Training is an important part of any business. It can be not easy to get new employees up-to-speed on its norms and standards. Still, it also provides a significant return on investment (ROI) in productivity, customer service, and employee retention. This article will provide five tips for implementing a revenue-generating training program that will help your business grow exponentially!

1) Working backward to build a customer persona: 

First, you need to know who your training program is meant for. This means doing an in-depth analysis of the customer persona that will be using it.

Building a Customer Persona:

a) Describe their demographics (i.e., age, gender, etc.) and psychographics (what motivates them? what are their goals?).

b) What is their current skill set, and what skills do they lack?

c) Describe the customer journey. Where are your customers most likely to be interacting with your product or service? When have they decided on a purchase decision? How can you meet them at these points in time when it makes the most sense from a revenue standpoint?

d) What are their pains points, and what do they need help with specifically? How can you solve these pain points through training programs, seminars, webinars, etc.?

e) Finally, figure out how to best segment them into customer types that have similar needs. This will allow you to better tailor your message for each group of customers.

Making a list of all the questions, you need to answer for each customer persona will help ensure that your training program is designed with this person in mind and aligns with their business goals.

2) Consider the demands of your content: 

Next, you need to consider the demands of your content. This means assessing what style and medium will best reach this person with information that they can apply to their business practices right away.

Different Types of Training:

a) Text-based training – reading articles on various topics such as industry trends or how different technologies work together (similar to this blog post!)

b) Video-based training – includes tutorials such as product demonstrations or how-to videos.

c) Audio format/podcasts – great for less visual and relevant information to a specific industry (ex: successful business practices in the food & beverage industry, etc.)

d) In-person seminars and workshops – most effective when there are topics that people want to learn about but cannot find the information themselves (ex: how to start a successful food truck business)

e) Webinars – perfect for training on internal company practices, like new policies or procedures. They can be recorded and archived for future reference as well!

3) Clearly define your goals: 

Defining your training program’s specific goals is a critical step that can dictate all other decisions. What are you trying to achieve with this particular training?

To ensure you hit as many of these points as possible, consider some common objectives for each type of content listed above!

Text-based training:

a) Increase brand awareness and build long-term relationships with customers.

b) Communicate company culture, vision, or message to a broad audience.

c) Support sales efforts by providing industry updates or new product information.

d) Improve customer service standards through better knowledge of best practices for the business they’re servicing.

e) Help employees become more efficient and improve productivity.

4) Identify your target audience: 

Once you know who the person is and what they need, it’s time to identify your training program’s specific target audience.

Target Audience Demographics

a) What industry does this group work in?

b) How large is their company (i.e., how many employees)?

c) What is their current position in the company?

d) What percentage of your target audience works either full-time or part-time?

e) How many years of experience does this group have, on average?

f) Are they male/female, and what age range would they fall into (i.e., millennials vs. baby boomers)?

g) What is their level of English fluency? (This will help you decide if the content should be translated to account for other non-native speakers.)

h) How does this group like to consume information, and what technology do they use most frequently at work or in their personal lives? For example, texting vs. email vs. social media, their online training software, etc.)

i) How much time do they have to devote to your training format/medium? (ex: in-person workshops are generally more intensive and require a longer commitment, so plan accordingly!)

j) What is the turnover rate for this group of employees? Is their tenure relatively short or long term with your company?

k) Finally, what are their top pain points, and how might they apply your content to alleviating those pains in the workplace or for personal use at home?

5) Conduct a competitive analysis: 

The next step is to conduct a competitive analysis. This means looking at other training programs that already exist within your company and those offered by your competitors.

Competitive Analysis

a) How are their training programs structured? Are they similar to yours, or do they vary widely/in what ways?

b) What types of content are included in the courses, and how does it compare to the list you’ve made for yourself? Do certain topics overlap with each other?

c) Who is teaching the content and how much expertise do they have in this area? Is there a perceived authority figure or expert that your employees would want to learn from, whether you as an internal trainer or someone else within the company with more experience/expertise on certain topics?

d) How long are their courses? Is there a set timeline that needs to be followed, or is this more flexible and up to the employees’ discretion as long as they complete it within a certain time frame (i.e., quarterly, bi-annually)?

e) How much does it cost? Do you need to charge employees a fee as part of the training program, or is this entirely free for them and covered by your company?

f) What platforms are available for learning (i.e., desktop, mobile device)? Are there times when these tools would not be accessible due to lack of internet or wi-fi?

g) How does the company measure success of their program (i.e., do they ask for feedback, what types of metrics are tracked)?

h) Is this mandatory to take part in as an employee, and if so, how much time does it take from employees’ regular workdays?

Finally, once you’ve gone through this process, it should be much easier to determine what your training program needs to become successful- and how to implement it.

6) Distributing and Promoting

Now that you have successfully planned your training program, it’s time to start the implementation process. You might want to consider outside help from a professional company specializing in online training software to complete this step. Once you have all of your training courses, programs, and protocols established, you’ll want to have a virtual calendar that serves as a hub for all of your training resources. Having a calendar to separate all of your resources by category or tag is crucial to make it easy for employees to access content and stay organized. You can also consider sending automated newsletters to contacts within your organization and even link them to social media platforms. Having the ability to harbor all these resources in a safe, organized, and reliable platform is crucial to the success of your training program. You can even keep track of training enrollments, registrations, post-training analytics, and payments without the help of third-party services, which can greatly complicate the process.