Everyone wants to be a "training superstar," but too often trainers look out and see blank stares, confused looks and twisted eyebrows. This can be really demoralizing especially when you have worked so hard to prepare a great event.
If you have ever had this experience as a trainer you have probably made one or all of these mistakes. Avoid them and your training events will go much better.
1. You don't teach them the "Why"
You might think that your training attendees will come to your event already motivated. But that usually 
isn't the case. They may be there because they have to be there or even because they should be there. But that isn't really motivation.
You want your attendees to want to be there. To do that you need to connect what you are going to teach with what they already want. They don't "want" to learn about Salesforce. But they do want to work more efficiently, close more deals and earn more commissions, bonuses. They do want to get their work done with fewer headaches and they do want to feel competent and confident in their job.
Try to figure out what your attendees really want and then try to connect what you are teaching to the goals they already have. If you can do that you will have attendees that are much more engaged.
2. You overwhelm them with the "What"
You want your attendees to leave your training session feeling empowered and confident, not overwhelmed and lost. Think about what your attendees will say as they leave your event. Which of these will they say?
"That seems great. I can't wait to get started and learn more." Or: "Wow, that was a lot of information."
In one case the attendee feels empowered and ready to continue learning. In the other they feel incapable of even beginning.
The only way to prevent that overwhelming feeling is to manage the amount of content you are presenting.
See these posts for some more information on controlling how much content you present:
- Are you Dooming your Live Salesforce Training Event by Delivering TOO MUCH Information?
- How to Cover Everything in Your One Hour Salesforce Training Session
- Chunking Salesforce Information to Make It Easier For Your Attendees to Retain
3. You bore them with the "How"
PowerPoint slides with screenshots...endless screenshots. There is no better way to put your attendees to sleep than to walk them through slide after slide with screenshot after screenshot.
First, ask yourself, "If I show them every step of this process in the training event, are they going to remember it?"
Most likely the answer is "no". So don't worry about showing them every step of the process. Provide them with job aids that they can use to complete tasks and then have them practice using those job aids during the training session. You will get attendees that are much more engaged and they will remember much more about the tasks.
Here is a post that gives you some more details on how to use job aids in your training:
Conclusion
Training events don't have to be boring and they don't have to take hours and hours to prepare. You already know what you need to teach your team. Just make sure that you deliver that information in a way that they can absorb it and you will be a training superstar.
