When confronted with a “My manager wants a 20% discount”, learn to ask this one question: "Let me ask you this… assume for a moment that we were able to match the 20% discount… what happens next?" You’ll find out three critical things to move the sale forward What their intentions are with the 20% discount (are they using me for a better price from a competitor or are they ready to buy now?) Uncover the prospect’s purchasing process and Identify all the players involved in the purchasing decision. Continue reading

The foundation that underpins sales prospecting success is the strength of your list and the precision of your targeting. Salespeople often call too low in the organization and try to start a groundswell by working their way up. Reach high to the decision makers. Make sure that your list is clean and ready to go before you start, or you’ll find that your day is lost in fits and starts. Get to the deicsion makers and make more money with less effort. Continue reading

As Contract Training Practitioners, you have two fundamental needs related to your institution’s department of Human Resources: Hiring staff to work in your unit Hiring temporary trainers, instructors, consultants, vendors to deliver the services you have sold to your client And while the first item on the list is potentially challenging, we are going to focus on the second in this article, as without Human Resources as your ally in this endeavor, it has the potential to shut your operation down. Most Contract Training programs run on a Just-In-Time hiring practice – bringing on board temporary help for just enough... Continue reading

Here's the info I promised on the April 7-8, 2011 Contract Training ONLY conference: Whether you call it contract, customized: corporate training/education, or even solutions selling – serving business and industry with customized educational products and services is a mainstay of most continuing education programs. Contract training is the most profitable and most cutting-edge continuing education program unit. A successful contract training unit generates visibility, new teaching and learning techniques, partnerships, new programming, and much more. Running a successful contract training unit can be challenging, especially during tough economic times. Businesses, government agencies, and local organizations have downsized and training... Continue reading

One of the keys to a successful partnership is finding a partner who brings something to the table that you can't. Splitting an existing pie will not make you money, but expanding the pie and sharing it will. For example, McDonalds partnered with a video rental company so that its customers can get a burger and a movie. McDonalds wasn't in the movie business and the movie rental company wasn't cooking up burgers, but when they combined, each expanded their reach. See how it works? Continue reading

I just did a webinar on Contract Training Trends for Augusoft. It was their biggest webinar, ever, with over 100 attendees. If you missed it and you'd like the slide set, leave me your email address in the comments here and I will send it to you, free. Continue reading

What are your goals in contract training this year? Pick a dozen do-ables and be sure they're measurable. Prioritize them. What are the handful of things that you could do that would really move you in the direction of success? Get out your contract training manual and have a look at the LERN benchmarks. How's your operating margin? Are you collecting the right demographic data? How is your lifetime value? Getting enough referrals? How much money do you want to make? Are you looking to increase numbers of contracts or does it seem more interesting to have fewer, high-dollar events?... Continue reading

Creating content is the new "it" in business success. You have lots of ideas and experience. Why not write a book and upload it as a free e-book this weekend. Or publish it at Blurb or Lulu. This weekend? Yup. Here's how: Get a dozen or so sheets of paper. Write the title of your book on one sheet. (Google the title to make sure it's not already in use later.) Get ten sheets of paper and number them 1-10. These are your chapters. At the top of the page, write the chapter title and below that, the numbers 1-10.... Continue reading

OK, you asked for it and I got it. LERN has just agreed to host a Contract-Training only event April 7-8 in Chicago! I wanted to let the cat out of the bag here, first. Topic areas will include: Transitioning from Grants Sales Team Structure & Strategies -Compensation Strategies -Overhead Costs & Pricing -Dealing with Central Administration -Partnering -Selling Credit Programs -From Information to Solutions -Negotiations -Spotting Trends -Needs Assessment -Marketing Materials -B2B Demo I love this city and it will be fantastic to hole up with a crowd of contract training people. We'll really get down to business. And... Continue reading

Just a reminder that you can sign up for a free webinar, which will take place Tuesday, January 18, 2011 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM CST. It's the Contract Training Trends 2011 seminar. We'll talk about what's coming up and how you can prepare to use the trends for a year of contract training success. Sign up even if you can't go, because the webinar is posted after the event for viewing. To register, go to http://augusoft.net/ and click on the webinars on the right hand side of the page. Continue reading

Tom Pick, who calls himself an online marketing executive, coined the phrase, "Webbiquity," to describe being ubiquitous on the web. It's also the name of his company. His own definition, from his blog: Webbiquity: 1) The fusion of SEO, search marketing, social media, reputation management, content marketing and interactive PR. 2) Being omnipresent on the web for the search phrase that uniquely describes you or your organization. 3) The place to find help with all of this. Webbiquity – be everywhere online. He gives some examples: For example, Jill Konrath is webbiqitous for the phrase “selling to big companies,” holding... Continue reading

