Ask for testimonials or case studies from their clients who are most similar to your business. Did they get results with engineers or technical teams? Or do they just sell ‘training’ that they’ve marketed towards this niche? Will your team relate to the trainer or specialist? Do they know how non-sales technical people make the transformation into strong commercially minded professionals? Have they perhaps made that transformation themselves? Does your provider still sell? Will your team respect and trust them? Do they have the right mix of commercial, technical, operational and emotional intelligence?
Key facts
- Some sales training providers just package their generic courses up with a ‘for engineers’ title
- Many sales trainers have not sold themselves for years, if ever. They’re simply passing on theory.
- Many sales trainers can alienate intellogent ‘non-sales’ professionals
- Your technical team will only learn to sell from someone believable, credible, who they can relate to, respect and trust
- A free 5-minute starting point is the free ROI & Capability Diagnostic below, which reveals the revenue within reach for your team and the capability gaps standing in the way.
What’s the single most revealing question?
What evidence do you have that you can get improved sales results out of a team of engineers? Those who can will quickly and proudly tell you. Those who just sell ‘training’ will struggle to answer.
How do I test whether they’ll tailor the work to my business?
Ask them to describe what discovery they’d do on your business and your customers before they design anything. If the answer is light, the work will be light. If the answer is detailed – interviewing your team, mapping your buyers’ actual buying process, looking at recent won and lost deals – they’re serious. A provider who doesn’t understand how your specific buyers buy will deliver generic content that makes your engineers feel uncomfortable. They need to know your ICP, your buyers’ journey, and what fit and value looks like in your world.
How do I know if their approach handles forgetting?
Ask them how they handle the gap between the training event and on-the-job application. If the answer is ‘we run a follow-up day six weeks later’, that’s not enough. If the answer involves spaced repetition, just-in-time learning on live deals, and leadership coaching to behaviours, you’re closer. Going to the gym just once and expecting to build muscle doesn’t work. Capability compounds through repeated application, not one-off events. The weather keeps changing in sales situations, and your team needs ongoing support to handle the variations they’ll encounter.
How do I tell if they’ll work with my reluctant people?
Ask them to talk to one of your most reluctant or sceptical engineers as a test. And see what that engineer thinks of them. Engineers are smart but didn’t sign up to sell. A provider who doesn’t understand this dynamic will create more resistance, not less. The empty vessel approach – coming in to pour knowledge into unwilling heads – doesn’t work with technical people.
What does measurable success look like?
Define it together before you sign. Observable behaviour changes in live conversations. Specific commercial outcomes – conversion rate, deal size, pipeline quality. Honest 6-month and 12-month review points. Anyone who won’t commit to measurable success is selling you a feeling. Justin Shardey, a senior manager at KPMG with two decades inside the firm, described Mark’s six-month coaching relationship as ‘unique in my experience’. When people with serious career mileage say their own pattern broke, it counts. That’s the standard you should expect. Andrew Bacon, CTO of SpaceForge said he got 200% more out of Mark’s programme than any other sales programme he’d attended.
Do all sales training providers basically offer the same thing?
No. Generic providers tend to put you through their sheep-dip. They make engineers and non-salespeople feel like they’re being salesy. A lot of generic sales trainers haven’t sold themselves recently or in some cases ever. They were employed by a sales training company. They come in and train the theory. Worse, they’re often teaching ideas that worked decades ago. The far majority of sales training doesn’t work because it’s paint-by-numbers content delivered to people who need tailored approaches that respect how they think and how their specific buyers buy.
How do I know if I need help choosing the right provider?
First signal: you’re comparing providers mainly on price or day rates rather than outcomes and approach. Second signal: the providers you’re talking to haven’t asked detailed questions about your business, your customers, and your team’s current capability. Third signal: they’re promising quick fixes or talking about ‘energising your team’ rather than measurable behaviour change and commercial results. If any of these apply, you need to build a radar for what good looks like before you sign anything. The wrong choice costs more than money – it wastes your team’s time and can create resistance to future development.