Role-play, tailoring and measuring: how sales training actually pays off

Training without measurement is hoping for results

Many companies book a sales training. The day is fun. The team is energised. A month later, everything is back to how it was. Nobody knows what the training delivered.

That is a waste of money. And it is not necessary. Sales is a science. What you can measure, you can improve.

That is why I work with three fixed elements. A pre-test before the training. Tailoring and role-play during the training. And a post-test afterwards.

The pre-test: know where your team stands

Before I train, I want to know where your team stands. For this I use the Sales Performance Scan. It is an online test of 35 questions. It takes 30 minutes at most.

The test shows where the knowledge is and where the gaps are. For each participant and for the team as a whole. For example, I may see that a team is strong at opening a conversation but weak at closing it.

That result decides where I put the focus. I do not train on gut feeling. I train on data.

Tailoring: training on your own reality

A standard training fits nobody. An account manager has different conversations than an inside sales rep. A technical salesperson sits at the table with an engineer, not with a buyer.

So I tailor every training to your situation. The pre-test is the starting point. Then we work with the cases of your own customers. Your products. Your prices. Your objections.

I work with my 12 sales techniques and 11 scientific topics. But I apply them to your conversations. You do not take home loose theory. You take home answers for the conversations you will have tomorrow.

With an in-company sales training the tailoring goes furthest. I train your whole team at your own location, with your own customer cases.

Role-play: practise without risk

Knowing how to do it is not the same as doing it. You only close that gap by practising.

In a role-play you practise a real customer conversation. You ask a question. You notice what it does. You adjust. And no order is at stake.

Many people dread role-play. I understand that. That is why it is never compulsory in my training. You practise with your own cases, in a small group. If you want to watch first, you watch first. If you want to practise, you practise. That is exactly what makes it safe.

Why practice works

A new skill feels awkward at first. Only repetition turns it into behaviour. If you have practised a question in the training, you will ask it much faster in a real conversation. That is not an opinion. That is how learning works.

The post-test: see what it delivered

One month after the training, your team takes the post-test. The same topics, measured again. You see in black and white what has changed.

Why one month later? Because I do not want to measure what you remember on the day itself. I want to measure what sticks. That is the real result.

By comparing the pre-test and the post-test, you see the growth per topic. For an HR manager, that is the business case for the investment. For a sales manager, it is a clear picture of where the team can still grow.

What this gives you

• A training that fits. I train on the gaps the pre-test shows.
• Directly applicable. You practise with your own customer cases.
• Confidence in the conversation. Practice turns knowledge into behaviour.
• Measurable results. The post-test shows what the training delivered.

Who would not want to know exactly what a training delivers for their team?

Where do you stand today?

I have been training salespeople since 2003. More than 2,000 participants from over 400 companies so far. In 2025 I was named Best Sales Trainer of the Netherlands. Still, every training I give starts the same way: with measuring.

Want to experience it with a group of professionals? Take a look at my classroom sales training, with a maximum of 8 participants. Prefer to start at your own pace? Then the e-learning Masterclass is a good first step.