Integrating Training Services

Different approaches to integrating your training services to maximise potential for growth. .

5 min read · Written by Grant Rayner on 27 Sep 2023

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Many of you reading these articles will want to integrate training into your mix of products and services. I’ve made a strong case in previous articles as to why you, as an independent security professional, should consider providing training services as part of your portfolio of products and services.

It’s easy to add a bunch of different training options to your website. The better option is to provide a tightly integrated set of training services that position your company for future growth.

In this article, I’ll focus on how you can integrate your training services into your business to maximise potential for growth.

Showcase your unique knowledge and experience

Does the training leverage your unique knowledge and experience?

Before you start structuring your training for growth, it’s critical that you consider your unique knowledge and experience. As an independent security professional, your unique selling point is your unique set of skills and experience. How you shape your skills and experience into products and services that are meaningful to your target clients will be the key to your long-term success.

It follows that any training services you provide must showcase your unique skills and experience. Otherwise, why would a client choose you to deliver the training?

Specifically, any case studies you use during your training should be based on your own experience. Using your own case studies emphasises your unique experience, differentiating your training solutions from those offered by other companies.

Once you’ve ensured your training adequately showcases your unique knowledge and experience, your next focus is to integrate your training with your other products and services and position for growth.

Leverage cross-selling opportunities for other training

Does the training enable cross-selling and upselling of other training services?

As you begin to structure your training offerings, an effective approach is to create a series of training modules within your area of speciality. If a client purchases one of your training modules and they found it beneficial, they may be more inclined to purchase other training modules on the same or related topic.

Here’s a few ways you could approach this:

• Create a tiered set of training modules that move from a basic level to an advanced level. For example, if you specialise in security investigations, you could create a ‘Basic Security Investigations’ module and an ‘Advanced - Security Investigations’ module. Organisations attending the basic module may want to follow up with the advanced module. You could also consider ‘basic’, ‘intermediate’ and ‘advanced’ modules, if that would work for your particular speciality. Some organisations may be willing to purchase multiple training modules as a package.
• Break a larger subject down into smaller modules. If you specialise in security evacuations, for example, you could create a ‘Evacuation Planning’ module and an ‘Evacuation Execution’ module. As with the example above, organisations attending one may be willing to attend the other. You could also offer both as a package.
• Offer a foundational training module, then several specialty modules. For example, if you specialise in crisis management, you could create a ‘Crisis Management Fundamentals’ module and then create several specialty modules, such as ‘Crisis Communications’ and ‘Crisis Leadership’. One advantage of this approach is that you can apply a learning path, requiring people to complete the Crisis Management Fundamentals module before they complete the Crisis Communications or Crisis Leadership modules.
• Offer more comprehensive training sessions focused on the same topic. For example, you could run a one-hour ‘Introduction to Crisis Management’ training module alongside a three-hour Crisis Management Workshop that goes into the topic in more detail and incorporates practical exercises. This approach provides an upselling opportunity. Another advantage of this approach is that you’re able to tier your pricing, offering the introductory module at a relatively low price, which will encourage uptake and act as a ‘gateway’ to other products and services. The more expensive workshop also provides a ‘reference price’, making the other training modules seem less expensive.

If you decide to focus on more than one speciality, you could apply the same approach for your other specialities. If a client has found benefit in one speciality and like your approach to training, they may be more willing to try your training services in the other speciality.

In each of these examples, once a client has undertaken one training module, they will hopefully be motivated to undertake another training module. The purpose of this approach, as touched on in an earlier article, is to maximise Customer Lifetime Value (CLV).

The week after you run a training session, email your client with tailored recommendations for next steps for training. You could offer a small discount if they lock in the next training session within a specific period.

Let’s now explore how you can leverage cross-selling opportunities for other products and services.

Leveraging cross-selling opportunities for other services

Does the training enable cross-selling of other services?

If you’re offering other services in addition to training, you should structure your training services to provide cross-selling opportunities for those services.

First, the topic of the training should be related to your other services. If you offer consulting in crisis management leadership, it would make sense that your training also focuses on crisis management leadership.

Second, be sure to bake elements of your other services into your training. As a start point, when you introduce yourself and your company at the start of your training session, also introduce your other services. Even better, where it makes sense during your training, use case studies that showcase the benefits of your other services. If you’re offering higher-margin services, such as consulting, your training should definitely showcase those services.

Your objective is that clients who participate in your training should leave the session with a clear understanding of your other service offerings. They should be impressed by what you’ve achieved with other clients, and motivated to consider your services.

Another option is to offer your existing consulting clients a small discount for your training services. The advantage of this approach is that you’re already working with the client, so you may not need to spend a significant amount of time with proposals or onboarding processes. Offering discounts can be problematic, so you would have carefully consider the client’s annual spend on consulting before you offered discounts on other services.

Of course, if an existing consulting client hasn’t already approached you about your training services, it may be that they simply don’t need such services and offering a discount won’t make a difference.

Leveraging cross-selling opportunities for products

Does the training enable cross-selling of other products?

Anyone attending your training should want to learn more about your area of expertise. Specifically, they should want to learn more from you. As such, if you have products, your training sessions will provide an ideal cross-selling opportunity for those products.

If you are selling books, introduce your books at the beginning or end of your training. You could reference your books in passing during the training–“I cover this point in more detail in my book…”. It may also be appropriate to incorporate quotes or diagrams from your books at points during your training.

If you are selling templates, you could follow a similar approach. Templates are particularly useful when they enable your clients to take what they’ve learned in your training back to their own organisation and apply it.

You have an option to provide a discount for your books to anyone who attends your training. If you’re selling hard copy books, you could bring these books to your training sessions and offer them for sale after the session.

These approaches are a form of organic cross-selling. You’ll find that it will be a relatively low pressure environment for offering these products during your training, particularly if they fit with the theme of the training. Importantly, you’ll gain incremental revenue with minimal additional effort.

Consider bundling training and products

If your training is tied closely to one of your books, you could offer the training and book as a bundle. For a set price, participants will be able to attend the training and receive a copy of your book. Again, you could follow the same approach with templates.

In summary, you have plenty of options available to you when it comes to integrating training within your other services and products. The key is to structure your training in a way that enables cross-selling and upselling opportunities. Always consider the need to maximise Customer Lifetime Value (CLV).

Next week, I’ll focus on the client side of designing your training services, helping you build training services that clients will want to buy.