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Trainers know that no two training sessions are the same. That’s why meeting with your client to talk about what they need from a training session is so important. More often than not, you’ll be meeting with a human resources representative or someone in the company that is responsible for looking after professional development and training. Whoever that person might be, it’s important to meet with them to clarify their needs, what you can offer, and how you can work together to meet learning outcomes for the client and participants.

What Type of Training is Needed?

When you meet with a representative from the company who wants to hire you to deliver training sessions, you’ll want to find out what kind of course they need, but also, how they would like it run. Some companies prefer to do on-site training, while others want to do off-site training. Some companies want to have smaller group sessions, and others wish to have more extensive whole-company training sessions. Some people want to do online training, and some other companies will want to do face-to-face training. You’ll want to discuss all the options you can offer them and find out which type of training best suits their needs.

What Do They Want to Get Out of the Training?

As part of your consultation, you need to find out what the purpose of the training is. These are called outcomes. What do the participants need to know at the end of the training to consider the training a success? Do they need to be able to resolve conflict, improve sales, keep customers on the phone longer, or manage their time better? Once a high-level topic has been chosen, spend some time talking about how you can deliver those outcomes. For example, if improving sales is the overall goal of the training, you can incorporate paired activities in which participants practice selling products to one another. The more information you can get about those products in the consultation, the more thorough you will be in delivering those outcomes.

How Will Outcomes be Measured?

One important aspect of training to consider is how you will show that the participants learned what you said they would learn. Assessment types might depend on the company who has hired you. Companies might need to see hands-on demonstrations of how an employee can keep a customer on the phone longer; they might need to know that employees can shift gears quickly between conversation scripts to convince a customer to buy from them; or they might need to be able to see that employees can transcribe customer conversations with 95% accuracy. Whatever the outcomes might be, you and the contact for your client should discuss how you’ll demonstrate those outcomes in your training.

Remembering that every training session will be different will help you be better prepared to deliver a more customized and robust training program to every client who hires you. Our detailed training course materials offer you everything you need to train clients, but how you apply those materials and what you get out of them is up to you. The more creative and customized you can be with your training business, the more successful you will be.