The top marketing techniques for contract training programs.

1. 10 Things You Should Be Doing
to Market Your Contract Training
Program

2. #1 Be active on social media

3. In the past
• If a prospect wanted a reference, to talk to the CEO, or even to know
the price – they needed to go through the sales rep.
3

4. Today
• A prospect can go to a review website for a reference.
• A prospect can got to Twitter to reach people in the organization –
and ask for references.
• And pricing may be right on the website.
4

5. The shift in how people shop has left sales
reps at a disadvantage
• 89% of Americans search the Internet before making a purchase
• They’re going to social media for information
5
* Inbound 2012, Gary Vaynerchuck
89%
11%
Americans
Americans who
search first
Americans who
don't

6. The sales rep now becomes involved in the sales
process later
• Estimates from Garner, Harvard Business Review, and Sirius Decisions
indicate buyers begin the buying process without the involvement of
a sales rep 60-80% of the time.
Estimates from Garner, Harvard Business Review, and Sirius
Decisions
6

7. How do you deal with it when many of your
prospects start the buying process before you
know you should be calling them?
7

8. Social media
• A study done by Social Centered Selling and A Sales Guy Consulting
found that 78% of sales people using social media outsell their peers.
Social Centered Selling and A Sales Guy Consulting 8

9. Quotas
• 72.6% of sales people using social media outperformed their sales
peers.
• They exceed their quota 23% more often.
Social Centered Selling and A Sales Guy Consulting 9

10. They closed deals
• 54% of sales people were able to track their social media usage back
to closed deals.
10

11. #2 Establishing a Relationship with Your Client
• Consistency and clarity are important in CT
• Three things every customer wants:
Speed up the
process of
support &
reduce the time
taken to solve
the problem
Identify their
problem &
show sincere
understanding
of their
suffering
To be heard

12. Two Reasons for a Customer Connection
PAIN- a gap between the
performance they have &
the performance they
want
GAIN- Recognizing they
have an opportunity that
cannot be minimized
without assistance

13. “Product” Connection Points for CT
• Needs
• Price
• Expectation
• Marketing

14. Differentiate Yourself
• Help clients discover
• Be different
• Customers warm-up & trust in you
• Culture of awareness

15. Think about it……
If you aren’t out there making connections with your clients –
somebody else will

16. #3 Work with (not around) your marketing
team

17. Some things just go together
• Burgers and fries
• Peanut butter and jelly
• Pepperoni and pizza

18. Sales and marketing, not always so much …

19. There’s a new way of marketing!
• If telemarketing was your thing, for instance, the Do Not Call Registry
in 2004 left you with fewer and fewer contacts to call.
• If newspaper ads were your things, well, they don’t pull like they used
to.
• The answer is an integrated approach.

20. Marketing buzzwords can be confusing
• Inbound Marketing
• Outbound Marketing
• eMarketing
• Email Marketing
• Direct Mailing Marketing
• Social Media Marketing
• Long Tail Marketing
• Search Engine Optimized marketing

21. What should I do?
• Plan
• Execute
• Measure
• Repeat
• Don’t worry about what it’s called!

22. #4 Be Prepared
• Critical preparation- avoid the trap
• Planned sequence of qualifying questions
• Help find the need

23. Have Relative Information at Your Fingertips
List of
questions
Testimonials
Samples
Letters of
support
Pricing

24. Do you have a sales structure?
• Business structure of CT
• Salesperson role
• Answering questions & giving information
• Don’t just use “telling”
• Emotional reason for change
• First impression – be prepared

25. Preparation allows you to………..
Be proactive not reactive.
#2 Being Unprepared

26. #5 Send more email
• Have your promotional emails come from a person – not just
organization.
• For instance, you probably received emails from both William Draves
and Suzanne Kart about different LERN events – rather than just
“LERN.”
• Emails that come from a person are more likely to get opened.

27. A good open rate is just 20%
• Send more emails to less people. You’ll get more business. If your
open rate stays at 10-20% and your opt out and bounce rates are
both <1%, it’s working.
• Also, send people information they can use
• White papers
• Webinars
• Articles
• Brand yourself as the expert

28. #6 Face to Face Selling
• 70/30 rule
• Listen & ask questions
• Rundown on your website
• Two way dialog

29. Listening
• Selling is not just talk
• Important as talking
• Customer defines what they need
• Determines effective strategy

30. Selling Contract Training Services
• Primary goal
• Lead with questions
• Best Practice: Sell today & educate tomorrow

31. Think about it…..
Selling to people who actually want to hear from you is more effective
than interrupting strangers who don’t.

32. #7 Capture customer reviews and use them
in all your promotional materials.
• People love customer reviews. You should be offering your customers
the opportunity to review your training.
• Then use the results in all of your promotional materials – web pages,
catalogs, brochures, other direct mail Facebook, even TV and radio if
you do any.

33. #8 Balance is Key
• You must balance the ingredients of your message
• Do not bore customers with unnecessary details that are of no
tangible use
• Work towards offering the best solution or product that meets the
customer’s needs

34. Selling Features
• Features tell but benefits sell
• Logical appeal vs. emotional attitude

35. Resistance
• Customer resistance is a natural reaction
• People don’t like to be told what to do and especially what to buy
• Leading customers to discover helps them own the decision
• Resistance can be eliminated- Want the secret?

36. Think about it…..
The truth is sales are really contingent upon the attitude
of the salesperson and not the attitude of the prospect.

37. #9 Don’t ignore Gen X
• The big story right now is all about Baby boomers (1946-1964) and
Millennials (1980-1999).
• Your Gen X demographic is now age 35-49.
• Different messages resonate with this group including:
• At work, it’s about work. They want skills for their employees.
• Motivational speeches don’t motivate Gen X.
• Outcomes are more important than time. If you can train them in 45 minutes,
don’t take 60 minutes.

38. #10 What is the Bottom Line?
• Customers either need what you have to offer or they don’t
• Your job is to help the decision makers recognize the pains associated
with not having your product, service or expertise
• The message must be clear and consistent

39. Understanding the Source of Pain
• Identify your customer’s point of pain
• Relate their pain to the product or service you are selling
• Ideally your product or service should completely solve your
customer’s problem

40. Think about it…..
In selling as in medicine - prescription before diagnosis is malpractice.

41. Materials, reports, whitepapers and other
items are exclusive content produced by the
professional staff and consultants of the
Learning Resources Network (LERN), and may
not be reproduced without written
permission.
For more information contact LERN at
info@lern.org, (800) 678-5376.