I've found that over the 22 years I have been running my training business we trainers fall into one of six types of trainer when it comes to drumming up business.

Which type are you?

There is the:

Repeater: this trainer has a great business based on regular clients who keep coming back. They built this business based on contacts gained from working in corporates or organisations, then set up on their own and used their contacts to get clients. Now they are busy they believe they don't need to market their business as it keeps repeating.

Seller: this trainer loves selling. They may well have had a traditional Sales background, and training probably hasn’t been their main profession. They set up systems to email or direct mail, follow up by phone, and drive or 'push' business this way. Relationships with clients are fostered but much of the business relies on new sales as they attract work based on selling in and this means clients are often fairly new and may well not yet be, or remain, very loyal. A robust system based marketing approach is needed which can be expensive to set up and sustain.

Newbie: this trainer has great professional training skills, often honed through a successful employment history.  Confident in their training role and looking for higher income and a better work/life balance, they've taken the plunge and started on their own. They are casting around for ideas to build a business and are likely to develop into the Freelancer or Associate.

Freelancers/Associates: this trainer has effectively outsourced their marketing to a larger training business. They seek freelance opportunities, work hard and often have to develop relationships with other trainers. Their overhead base is low and provided they are effective at forming relationships with larger training businesses they can thrive.  

Field of Dreams: remember the film where Kevin Kostner builds a baseball pitch on his farm? Inspirational stuff based on the certainty that: "if you build it they will come". So if you are this type of trainer you will build a website, get some business cards and brochures and guess what? Having built it customers don't come, so this trainer starts looking around to find out why. They may then move to become one of the other types.  

Go Getter: this trainer does everything. They network obsessively, build contact lists, go to lunches and lots of meetings, send direct mail, make sales visits and phone calls, cold call, and have fantastic websites, beautifully designed and visually appealing.  They may well write blogs and even publish books. You name it they do it. Phew it's exhausting and they can be worn down with the struggle but their profits don’t always go up. So there are the six typical types; which one are you? Have you moved between these types over time? I know I have. As you’ve probably guessed, there are major drawbacks to each of these roles. If you feel one or more of the above role describes you then you are unlikely to be fulfilling your earning potential and you may well be run ragged. Does that sound like you? You see, each one of these types may succeed for a while but I now know there is more to it. I’ve found out the secret.  The secret starting point to becoming a hugely more successful training business owner is here.  There is a seventh type, a type of trainer that nails business growth and this is:

THE NICHER.  Yes! This is the secret 7th type. This trainer looks around at the competition and notices how so many trainers are essentially offering the same. Mission statements abound everywhere about the virtues of generic people development. To make headway they develop a niche. Building reputation as the "go-to trainer" for their niche, they are in this for the long haul. Success is spectacular once "go-to" status is achieved.

So which of the seven types of trainer are you? And more importantly which do you want to be? I'm here for you on your journey to increase the income from your training business so if I can be of service just ask.

Alison Miles-Jenkins

Founder & CEO

How to Market Training

PS If you are determined to have a successful training business that delivers the profits you dream of and a work/life balance to match, don't build a field of dreams. Build a reality.