7 Responses

1. You get what you pay for
   Training is not a comodity. And as a result different consultants have differnt ability to ensure learning is provided. As the saying goes “if you pay peanuts you get monkeys”. You risk your learners wasting their time and this cost vastly outweighs the saving of a few hundred pounds between a “cheap” consultant and one slightly more expensive but vastly more value for money.

2. Rates survey
   Keith

   Timely question. TrainerBase runs an annual survey into this topic. If you haven’t already done so please consider responding at http://www.trainerbase.co.uk/go/rates08 . Respondents will get a free copy of the findings.

   We are asking both trainers and purchasers to respond this year to see more about training spend and purchasers are being asked the very questions you pose.

   Suffice to say, as Jeremy has commented, training should not be considered a comodity; sadly it is by some.

   Based on our previous findings:
   IT has the lowest spend/day along with regulatory skills.
   Behavioural and Management can range across the whole price spectrum.
   Higher costs appear to be attributed to higher levels within organisation.

   As to what great training is worth; the earth (dirt or diamonds). How much would you pay if the training (learning and development) increased profits by £10k, £500k or £5m. And what do purchasers pay for training that has no perceptable or identifiable benefit?

   Perhaps the Credit Crunch will benefit trainers who offer the first option and reduce the waste on the second.

   Peter
   Chief Executive
   TrainerBase
   The Association for Learning Practitioners.

3. Cost of the credit Crunch
   Hi

   Have to disagree with Jeremy’s comments I am afriad. As a purchaser of training I find that if I go through a consultancy/company I will be asked to pay anywhere upwards of £1500 a day per consultant. If I go to the consultants direct it can be £750 a day – can be the same people and for the record they are usually getting more than the day rates paid by the consultancies. Does their delivery standard drop as I am paying less overall?

   As for you get what you pay for- again I disagree. having recently been quoted upwards of 10k for one trainer per day, and having seem them deliver I politely declined thier offer on the grounds of quality.

   In answer to the original question people charge what they percieve they are worth and there are those who vastly over estimate this.

   As a client I am looking for value and quality, a combination which can be difficult to find.

   Hope this helps

   Bridget

4. All about exposure
   Bridget

   You are right about some larger training consultancies charging perhaps double what they pay to their associates. This is a business model that I have become more aware of within the training community and is growing in popularity. It is all about channels to market and levels of exposure, plus a smattering of perceived credibility.

   Some trainers do not work ‘direct’ at all and only work via intermediaries, so you may not be able to contract with these regardless. Others do varying percentages of direct and associate work. This is all down to the business model that an individual wishes to take given the difficulty there is in the market getting exposure and being perceived a credible against some of the larger consultancies.

   Your big consultancies will have large marketing budgets, dedicated teams on tendering and sales and a significant back office function which have to be paid for via fee earning days; and when you think of a big training provider a number spring to mind offering 100s of potential trainers. How many sole traders spring to mind?

   It is sometimes more convenient for big projects to be done by big providers who; yes granted; pay their associates half or a third of the charged for day rate. Whether this is right is another discussion, especially within the public sector and an issue of concern when rates are being squeezed by market forces (the credit crunch).

   I am not defending the associate/intermediary practice merely commenting that to get exposure is sometimes just too expensive for individuals. That said; this is where TrainerBase as a not for profit trade association comes in, providing a channel for purchasers like yourself to find trainers and the individual self employed trainers to find business. And if you are looking for a level of assurance that the trainer will do what they agree to; then of course there is the Certified Learning Practitioner accreditation.

   We will be reviewing the finding of one of our surveys into the State of the Sector and it will be interesting to see what concernes are raised within the trainer community.

   Please feel free to give us a call at TrainerBase if you want any further information.

   Regards

   Peter
   Chief Executive
   TrainerBase
   The Association for Learning Practitioners
   01239 711544

5. Costs
   I can’t help myself whispering that there is a pot of funding available for sme’s to undertake management development . National programme from Government £1k per organisation, part match funded. Could you use this to help your client offset the costs, particularly if training / development for the senior team will affect the survival of the business through the current turbulence.

6. Straight Answer
   A straight answer to a straight question – I charge £500 per day for my services which seems acceptable to most of my clients (they come back for more) I will always work with the client to deliver agreed measurable change and generally my ‘day’ has a degree of flexibility. In all training I do follow up support is available either on a planned (fee paying) basis or an ad hoc email and telephone support service basis.

7. It’s about what you get for your money
   Monkeys and peanuts is a slightly limiting metaphor in my opinion (which is all this is).

   If you use a training company, you get the whole resource, not just the trainer. You get backup if the trainer is sick or their car breaks down (hopefully!), you get admin support or contacts and a whole range of stuff you don’t get with self-employed trainers. It’s horses for courses (to use another metaphor).

   Yes training companies do stick on a huge markup, but the buck stops with them, so it’s why many associates are happy to go with reliable providers, in my experience.

   Whoever you use, make sure that they have good solid lesson plans, clear delegate notes/materials and that they are using legal copies of questionnaires, tools and exercises and acknowledge copyright.