Geschreven door Peter van der Reijden | May 30, 2012
Generating business has been easier. While a good reputation and a solid sales pitch used to bring in the work, the tough economy has altered the decision-criteria for L&D departments. And this is not just about the price tag. In fact, we find that the most effective trainers, the ones that still seem to win most of the deals they’re competing for, are not lowering their prices. How? By offering online training as an add-on, addressing the underlying concerns that clients currently have when it comes to spending money on training.
1. They Make Reducing 'Out of Office Time' a Shared Priority
The effect of a tough economy is not necessarily that training budgets are cut in half. What we hear more often is that managers are being challenged to do more, with less people. As such, the indirect cost of losing your people for a couple days of training does not sit well with them. Many trainers win the deal by pointing out that reduction of “out of office time” is one of their priorities as well and online training is a way to do that.
2. They Offer Training Reinforcement that Clients Can Afford
As Mike Schultz points out so clearly in the article, “What Happens When Sales Training Isn’t Reinforced,” reinforcing training is both obvious and exceptional: "The concept that learning needs to be reinforced won’t be much of a news flash for most readers. Still, strong post-training reinforcement is the exception in sales training." However, live reinforcement is costly (both in time and money), making it a hard sell for most trainers. Online reinforcement gives trainers a very economic answer while providing higher training effectiveness.
3. Just by Offering Online Training, They Set Themselves Apart
The majority of trainers we work with differentiate themselves in tenders by simply offering an online training module. When I think about online training, it sometimes surprises me that this is a differentiator in itself. But the fact is that the majority of trainers still don’t offer it which, especially in the training of soft skills, provides a big opportunity. Almost all corporations feel they should offer their employees the opportunity to train their skills anywhere, anytime.
The most important part about the points above is that they focus on offering more value, instead of lowering prices.
This article was originally published on TrainingIndustry.com.
