second half of the third day my work comes into play. I shoot to DVD the future trainers presenting a two minute clip about anything they want the class to know but it can?t be work related. The class has no idea they will be shot, so it really freaks them out.

Why do we do this? It shows the trainers how they react to being unprepared as well as the appearance of their presentation. Some of the visuals they will notice are; lack of movement, to much movement, not looking at the class, not getting the class involved, speech recognition if they speak monotone, to many verbal ahhs and ummms, to soft, or even to loud. It allows the trainers to see how the class views their presentation.
On day four we watch everyones footage and the facilitator does not hold back and critiques their presentation. The class enjoys this part and you will hear uncomfortable laughter from their classmates. They also get feedback from their classmates and really take it to heart. The second shoot has the trainers presenting to the class a module from the IMPACT Selling System for 5 minutes. This time they are prepared and show an improvement from the first time we video them. They are critiqued once again as we watch their video.

The facilitator then directs them to take some time to prepare for a ten minute presentation from a module of the IMPACT Selling System. This is where we see a huge improvement from the trainers. Most recognize their flaws which were pointed out earlier and seem to breeze through the material. We then hand them a DVD with all of their presentations if they would like to watch themselves give a presentation. Even if they never watch the DVD at least they have a mental image of how they performed by watching it with their peers. I?ve meet some salespeople that swear by it and that it has improved their presentations by understanding how they are being perceived by their attendees.

I think that this is a powerful tool to use in an organization. To know how you react to pressure, preparedness, and to your actual viewers is extremely empowering.

Related posts:

1. Be Careful Who Represents You