Know-How Exchange : Career/Training

I would interview those being trained.. ask them what they would like to see covered. In a situation like this I would go for raving reviews of those being trained rather than something long term and measurable. You are only going to give them ideas. You will not be able to have an effect on them in the long term. Ask for training critiques... go for glowing letters describing what you talked about.
And,,, the middle level guy you are working with could easily be the upper level guy with a check book in the future.

There may be some stuff (articles, or blurbs on their training programs) that could give you some information here - https://www.productmarketing.com/productmarketing/.

Hi ChrisB,

Just a suggestion. Since it's for whole marketing team, you might want to consider providing a 2 days theoretical training on PPM and thereafter an advanced level for selected executives (chosen by the mid-manager).

For advanced level, it'll be more hands-on as to implement an ffective Portfolio Management Framework in their business.

In this way, your clients will have practical exercise on how to go about implementing and improve their business with PPM. You could perhaps charge a separate fee as well.

BTW, what's your client's budget for such training?

Chris...sounds like you've really bitten off quite a task for yourself. That said, I think it will be less about 'making the sales' et al and more about creating a mindset in these players which will ATTRACT clients to them, personally, and have confidence in these abilities. It's often said that we don't buy the product, we buy for what the product will do for us! This is no less true in less-tangible items, such as software and applications. Why not set it up so that they create an ongoing learning environment within the team? Set up mentor relationships among non-competitive pairs, so that when they go back to the job, they will have ongoing support within the team. Not only does this build teamwork, it reinforces each individual to do his/her personal best on a continuing basis. For evaluation measurements, you need to have a pre-training and post-training comparison tool which utilizes the elements of the training put into action. Without more information about the current skill and experience level of your students, it would be hard to be more specific.

Good Luck,
Debi Brady
DeBrady Enterprises, Inc.

Hi Chris

I’d like to offer a tip which I used when I was either responsible for training or, frequently dragged into it as the most experienced manager.

Firstly it can be a bit of poisoned chalice. There is a tendency with in-house training for the attendees to see it as a form of target practice and to take great pleasure in knocking your attempts to deliver, asking impossible questions or trying to seize the agenda by asking irrelevant questions. From my experience, sales people are worse than marketers because they sometimes have a machismo image to uphold, but even with the latter you would be well advised to take whatever steps you can to bolster your self confidence, work on your presence as a trainer and to rehearse your content in front of a critical but friendly group of colleagues or associates from your circle of acquaintances from within your profession. (The local marketing association support group in the UK is called a Pub and if you are a regular, the landlord will gladly let you use a back room!) You can practice too much and over rehearse, but it’s hard to reach that stage.

I find it useful to research third party training programmes, even when I don’t have the time or budget to go on one. With your extensive experience, you should be able to do what I do, which is to list the topic headings which the courses list and the one paragraph abstract which usually accompanies them

Then take out the ones which are already successfully covered by your company in its existing training and put the rest into a training programme which has coherence and relevance to your organisation. I also like to take on ideas which are “Outside the Box” (Wow, how I hate that term!) so that the delegates can be presented with a few ideas which are both novel to them an novel to the organisation.

I also like to give the event a theme – even if it is not the course title. I open on something which has a strong message, make the occasional oblique reference to it in the course and finish on the theme, almost as you would with a close. It’s a bit of QED and it gives the event a sense of completion on “Mission Accomplished”

Expand on each topic in your own words, introducing relevance with respect to how they might be deployed within the organisation.

Avoid death by PowerPoint but don’t ignore the medium. Never read what is on the screen and use it to present diagrams and graphics which you can’t describe. Avoid bullet points no matter how cleverly you make them whiz in from the side of the screen and stick to topic headings with pictures.

To engage retention, print out some questionnaires to be completed in say 5 minutes at the end of each module. Check them through and offer 5 minutes of feedback.

Praise positive contributions and try to overcome obnoxious ones as would a good salesman with objections in a sales presentation.

Make people feel that they are not only going to gain some useful insights but that their attendance and more importantly, their participation will be a significant contribution to the success of the company.

Make it clear at the outset that you want their overall feedback and ask for it a few hours before the close of the course, perhaps before a coffee break. Then cover one or two of the topics they have raised in the last hour. Make it plain that you will be submitting a report on the proceedings and that contributors can be cited in it by name but only if they so wish.

This in not plagiarism but a quick way to look at the structure others deploy for their profits and then working up your own material based on that structure. It is a seed to your imaginative processes and as a seed its then up to you to nurture it!

Good luck – I’m sure that you don’t need it!

Steve Alker
Unimax Solutions