Okay, the Stanley Cup has been won. Can’t say that I was all that much interested in the Blackhawks or the Bruins but it is always exciting, well, I guess it is if you’re a hockey fan.

So the hockey season is finally over. The players are back home playing golf, hanging out with their friends and family, relaxing and enjoying their break.

Some months will go by but before you know it, it’ll be time for the new hockey season to begin anew but before it does, you can be certain that the players will have taken to the ice to train, to get into condition and be coached before the first puck of the season is dropped.

Yep, that’s even true for the Blackhawks’ players and heck, they won the cup.

Athletes expect ongoing coaching and training; the best of the best train harder than the rest. They may not enjoy it but they do it anyway because they understand the process and the results.

So why is it that (some) sales reps see absolutely no benefit or value in ongoing skills improvements and training? I simply don’t get it.

As a sales trainer for these past 26 years I have seen the good, the bad and the ugly. Sales departments that have welcomed me with open arms (the good). Sales departments that have been extremely resistant but at some point dropped their guard and became receptive to the training (the bad but turned good!) And then there have been those sales departments and reps that simply would not have any part of training, no way, no how. Resistant through and through and even downright hostile.  (At that point their Manager and/or Owner of the company  said “don’t say that I didn’t warn you.)

But I still don’t get it. We trainers are there to help sales reps succeed, even if they are already playing their best game. (Think of any star athlete and the grueling training that they do until the very day they retire!) We’re not a threat; heck, we DON’T want their job. We know that we are judged by how they absorb the information, put it to use and generate new/increased business. (See anything wrong in that?)

My favorite training situation is one on which I am well received and my work is respected and appreciated; one in which the sales reps email and call me afterwards with additional questions and advice; one in which I MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

My favorite reps are better than trainable; they crave it, need it, appreciate anything that can help them get to that next plateau. (I have to believe that Wayne Gretzky must have been like that!)

They want to win the Stanley Cup of Sales and know that training will help them to get there.

Congratulations Blackhawks. Let the Cup come back to NY in 2014!