Over on the blog, "The Daily Riff" author Shelley Blake-Plock proposes that there are 21 things that will become obsolete in education by 2020. Can you think of anything else? Do you agree she's go the list right? 21 Things That Will Become Obsolete in Education by 2020 Last night I read and posted the clip on '21 Things That Became Obsolete in the Last Decade'. Well, just for kicks, I put together my own list of '21 Things That Will Become Obsolete in Education by 2020'. 1. Desks The 21st century does not fit neatly into rows. Neither should... Continue reading

Alan Kay in his TED video says that we don't see things as THEY are, we see them as WE are. You can see the TED video here. Kay is brilliant, in my opinion. His chief contribution is to help us learn how to learn. He also said, "We can't learn to see until we admit we are blind." This is 20 minutes but worth the watch. I wish you a 2011 filled with learning of all kinds. And I appreciate that you are helping your clients learn so each company can bring its core talent to the world. The... Continue reading

Big is big. What can we say? But most of us a small and these days, small is good. Remember when Avis was the number two car rental agency behind Hertz? Their motto was, "We try harder," and they had a slew of ads to show us how hard they were going to work to get our business. Just because you're small doesn't mean you can't be special or significant. Spend some time this week thinking of the UP sides of being small. For example, if your CT unit is new and you only have two clients, you can still... Continue reading

"Luxury Shame." Yes. It's not cool to know the most expensive wines on the menu now, it's cool to know the least expensive bottles of the good stuff. Key into this trend by associating yourself with bare to the bone training that's top quality. Cut out the frills and still manage to give your customers the best service and products ever. Link to great free resources. Add value with short webinars. Let customers use each other to learn more by using your online chat resources. Do you have any tricks for giving your customers more good stuff on a thinner... Continue reading

Expect more experiential workshops. Think professional field trips. Think learning by doing. This is part of the "get smarter, faster" trend. Steven Smith says,"Experiential means you participate in simulations rather than sit in a dark room watching a slide show and listening to a lecture. A simulation speeds up time: Six minutes participating in a simulation may trigger you to have the same experiences as six months in a project. The shorter duration enables you to see your experience—what you did externally and what was happening internally. You can process your experiences and choose whether to continue making the same... Continue reading

Another new trend in Contract Training is your client companies' need to help employees get smarter, faster. This will translate into shorter, more condensed classes. Lean on your ISD (instructional systems design) experts for help. It will also translate into short bursts of learning on the desktop or on mobile devices. It could eaily include short modules (online or face to face) on how to learn. Have you done work to help people learn faster? What works? Continue reading

It's the end of the year, so let's get talking trends that you should prepare for in 2010. What will the 'new employee' of the upcoming decade need by way of skills? The new employee needs to be tech-savvy; to have great interpersonal skills; to adapt to change quickly; to able think entrepreneurially; to be innovative; to be able to identify efficiency; and to be able to work responsibly in a virtual environment. Do you offer skill building courses in these areas? Got other ideas for what the 'new employee' needs? Continue reading

Here's a great report on Training Trends from Kaplan. Nice e-book format, lots of color and good info. Continue reading

Here's some interesting news from CNET: Internet users are spending a bit more time these days socializing on Facebook than searching on Google, according to new data from market researcher ComScore. In August, people spent 41.1 million minutes on Facebook, accounting for 9.9 percent of the total number of minutes they spent online for the month. That inched past the 39.8 million minutes, or 9.6 percent of total time, that Net users spent on all of Google's sites combined, including its search engine, YouTube, Gmail, and Google News, ComScore said Thursday. Continue reading

This article by Suzanne Kart, of LERN With the advent of iPhones, Smartphones, and other hand-held devices we use to access the Internet, it’s being reported that the World Wide Web as we know it is currently in decline. “The Web Is A 'Shrinking Minority' Of Internet Traffic,” reports National Public Radio. “(A new breed of developer) is helping large brands make hay with mobile,” reports Fast Company Magazine. “The Web is Dead. Long Live the Internet,” reports Wired Magazine. Does this mean the end of web pages? Of course not. However, as our lifelong learning customers move away from... Continue reading

How seriously do you take your online identity? Do you assume that the website your company has had for the last 5 years, heck, the last 12 months, is all you need to stay competitive in today’s market? Maybe you’re a bit more savvy and have created a Facebook or Twitter account. If so, good for you, but, are you making a point to constantly maintain it? To keep your content fresh and current? According to Jason Fitzpatrick, writer for Lifehacker.com , maintaining a competitive advantage is all about having a relevant online presence. Jason says, “the cardinal sin of... Continue reading

We already talked about privacy and how it’s dead but in case you missed it, let me assure you that with the advent of social media, even things that seem harmless can derail your career, or worse, lead to the end of it. Don’t believe me? Take a look at this article from the Huffington Post. 13 Facebook Posts That Got People CANNED. Add Twitter and a variety of other Social Media platforms to the list and you’ll start to realize that once you put something in cyberspace, it is out there forever. Don’t let yourself get fired over it,... Continue reading