Training Magazine Middle East December 2014 | Page 18

Business Development

HONESTY IS THE

BY M. ALI YAQOOB

In the era of cut throat competition, it has become more than necessary for all trainers to market themselves as well as their offerings, which are their expertise or areas of specialization in a very rigorous manner, but the question remains, how?

With the emergence of social media and rapid advancements in technology turning the entire world into a global village, marketing has become much easier in terms of the ability to reach out to the targeted audience, however, this is still a challenging job for many in terms of tapping into the right ideas and putting them across to your audience in a very smart but effective way.

For instance, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Skype and Linkedin etc. are turning out to be essential parts of our lives. However, in spite of the availability of all these platforms, a good number of people still struggle to use the marketing mediums to their benefit.

Lets take a view of what goes into making a marketing plan effective for trainers in today’s age:

Honesty is the best policy!

A number of trainers and training organizations market themselves in such a way that instead of making a positive impression, they create negative marketing for themselves i.e. by sounding desperate for business. This is where they go wrong.

First of all, trainers and training organizations need to develop a deeper understanding and realization that the most important thing which is required in this profession is “HONESTY”. If they are able to understand the importance of honesty as a foundation of this profession, they will channel and align all their efforts accordingly instead of positioning themselves wrongly in the market.

Through training, people expect to change their knowledge, behaviors, attitudes, and competence etc. Therefore, the learners expect that after having attended a training session, they should be able to contribute towards the productivity of their respective organizations at an expected level, hence inevitably expectations are pinned on trainers accordingly.

Therefore, it becomes essential for a trainer or for a training organization to have all their efforts based on honesty i.e. they truly endeavor in helping learners by making a positive impact in the identified areas which the learners wish to be trained on.

The Right Content - The difference between chalk and cheese

Another area for attention and focus should be aiming at developing content as well as designing content for after the training sessions to ensure a certain level of enablement post training. It is the content and design of the training program which is likely to differentiate trainers from one another.

I believe that strong content and the design of the training program as per requirement of the corporate sector is something which will market you for yourself.

Trainers and training organizations need to come up with bespoke content which not is only applicable at present but has the capacity to cater to future needs as well. We ought to keep in mind that we, as trainers, have to help people and organizations succeed in their functions.

Hence, building a unique selling proposition through well worked training content and design should never be put on a back burner. This is the only way trainers can make people realize the difference between chalk and cheese.

18 | TRAINING MAGAZINE MIDDLE EAST NOV 2014

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