Having someone in your organization that is an expert on total cost can be 
extremely beneficial in today's business environment.  Not just for training 
your own people, but for using this expertise with the customer to penetrate 
and retain key accounts.  The Train the Trainer program was developed to help 
create this expertise quickly and effectively, while minimizing the costs 
associated with training a sales force.  


The training seminars Underhill & Associates conducts provide a tremendous 
amount of information on how to document and sell the value a supplier 
provides to their customers.  And while our customers find them extremely 
advantageous, some participants find it difficult to remember everything 
when it comes time to apply it.  Additionally, many of the concepts cannot 
be used with actual company examples because of the inability to immediately 
utilize it with customers before advancing to the next step.  

The obvious fix is to spread the training out over a number of days.   But 
this can make the cost of the training prohibitive.  What companies need 
to overcome these issues is to have the knowledge and tools in-house to do 
the training themselves.  That's where the Train the Trainer program 
creates its own value.  

The program comes with a trainer's manual and three electronic copies 
of the slides used in the video: Developing a Unique Selling Proposition.   
The trainer's manual walks the user through each slide within the video 
series.  It outlines the objectives and main points of these slides, and 
offers suggestions for examples or exercises to use during the training.  
By itself, it can provide a tremendous amount of details for training the 
trainer, and valuable tools during the process of training the sales force.  
But when used in conjunction with the video series, the trainer training 
process can be further enhanced.  Allowing the trainer to become proficient 
sooner.  

But the program does not provide just the knowledge needed to train.   It 
also includes the tools.  That is the slides and exercises found in the 
video, as well as a number of cases not included in the video series.  The 
slides come in 3 different formats:

1.  Workbook Format: allows the trainer to print workbooks similar to 
those provided with the video or custom-made handouts.  This format 
shows a picture of the slide in the upper half of the page, leaving the 
lower half for user notes.  Additionally, when the video shows pages that 
were previously shown to remind the participants of a point covered, small 
copies of that slide are included and referenced.

                               
				   
2.  Presentation Format: includes professionally built PowerPoint slides 
with animations for maximum effect.  The slides provided follow the workbook, 
but sometimes require several slides to work though a single page in the 
workbook effectively.  As such there are approximately 10% more slides than 
pages in the workbook.

                                                

3.  Trainer Format: is built specifically for the trainer.  Each page 
comes with notes describing the purpose and information to discuss with the 
participants.  Space is provided to allow the trainer to add his or her own 
detailed notes, ideas and examples to ensure the training is effective.  

                                                   

To further facilitate the process, a 12-step lesson plan was developed 
around 4 hour modules.  These modules include the pages for the trainer 
to cover and discussion time around the homework assignments.  These 
homework assignments tie the training to real life situations, allowing 
the sales force to learn and achieve results simultaneously.  And with 
the training spread out over several weeks, it allows people to learn in 
the most effective manner.