Training as a marketing tool

I cut my teeth in consulting during the early ninties. Although starting out in Australia I soon started to deliver services in Latin America, Europe and North America. At the time the internet was pretty new still (I did have an email account) and some of the more traditional ways of marketing were still big news. One of these was training.

The concept was pretty straight forward. Run a public or in-house course, and use the enthusiasm generated to try to win the next step in the sales process. Simple, effective, and a lot of fun besides. I used to be able to boast a conversion rate of around 30% - 40% depending on the theme. But does this still apply today?

There were a few rules that you needed to follow, people were paying to attend this "marketing event" after all and it couldn´t be too commercial or you were going to get nowhere.

1. Make the course useful - new stuff, new ways of looking at old stuff, engaging content, and something that would appeal to the course delegates desire to better themselves and their companies.
   
2. No overt selling - The only time when subtle selling could even be considered is near the end of the training course. And then it needs to be very subtle, a "way forward" rather than an appeal for ongoing business. The remainder needed to be focused on delivering value to the delegates who had paid to be there. This rule is often broken, but it is my experience that you convert more when you follow it.
3. Have a definite plan - If you are delivering a public course, then your goal is to get a presentation to their senior menegement, an internal training course, or a quick engagement to try to establish the benefits of implementing whatever it is you are selling. If you are delivering an internal course then you want to move closer to a pilot etc.
4. Avoid course evaluations - Hard one to avoid, and one that most consultants seem to use to feed their egos continuously. But - there is a dynamic at play in the course. When people learn things they appreciate it, they really appreciate it. And if it is something of real value to them, then there is a feeling that they owe you something. If you get them to fill out an evaluation sheet, then they give you a good review and thats that. If you ask them for a chance to sepak to their leadership team, then you could just land it.

But, this was the way things were. It has been a long time since I have been able to actively deliver public training courses as part of a sales process, and many of the projects that I am involved in today are long sell / high value propositions where training courses are part of the deliverables.

So we took our question to a couple of experts to take the temperature of the marketplace and to see if training is still the marketing tool that it once was.

Barry Goldberg is a Executive Coach at Marshall Goldsmith Partners, a network of top level executive coaches. "I do not know if this is as effective as it used to be. Years ago I worked with John Naisbitt. Members of our staff would go speak at conferences and simply take out our calendars afterwards. But I think you need to have a very big book to get away with that now. Alas, we live in an age of celebrity."

"When I do public seminars, I try not to look at it as a lead generation event. Instead, I set them up to be profitable opportunities to really benefit a group from my target audience. If I do a GREAT day’s work that shows them what I am capable of delivering AND make a profit, then it is part of brand building and lead generation over time. "

"Where most of these I have seen and attended fell flat was that the presentation was not one that left the attendees feeling committed or even willing to talk to the presenter further. It is important to recognize that not only have you done a lot of work to get people into the room. THEY have taken time out and paid to be there. That makes it up to YOU to show them why they should come ask for more."

James Patsalides sits on the Board of Directors at SNEC-PMI, an organization dedicated to the project management industry. He concurs, "would add that public training courses are as much about establishing your credentials as an "expert" in your field as they are about developing direct leads. So, if you think about it as a strategic marketing effort - focused on establishing your "brand", perhaps the economics make more sense? It should be part of your marketing mix, but not the whole marketing mix"

So, the advice seems to be that; YES training can still provide a valuable part of your marketing mix. But times ahve changed and it is definitely not the valuable tool that it once was. BUT, it is still a revenue generator, and as times change so do we. What we once termed "paid marketing" is now a valuable tool for building a personal brand, not just for selling.

Rik de Jong nowadays works as a Project Director Organisation Development at Thyssen Krupp as the Director of Organizational Development. But in his past lives, like many of us, he worked in the consulting industry. His final advice caps it off. "Results come slow, first reaction after 2 months, last reaction after a year - patience is needed."