The internal training consultant
Distinguish yourself Preparing knowledge management strategies. At many pharmaceutical and biotech companies, a custom-designed program, session or seminar that is delivered in one area of the business is not a resource that is shared with other divisions and departments. This lack of knowledge management costs companies a lot of money and limits the utility and leverage of training content that might be enriching to employees across divisions. Volunteering to track the custom design work that the training department has paid for during the past few years, taking responsibility for the inventory of the paper, activities, leaders' guides and electronic files created, and communicating what the knowledge management file looks like will benefit the training department and allow you the opportunity to demonstrate your savvy with training, supplier and resource management, business, and teamwork. Consulting on internal continuous learning options. Often people in training classes will approach sales trainers and training managers to ask how they can improve presentation skills, close more effectively, manage their career or build a territory business plan. The trainer who is able to consult internally with others builds credibility as a training resource. To do this, trainers need to build their knowledge of where the sales training resources are, both inside and outside the sales training department and within the company. Below are some suggestions on how to do the research inside and how to find out what other programs are offered in regional business areas or other corporate training venues. Internal networking with other training professionals. Networking is a key to finding information that is not transparent to the rest of the sales training organization. Find out about company-sponsored groups and their members and see which ones you may be able to join or which meetings are open for you to attend. National, regional and district meetings are great places to network with people and discover what best practices are used in the various business units. After identifying these best practices, bring them to your training team to evaluate the possibility of using them nationally. Often programs designed by sales reps or district managers address current issues in the field that can be leveraged to benefit the business nationwide. This is also an opportunity to spotlight the talents of others and maybe identify a future training department candidate! This initiative and follow-through on your part will demonstrate your resourcefulness, teamwork and ability to leverage existing resources. Endorsing outside resources to support learning. Once you know what is internally available, make sure you know what outside resources are available for your endorsement. Identify preferred industry training partners and learn about their open-enrollment seminars that are available to supplement learning for company employees. Preparing a list for your own quick reference as an internal consultant is as simple as adding the Web sites of preferred training industry partners to your search engine's "favorites" and pulling them up when you need to consult on alternative training options to build skills for improved job performance. Providing usable and credible feedback. Once you have built up your knowledge of what is available and where, it is important for you, as a credible internal training consultant, to provide direct and comprehensive feedback on these internally or externally run programs. A few diagnostic questions the internal training consultant should consider before providing program feedback are: * Were the learning objectives met? How or why not? Provide examples. * What were the results of the post-seminar evaluations? What recommendations can you make to ensure that learning application and pull-through occur? * How did the facilitators do in creating a learning environment? How can you acknowledge them for their success, or if appropriate, what recommendations might you offer to enhance their delivery? * Was the facilitators' approach Socratic or didactic? Was this the appropriate method for delivering the content? * How do you see the content and session fitting into the entire learning curriculum? * What other areas of the organization might benefit from this content/seminar? * Who are the stakeholders of the program content and pull-through? District managers? Regional managers? * How might you communicate the results of the program to them, and what recommendations would you offer them to ensure learning and growth for their attendees and the business? Building your understanding of the business of training, respecting the financial investment of the company, providing appropriate and usable feedback on the curriculum, and finding ways to leverage learning across the organization will allow you to distinguish yourself as an internal training consultant and knowledge broker committed to the reputation and fiscal management of the sales and management training organization.
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