As a B2B sales consultant for the past ten years I have heard one question more times than I can remember from my clients. Here’s the question:
"What new training courses or workshops do you have to offer?"
If I had a dollar for every time I heard this question, I would be happily retired instead of happily working. This is a very real question and exists for the following reasons:
- The B2B sales managers I work with are always looking for an edge on their competitors and fresh, new training provides this edge
- Things change and the customers I work with have new needs and need help in new areas
- The B2B sellers I train are easily bored and are usually attracted to new courses and workshops even if the message is the same—something about the same message delivered in a different package stimulates engagement with salespeople
- “New” training always seems to mean “the best” training in the minds of B2B sales managers and sellers
Houston, We Have a Problem
Creating new training courses and workshops can be a challenge because it places pressure on a consulting or training organization’s resources. Simply put, the people best equipped to create training resources are usually the consultants that have the best understanding of their customer’s needs.
This becomes a problem because these same consultants only make money for the organization when they are in front of customers, not in front of a computer creating a new workshop. This fact tends to be an even bigger challenge for smaller consulting firms. Simply put, smaller firms have fewer resources to create; however, they cannot stay relevant to their customers without new training workshops and courses.
What to do About This Reality
As a B2B sales consultant the options to deal with this situation are limited. Here’s a list of ideas employed by the most successful B2B sales consulting firms and training organizations:
- Avoid and Die: If you ignore this problem and do not develop new training resources you will lose customers because they will find someone that does
- Create and Survive: Investing time and money in the development of new training resources is not an option of survival, it is part of your sales plan
- Partner and Earn: Connecting with partners—other B2B sales consulting and training firms—that provide access to training resources and earn commissions as a result of doing so
The last option on this list is growing in popularity. Partner programs provide the following:
- Access to tried and true training that utilize various formats—onsite workshops, online courses, distance meetings that can be delivered via GoToMeeting, GoToWebinar or Join.me
- The best partner programs create new training resources on a regular basis—this eliminates the time and financial commitment required by partners to create their own resources
- Partner programs pay a commission back to the partner for using (reselling) courses
As a B2B sales consultant or trainer how are you dealing with the demand from customers to deliver fresh, new sales training and workshops?
Learn more about the Partner Program.
