The Secret Ingredient That’s Missing in Most Training Departments

February 11, 2014 by Steve Woodruff

In a word: Operations.

I was speaking with a Sales Training Director in a major biotech company recently, and he put me in contact with someone in the department who is heading up things like project management, vendor management, instructional design, internal processes, and the like.

We hit it off immediately. Because we could speak each others’ language.

There are a relatively few of my life sciences clients who have hired someone with operations experience to “run” the nuts and bolts of the department. When this position is put in place, it makes a world of difference.

Here’s why: most people in the training department come out of field sales. Sales is a very different world from operations, and many training managers struggle with newly-assigned project management responsibilities. Operational thinking may not be in their personal wiring, and the skills required are often not trained during on-boarding.

Result: floundering. Inefficiency. And then, since many of these training positions are rotational, a solid and consistent base of operations experience never truly develops in the department.

This is why I’ve advised many clients to create a permanent (not rotational) position to head up project and vendor management, contract negotiation, RFP process, and instructional design/technical standards. Typically, this is not going to be someone from the sales force – there’s a different knowledge base and skill set required.

I would contend that the money saved by more effective processes will probably be at least double or triple the salary expended in the first year alone.

And when new training managers are given project tasks, they now have experienced help to shepherd them through the unfamiliar responsibilities, instead of just floundering in the deep end of the pool.

Look, I really enjoy my work here at Impactiviti doing vendor/project management workshops and providing related advisory services. But some of what I do really needs to be transitioned to an internal resource – a go-to operations person in the department. I’d be happy to talk further with any of my pharma/biotech clients about how to build a stronger internal system for training operations.

—–

Image courtesy of jscreationzs / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Posted in Impactiviti, Sales training, Training | Tagged Sales training, training operations | 5 Comments

5 Responses

on February 11, 2014 at 12:59 pm Vicki Colman

Excellent article! This is a part of what I do that I just love at times, and loathe at others. I agree wholeheartedly that it’s a function that man sales people do struggle with and that frustrates them initially.
on February 13, 2014 at 1:28 am Jim Trunick

Steve, you raise great points! The hiring profile of sales trainers, seems to have operations, as a low priority. The track record of sales trainers is largely measured on sales results and management skills. With the demand and stretch on trainers around technology, managed markets and marketing interface, I think operations will continue to be a low priority. Getting good at operation knowledge and application continues to be viewed as a lower requirement by hiring directors , for trainers getting the next promotion into sales management or marketing

So, Keep bringing your good self to us, we need it, and stay tuned, changes abound, and we internalize operations more than I state here.

Thanks Steve

Jim
on February 13, 2014 at 7:06 pm David Fortanbary

Steve, I 100% agree. Operations is a lost discipline in most training organizations. It is essential to have a skilled and proficient operations manager to support the training team. Otherwise, to your points, the trainers flounder and are not utilized based upon their strenghts. Well done and insightful article.
on February 14, 2014 at 10:53 am Steve Woodruff

Some additional (very helpful commentary) from Bob McBride in an e-mail response – shared with permission:

Additionally, there is a great need for every training department in our industry to have a full time dedicated training coordinator (project manager or even good admin) to do all these roles that you mention as well as the following: internal review board preparation (we all have complex systems in place to enter materials for review board review, you need a “PhD” to figure these systems out), budget maintenance for the department, and procurement. Vendor management, as you mention, is also very big. The project manager should also be the one to enter the CDA’s, MSA’s and SOW’s into the system of the company. All have become cumbersome systems that take up time that could and should be dedicated to creative training development.

Bob
on March 4, 2014 at 9:32 am Sue Iannone

Hi Steve, great points and comments above. I think you know how I feel about all this- as talented as trainers are, this is often a soft spot. As learning leaders, projects and vendor relationships can fall apart if not given the attention needed (like marriage LOL). To acquire headcount and have a dedicated ops person is typically a luxury at smaller organizations, but probably worth the investment. Or at least make it half of someone’s job on the team to oversee this. Then the intellectual capital can be retained vs rotating back out to the field.