Hello ASTD Community!

I've been a member for some time but never fully taken advantage of the resources available to me here at ASTD. I am a technical sales trainer in telecommunications and I'm working on my personal development plan for the year. I do both the development and delivery of my courses and I'm looking for the most appropriate training to improve my writing skills, course effectiveness, and presentation skills.

Given those parameters, what ASTD resources would you recommend? I have 10 years experience as a sales engineer and three years experience in the training organization and I love it here! I want to do all I can to improve and grow in this role.

Thanks for any advice you can offer!
Lori Greenberg

Hi Lori,

I realize my response has zip to do with your actual question....but will hopefully be of some value anyway.

You mentioned you are a sales trainer. There is an excellent (and inexpensive) resource I started using years ago when working with people in sales. In short, it puts what we learn from MBTI feedback to work in a sales environment.

It's called "Using Type in Selling."

I mention this because it might be a resource to add value to your own training activities. And, in a round about sort of way, by intrducing a new resource and delivery style you make headway in the areas of course effectiveness, presentation skills....etc.

Just a thought.

Jeff

Have you tried your local ASTD chapter? Ours here in LA is amazing. My trainers and I have attended a number of classes on facilitation, course development, etc. Hopefully your local chapter would be a resource for you. We attended a couple of great sessions through Leadership Strategies on Facilitation skills. Fabulous! And, no, I do not work for that org.
Hope this helps!

Thank you for the reply! I am a member locally but have not attended any meetings yet as so far I've either been out of town (training, of course!) or it hasn't been relevant to me. I keep hoping to find someone else in a similar role to me - responsible for providing technical training - who can recommend some courses on how to develop courses in a more efficinet way. I hate being so slow!

Thanks again for the response!