This year will mark 20 years since I graduated from Wilfrid Laurier University from their business program. WLU has one of the largest business schools in Canada, and still is today. The sum total of sales through my 4 years at Laurier was a couple classes within a marketing course. The focus was on sales management, not sales skills.I stumbled into a sales career through my co-op placements.  Being a sales manager right out of University with an undergrad degree is not a very realistic item. I have talked with other friends in business and people connected with educational institutions about the lack of sales focus. Unfortunately not much has changed. This is extremely challenging for startups looking at B2B sales training for their reps or sales management training for their sales leaders.

I was lucky that one of my co-op work terms was at Lexmark Canada. There were approximately 8 to 10 people in a co-op cohort starting at the same time. Lexmark had a detailed 1 week course that covered product knowledge and sales skills. There was also lots of role playing with the instructors and members of the group. I worked 2 co-op terms at Lexmark and then accepted a full time job on graduation. Lexmark had yearly sales training sessions and when I became a sales manager they sent me to a week long course at the University of Michigan.   Lexmark was a fortune 500 company and had the resources and money to provide sales training for new sales reps and new sales managers internally and with 3^rd parties. Many technology startups do not have the knowledge, internal resources, or financials to provide similar programs.

I have recently written about this sales talent gap and some of the ways that technology startups can develop talent with little or no sales experience. To complement the internal B2B sales training here are some local in person events that could help with sales development. These events should not be the only sales training provided as they are typically more lecture than experiential training.
 

Toronto

1. Sales TO is a fairly new organization that offers regular sessions for sales reps and sales leaders. It bills itself as a community for sales & business professionals in the Toronto technology sector.
2. I also teach a course on marketing and sales for entrepreneurs through the University of Toronto School of Continuing studies. It covers sales and marketing strategy, tactics, and includes lots of participation.

Kitchener Waterloo Region

1. There are 2 sales peers to peers through Communitech. There is the Sales Leaders P2P and the Scaling Sales P2P. These are great groups for sales leaders and entrepreneurs.
2. Communitech is helping to co-ordinate a community based sales rep training program which will be starting late this year or early in 2017. Check back with their Communitech website to get an update the program.

Hamilton

1. The Innovation Factory has helped to organize a Sales Peer2Peer. There is a good mix of tactical sales and sales leadership sessions.

If you are looking for some help with training your sales team or managers please check out the VA Partners sales training options.