When training VIPs you will find you need to employ
different techniques compared to when you train junior staff. You may be
thinking: ‘Well of course, you need to have better cups and saucers and
expensive coffee granules with a buffet.’
In fact, although this may impress professionals when they
assess your facilities and refreshments, a major focus on this will possibly
disappoint a professional.
Have you ever been to a seminar where you spent ages
drinking and eating, but learnt very little from the content? Yes you may say; and that’s why
professionals won’t really judge your training based on facilities and
refreshments. In fact, you may have been to a seminar or conference and had to
sit at the back in an uncomfortable seat, hungry and thirsty, yet, the trainer
was so good and so full of interesting information you were writing down loads
of material on a pad on your leg. But hey, it was well worth it as this
information might be worth £500 over 12 months for your business if you
implemented it.
Training directors and high powered people
These people are successful, goal orientated and not your
average person who are just there to get some freebies. Only average people and
average businesses go to seminars or events to miss work, because they get to
have a couple of hours doing nothing. Average people go to events just to
consume. Here you may be thinking: ‘Surely if a director is at the same event
as an average person they must be doing the same thing, so they are consuming
as well?’
No: successful people produce all the time. Professionals
whether they are an accountant or book keeper, or an electrician to a web
designer knows that if they are going to forego £50 or £200 for the next hour
then they want information that helps make them more money in the future by
using your ideas to improve their business. So don’t fall into the trap of
providing fluff.
Get to the point when training
Establish who you are and let them know from the start what
you are going to do. Business owners don’t like to be left in the dark in what
they are doing in the next hour, directors want to know what will come out of
their time ‘invested’ with you.
Cut out fluffy talk like saying ‘please’ all the time. They
know you are nice when you introduced yourself. When training, time is money.
Get to the point quickly. But don’t skip explanations either; but if you do
explain try to do it succinctly so that high powered people understand why you
had to explain points.
Humour
Business owners like to have fun and love humour. But they
are not here at your training programme to have fun. They can find a better way
with their profits to have fun than go to a training seminar. So there’s no
need to be a comedian to offer a humorous experience. However, the funny thing
is, where it’s relevant, a bit of humour will work very well.
Numbers
You can use numbers at certain points to back up your
explanation. This is a very effective way for directors to see if the ideas you
are training quickly weighs up, to ensure if it is of value to them. People
like business owners get asked to make decisions all the time and like to make
assessments on behalf of the business.
When a business owner sees numbers related to a subject they
have made many assessments on in the past, they will know instantly if what you
are saying works, and you will lock in their interest.
Business questions and objections
Expect high powered people to interject and relate their
thoughts. This is not because they are trouble. It’s because they want to get
the idea now and not leave the training session with a new idea a bit ‘muddy’
in their mind. They want to be sure they know what you are proposing now.
Revisiting to try to learn things again is a waste of time; as said before it
could be worth anything from £50 to £200 to spend an hour going over the same
material from their money making time.
Objections are normal. Often it can be because they are
interested, so don’t panic when they object. Directors have a lot of data and
your information may be challenging this. But they are here because they want
to give you a chance to improve on what they know. So you must provide the
information they need to make their assessment so that they get the answer they
are looking for.
Results
Nothing pleases a business owner more than results. Show
relevant results. Show really meaningful results with impact to excite them. Give
them a chance to visualise the results for their business. But in the end, show
a lot of results if you want 100% success.
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