The Value of Strong Support

FROM THE PRESIDENT – Richard Sampson

There is a certain security in having a great supporting cast’ — Seth Rogan

The early part of the year is a great time to think about the champions in your organization. For many of us, it’s annual meeting time, which naturally leads to reflections on where we are, where we’re going and the teams who are taking us there.

That focus on people and champions and success makes it a perfect time for LTEN to publish our annual field training edition of LTEN Focus on Training magazine. Without your contributions as field trainers, and the impact you make on your representatives, organizations would have much less to celebrate.

So, for this special issue, it’s our honor to celebrate what you do.

Think about the awards and honors we’re seeing at this time of year: There are championship rings, most valuable player titles, best movie awards and so forth.  When you strip those down, even the ones that look like individual honors are really team awards. A quarterback can’t be great without the other players all doing their parts.

There are so many other examples of great supporting players, so to speak. Think
of the assistant coaches who support the head coach. Think of the sous chef who
supports the executive chef. Think of copilots, circulating nurses, assistant
directors and whoever cared for Eddie van Halen’s guitars.

In other words, no one is as good solo as they are with a great supporting cast of talented, well-trained professionals.

In our business world, the field trainer supports a great training department. Corporate may work with business leaders to help determine programs, approaches and objectives, but your work directly with representatives is the real breaking point. Without knowledge transferring there, in the field, everything becomes theoretical.

Obviously, the field-headquarters partnership is exactly that, a two-way street of mutual dependence. You work with HQ to gain a clear alignment of the needs. You contribute to the strategy conversations and your realworld vision is crucial to planning. Your solid skills — your knowledge and the ability to share that with others — are the fulcrum that lets everything move.

So, with respect and appreciation for all you do, we’re proud to offer this special issue, and we hope you’ll find inspiration in the pages that follow. We have a large collection of unique topics for you:

• Tips for diagramming sales calls to achieve objectives.
• Ways to proactively manage your career growth.
• How to maximize the potential for yourself and your teams.
• Reports on account manager training, onboarding, virtual ride-alongs and more.

Before you start turning pages, let me urge you to keep up the good work, and be sure to share with your colleagues. LTEN supports field trainers with our annual scholarship program, training programs, publications, events and webinars.  I hope  you take part in as many of those as your schedule allows.

I’ll also urge you to contribute. Write an article, network at a mixer, speak on a webinar … our LTEN team will happily find a way to help you help others by sharing your knowledge and experience. Reaching out to any staff member, or board member, or me, is a great way to start.

With your support, your organization does great things for people. Thank you for that.

Richard Sampson is president of the LTEN Board of Directors and head of global training for Cepheid. Email Richard at richard.sampson@cepheid.com.