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How Long Should Your Training Sessions Last?
As long as it takes, right? At one CE vendor, we
were always trying to cajole the retailer into
giving us more time to train their people. The
desired magic number was usually three hours.
Hey,
we were doing them a service, right? Making them
better at their jobs. And we had a lot of
stuff to
talk about!
Sure, you make a great
product,
but who wants to
hear about it for three hours? Who wants to do
ANYTHING for three hours while sitting on their
butts? The human adult attention span averages 50
minutes-and less than that for the
channel-surfing,
pop culture-savvy groups who make up our
audiences.
Anything more than 50 minutes is stolen time, and
they'll likely want it back.
We could
often
cut the training time in half-or
less-if we focused more on the outcome, less
on the
message. First: When defining your training
presentation, pretend you're pitching a movie
to a
trigger-happy producer. You've got ten
seconds. Can
you do it? If not, refine the message until
you can.
Next, outline specifically
what you
want the outcome
to be, what audience behaviors you wish to
modify,
what actions they should undertake. In other
words,
give them something to DO, and design your
training
so that it shows them how. But don't overload the
audience with goals and action items: if you
have to
provide handouts to keep track of all the tasks,
you've already forfeited the game. Limit the
action
items to three or less-otherwise, you're just
stroking yourself, because the audience isn't
going
to remember more than that, much less do it.
Respect
the audience by remembering-and by
acknowledging via
your actions-that they have other stuff to
do.
Finally, end the meeting early.
Not late,
not even
on time. Early. It's called perfecting
the art of
the pleasant surprise, and it will instantly
vault
you to the top of the vendor training food chain.
More importantly, it shows that you respect the
audience and their time. And that you're
capable of
keeping-no, exceeding-commitments. Because, isn't
that the behavior you seek of them?
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Greetings, CE Industry Titan!
Welcome back!
You're no doubt getting primed for the big selling
season, so we're consolidating November and December
into one Commemorative Limited Edition Collector’s
Double Issue.
No need to be carpet-bombed by email right after
Thanksgiving, am I right?
In early January,
you'll get Sell-Through Solutions'
pre-CES newsletter—just in time to read it on the
plane as you’re wedged into the middle seat
between two Sumo wrestlers.
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| Commentary: My Two Cents |
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Training Manager, CEO, Sales Guru: Whoever
you are,
Microsoft's new operating system-Windows
Vista-will
profoundly impact your everyday work.
Sell-Through
Solutions' Charles Thompson has been test-driving
the Windows XP replacement for months. Are
you ready
for the next generation of computing? Read
"Microsoft Vista Revealed" to find out. And,
while
you're at it, download full-size screenshots of
the shiny new interface in action.
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Get it all right here... |
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| New Audiophile-Quality Demo Disc |
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Until last week, we hadn't heard a groundbreaking
audiophile demo disc in this century. SACD? Dead.
DVD-Audio? Yawn. Part of the problem with those
formats is the content. You can only squeeze
so much
of out 27-year-old Steely Dan and Queen
masters. And
the new stuff? You get to choose DualDiscs
from pop
icons like Jennifer Lopez, who doesn't
deserve all
24 bits-or obscure boutique label highbrow titles
that won't make your booty shake.
We almost gave up our search for an audio
demo disc
with the combination of great music and great
sound.
Then we listened to the new Monster Music DVD/CD
package of George Benson and Al Jarreau's new
release.
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Get the review here... |
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| It May Not Be Too Late |
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Many of you vendors will use PowerPoint to
create a
new product presentation for CES 2007. You're not
going to use the same old dry corporate
presentation
again, are you? (Cue to bored reps alternately
booing, hissing, and sleeping.)
This time,
why not unveil your excellent new products
with an
excellent new presentation? Sell-Through
Solutions
creates the industry's finest PowerPoint
presentations (think television, not word
processor). The combination of imagery,
sound, and
movement will blow your audiences
away.
And
if we're too late for CES, let Sell-Through
Solutions help create your 2007 training
presentation to reveal your new products to
salespeople in the best possible light.
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| Happy Holidays from STS |
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Sell-Through Solutions thanks you for your
partnership and friendship.
We wish you a
great
Holiday and Selling Season. And may you have a
prosperous 2007!
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