Launching training catalogues to the business

Staged launch

In my experience you need to personalize the information as best you are able. From your small intro it seems you are part of a large organisation, and I have no doubt some of your training will be of more interest to one or several parts of the organisation than others.

I'm sure I am not telling you anything new, but we trainers some times need to be reminded that we are in the same game as our sales department in that we have to sell what we have to our clients………in this case your departments/branches/etc. As good sales people tell you, exciting your client about what you can do to help them achieve is the name of the game. Otherwise the concern you have about "tone" will prove to be very accurate. Particularly for internal sales, it is crucial the message does not read like you are the expert and others take-it-or-leave-it. Much better that every department head/possible user, reads the communication so that their expertise is acknowledged and you are there to promote and enhance that expertise.

Even in small businesses the same applies. By sending out the full catalogue you expect people to scroll through and identify what excites them. You must make this exercise as simple and straightforward as possible. I know it takes time, but the results are well worth spending that time.

Then you work on the presentations. I'm no wordsmith so will leave that to others.

One thing to keep in mind in the current environment is the fairly convincing evidence coming forth that the world is not out of the economic downturn. Some very highly respected names are even suggesting next time, like in the next 2 years, things may be even worse. So you may be able to use this information to target that part of your catalogue aimed at up-skilling and retention for those times.

Good luck. Cheers. DonR.

2 Responses

SteveRobson says:

April 16, 2014 at 3:02 pm

Staged launch

My advice would be to stage the launch…

About 3 weeks of "coming soon" …It's nearly time"… "almost here" followed by an all bells and whistles launch using animations, video etc.

Kube design in London do really good short animations that can be used in promotions,
DonR says:

April 23, 2014 at 7:35 pm

Staged launch

In my experience you need to personalize the information as best you are able. From your small intro it seems you are part of a large organisation, and I have no doubt some of your training will be of more interest to one or several parts of the organisation than others.

I'm sure I am not telling you anything new, but we trainers some times need to be reminded that we are in the same game as our sales department in that we have to sell what we have to our clients………in this case your departments/branches/etc. As good sales people tell you, exciting your client about what you can do to help them achieve is the name of the game. Otherwise the concern you have about "tone" will prove to be very accurate. Particularly for internal sales, it is crucial the message does not read like you are the expert and others take-it-or-leave-it. Much better that every department head/possible user, reads the communication so that their expertise is acknowledged and you are there to promote and enhance that expertise.

Even in small businesses the same applies. By sending out the full catalogue you expect people to scroll through and identify what excites them. You must make this exercise as simple and straightforward as possible. I know it takes time, but the results are well worth spending that time.

Then you work on the presentations. I'm no wordsmith so will leave that to others.

One thing to keep in mind in the current environment is the fairly convincing evidence coming forth that the world is not out of the economic downturn. Some very highly respected names are even suggesting next time, like in the next 2 years, things may be even worse. So you may be able to use this information to target that part of your catalogue aimed at up-skilling and retention for those times.

Good luck. Cheers. DonR.