Some years ago I was doing a customer service training program for a very successful financial services company in the Northwest.

My contact, the VP of Marketing, told me that he had been visited by someone from a large training company that was selling a big ticket program to the sales team.

I was familiar with the suitor, and I was personally interested in getting that contract, too, so I asked only one question:

Can your people respect a sales trainer who earns a fraction of what they do?

My client gulped and asked: What do you mean?

Im familiar with that company and they only pay their trainers about $300 a day, but theyre charging you $3,000 and up for the class. Am I right? Your salespeople make at least four times that amount, so what can they expect to learn?

Well, the nails were quickly pounded into that coffin, and yes, I got the deal, instead.

More important, that deal led to an even bigger one at another company, to which my client referred me.

I offer this story to make several points:

(1) I would rather have Barry Bonds or Albert Pujols critique my baseball swing than some no-name who either never played major league ball or who was at best, average. The same applies to training. You want to learn from people who know things you dont know, and that only makes sense. So, why pay good money to hear a mere talking head blather about things that are beneath your current level of capability?

(2) If you really know your competition you, too, can and should have a devastating question in your vest pocket, ready to use with a prospect.

(3) My client would have never brought up my competitor unless he had some doubts about them, and unless he thought more of me and my abilities.

(4) There is very little difference in what true experts charge for training, and what youll have to pay relative amateurs.

(5) Yes, I took direct aim at a competitor and I shot a torpedo that sunk him on the spot, and Im darned proud of it!

I hope youll be able to use this story in your own sales management and sales training, and if you want more of them, you know whom to contact, right?