If I asked you for a couple of brief case studies showing off your most successful training projects for clients, what are the chances they would sound something like this?
"I did this, then I did that, then I did this, then the client was very happy."
By "sound like this," I mean your story would capture all of your actions and put them front and center. But it might be hard to see what the client did, how they contributed to their own success by building on the training services you provided.
We vs. I
A story about what "we" did, meaning you and your client working together, is inherently more interesting. And if it is true, that is, if you can really identify actions by the client that supported your own contributions to their success, you can probably point to outcomes with some staying power.
Your opportunity to build that more compelling narrative lies at the beginning of your project, at the front end of the client relationship. From the very start, your case study has to shape up as,
"I will do this, while you do this, then we will do this, then I will do that, and you will do ..."
That's more work, of course. So is it worth it?
Definitely. Benefits of this approach include the following:
- Better Outcomes: you already know that when the client makes adjustments in support of the training, long-term outcomes and application of learning are enhanced. Better outcomes are good for your business.
- Grow the Relationship: when you just book the training and deliver an "event", or even a series of coaching sessions, you are to some extent isolated from the client. They are not paying much attention to you except to see that the event goes off as scheduled, and that they do not get complaints. If you have a shared to-do list, you are interacting with the client more often, for more reasons, and that grows their trust and develops a relationship that bodes well for future opportunities.
- Consultant vs. Commodity: When clients buy a "seminar" or a "workshop" or some "coaching sessions," it isn't much different than buying supplies or paying for equipment maintenance! When they pay for your expertise to be delivered through a partnership in which both you and the client have responsibilities, you are much harder to replace with another vendor. You become a player on their team, instead of just a "store" where they shop for their training needs.
- Better Marketing Message: Remember that case study I started with? The "we did" case study is a much more persuasive story than the "I did" one. Prospective clients will recognize themselves in your stories of past success when those stories include explicit examples of the client's contribution to training effectiveness.
Admittedly, you cannot win over every client to this approach. But you can achieve that partnership, that collaborative approach, more often than you think, if you go into the relationship with that vision of the project from the start.
And it is well worth it.
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