As an L&D professional who is about to organize a training session for a batch of employees in your organization, you must be keen on providing effective and well-rounded training.

You must’ve already planned everything like

• The curriculum of the training
• The content of the training
• The schedule of various training sessions
• The instructors who would be teaching various topics
• And the subject matter experts who are going to impart their wisdom

While all of these are crucial to conducting a successful training program, you will only be able to provide real value through your training when you capture your audience’s pulse and deliver training in a way that appeals to them.

Training delivered without understanding your audience’s learning needs and motivations will end up being not as effective as you want it to be. So, in order to make your training appealing to your trainees, it’s important for you to conduct a pre-training survey.

This survey will help you to understand

• Your trainees’ mindset
• Their interests
• Their learning needs
• And their motivations

To help you conduct a good pre-training survey, we’ve brought to you the pre-training survey questions that will help you to precisely understand your trainees learning needs and interests

Pre-training Survey Questions

1. Name: _____________ , Employee ID: _____________

First, collect the basic information of the trainees

2. What is your total experience in the field of sales?

Find out the total experience of the trainees in the sales field

3. How long have you been associated with the organization? Find out for long have your trainees been working with your organization

4. When was the last time you received training and what kind of training was that?

This question helps you to understand what training have your trainees undergone in the recent times

5. How many days in advance have you been notified about the training?

This question is important because if the training was communicated well in advance to the reps, then they would have gotten enough time to research and understand what the training is about

6. Were the training objectives clearly defined?

This is to find out if your trainees are aware the training’s objectives

7. What according to you are the objectives of this training?

This question lets you know if your trainees completely understand the objectives of the training program.

8. Do you think the topics that are listed in this training curriculum are relevant to you?

This question helps you to understand if your trainees perceive the training to be useful for them or not

9. How well do you think the training is structured?

With this question, understand if your sales reps like the way your training program has been structured

10. What topics in the training curriculum reflect your most important training needs?

The answer to this question will help you understand the training needs of the attendees and if the topics in your training curriculum are in alignment with those needs

11. On a scale of 1-10, please rate your degree of knowledge in the following areas

1. Prospecting
2. Sales Pitching/ presentation/ demo
3. Negotiation
4. Objection handling
5. Closing deals

This question helps you understand how strong are the basic sales skills of your trainees

12. Have you taken training in [TOPIC] before?

With this question, you can understand if any of your trainees have already learned about the subject on which you are going to conduct the training

13. On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your proficiency in [subject of training]?

If your trainees already have some level of understanding of the training subject, then ask this question to understand how well they know the subject

14. Approximately what percentage of your job involves [TOPIC]-related skills?

The answer to this question lets you understand

• How important is this training program for your trainees?
• And how often will they be using this skill in their day-to-day job?

15. What other courses have you taken this year?

Ask this question to learn about all the courses that your trainees have taken this year. This information will help you understand if they have learned any other skills previously that would aid their learning and understanding of the subject that they are going to get trained on.

16. Amongst the training programs that you have attended so far at our organization, which one is your favorite and why?

Here, you will get to learn which one of your training programs have been most liked by your trainees and what worked for them in the training program that they liked.

17. Is this your first time learning from this particular instructor?

Ask this question to understand if your trainees have already experienced learning from the instructor who is going to train them. If yes, then you should ask them how was their experience next.

18. On a scale of 1-10, how good was this instructor?

This question helps you to understand how your trainees perceive your instructor based on their past experience of getting trained under him

19. Overall do you enjoy professional development courses?

Here, find out if your trainees generally are enthusiastic about attending professional development training courses and learning and acquiring new skills

20. How would you like to use the learning from this training to excel in the workplace and in your personal life?

With this question, understand how your trainees would intend to use the skills and knowledge that they would acquire from the training that they are going to attend in their professional and/ or personal life

21. What do you expect to take away from this course?

• Reinforcing existing skills
• Learn new skills I can put to use immediately
• Learn new skills I can start to develop over time
• No Expectations

Ask this question and understand your trainees’ expectations from this training program

22. Do you have any questions about the course?

Ask your reps to type or write down any questions that they may have about the training program. And assure them that they will soon receive answers to their questions

Want to conduct a pre-training survey for your sales team before they begin their new product launch training?

Survey Questions to ask your Sales Team before a New Product Launch Training

Done with your training and want to gauge the impact and effectiveness of it? Conduct a post training survey with the help of this blog:

Post Training Survey Questions