Who should attend which marketing and sales program training?

You have just started our marketing and sales program and are wondering which trainings are really relevant for you and your team. With five different types of training and additional components such as Office Hours and accountability sessions, it can be quite overwhelming to decide where to spend your time.

These are probably questions that you, depending on your role, are running around with:

• "Do I have to attend all training sessions?"
• "Which trainings are essential for my role?"
• "Who from my team should I send to which training?"

I personally created this program as a head coach at Buzzlytics, so I have in-depth knowledge of the design and objectives of each training. I teach several training courses myself and have direct experience with which functions and roles benefit most from specific training components.

In this article, I give you an overview of all trainings in the marketing and sales program and explain how to determine which trainings are relevant to you. I share training recommendations for different organizational sizes and give you practical tips to get the most out of your trainings. After reading this article, you'll know exactly which training courses you and your team members should take to successfully take control of your marketing and sales.

The marketing and sales program includes trainings on content, sales, StoryBrand, website and martech.

We offer five different types of group calls (trainings) in the program:

• Content
• Sales
• StoryBrand
• Website
• MarTech

Below you can read what to expect from each type of training.

Content trainings take place weekly and focus on everything related to content strategy and creation.

Topics covered include:

• Developing content using AI
• Define the role of the content manager in your organization
• Develop a long-term content strategy
• On-page SEO best practices
• Keyword research strategy
• ROI tracking
• Making Marketing align with your sales strategy
• Making data-driven choices

The sales trainings take place every other week and focus on improving your sales processes and techniques.

These trainings cover topics such as:

• Sales companies using AI
• Documentation, evaluation and optimization of your sales process
• Solving the biggest sales challenges
• Sales training and role plays
• Training assignment selling
• Apply video in your sales strategy
• Optimizing your sales process for video platforms such as Zoom
• Pipeline management and reporting

The StoryBrand trainings will help you deliver your message clearly and persuasively. These trainings include:

• Using AI to apply StoryBrand faster and better
• Refining your BrandScript
• Oneliner training
• StoryBrand-proof websites and landing pages creation
• Developing lead generators
• StoryBrand-proof email campaign writing
• Training StoryBrand-proof quotes, presentations and webinars
• StoryBrand marketing plan and sales approach

The website trainings take place monthly and focus on optimizing your website to generate more leads.

Topics covered are:

• Applying AI to your website
• Website Content Optimization
• Develop the 16 most important pages of your website
• Develop scorecards
• Conversion Optimization
• Establishing a knowledge center

Finally, the monthly MarTech training sessions focus on how to effectively use marketing technology to support your marketing and sales strategy.

These trainings cover:

• Keeping CRM clean and optimized (especially HubSpot)
• Marketing automation strategy
• Lead scoring and lead qualification training
• Database management
• Reporting strategy
• Marketing and sales tools

In addition to these trainings, the marketing and sales program also offers:

• Office Hours: Weekly sessions to which you can turn with questions
• Accountability: Group sessions or one-on-one coaching (Growth and Mastery only)
• Theme days: Special days focused on specific topics (Growth and Mastery only)
• Planning sessions: Sessions to plan and evaluate your marketing and sales strategy (Growth and Mastery only)

The frequency of these components varies. Some are weekly, others every other week or monthly. This balances out your time investment in the program.

For each training in Circle, we clearly indicate who the training is for.

"That's quite a few training sessions," I hear you thinking. But fortunately, you don't have to attend everything. Below I will give you some tools that can help you make the right choices.

For each training in our online platform Circle, we clearly indicate who the training is for. Look carefully at the heading "For whom" in the description of each training. Here we always describe which roles or functions will benefit most from the specific training.

For example, for a content training such as "How to write a good article," the "For whom" section states that it is intended for content managers. For a sales training such as "Applying the power of assignment selling in your sales process," we mention that it is suitable for sales professionals, marketing staff and account managers.

It's not that a content manager only needs to attend content training. Depending on the topic, it may also be valuable for a content manager to attend a MarTech training, for example, if it deals with how to find out in HubSpot how articles are performing.

What is good to know is that you always have access to recordings of training sessions. If your schedule does not allow you to attend a training, you can always watch the recording in Circle.

Most trainings do not require specific prior knowledge unless we explicitly state it in the agenda. Some trainings build on previous sessions, such as the "Customers to Heroes" training for sales, which consists of two parts. If you missed the first part, we recommend watching the recording of that before participating in the second.

The idea is to be selective in what you attend, depending on your role and interests. While we have thought about a logical structure in the program, you can also skip a week and rejoin later, similar to how you handle a workout schedule at the gym.

How best to utilize the trainings in the marketing and sales program depends in part on the size of your organization. Below I provide recommendations for different organization types.

In small organizations, where only a few people are involved in marketing and sales, it is important to make very targeted choices. Here are some recommendations:

• Divide the trainings strategically: For example, if you have three people in marketing and sales, make tight choices in who attends which trainings.
• Concentrate on core training sessions: Have the content manager attend about three-quarters of the content training sessions, plus the StoryBrand training sessions.
• Specialize where possible: Let the sales associate focus on sales training.

This approach allows you to get the maximum results without overcharging your team.

In medium-sized organizations, the roles are often not yet highly specialized. For these organizations, I recommend:

• Team-based approach: Have all marketing employees attend all marketing trainings (content, website, MarTech) and all sales employees attend all sales trainings.
• Joint learning: By attending the same trainings together, team members can share knowledge and experiences and grow together.

This approach ensures that the whole team gains the same knowledge and can work together to implement the frameworks in the program.

Large organizations often deal with more complexity and specialization. These organizations are usually in the Mastery program.

For those I recommend:

• Customization: Work with a coach to develop a customized training plan.
• Selection based on interest and initiative: Have team members who are enthusiastic about participating.
• Focus on specific business units or products: Consider first implementing the frameworks within a specific department or for a specific product.
• Specialized participation: Have different people attend different trainings based on their specialization. For example, have one person attend content training, another attend website training and yet another attend MarTech training.

For large organizations, it is important to regularly coordinate who should attend which sessions and how knowledge is shared within the organization.

While there is no minimum attendance requirement for the program, I do recommend checking in regularly to get the maximum value out of the program.

Passive listening yields less than active participation. So ask questions, share your experiences and engage in dialogue during training sessions. Not only will you help yourself, but often others have the same question.

Taking notes not only helps with remembering information, but also encourages active listening and processing of the material.

The real value of the program comes when you apply what you learn directly to your daily work. So work actively on the assignments given during the training sessions.

If not everyone can attend every training session, provide a system for sharing knowledge. This can be done, for example, by giving short presentations to your colleagues about what you have learned.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach in terms of who should attend which training.

Our marketing and sales program provides a wealth of knowledge and skills to help you bring your marketing and sales success in-house. By making conscious choices about which training sessions you and your team members attend, you can get the maximum benefit from the program.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach in terms of who should attend what training. Small organizations have different needs than large organizations, and different roles within your team require different training.

As a program manager, I have taken great care to create a balanced training offering that covers all aspects important to successfully taking control of your marketing and sales. I have guided several organizations in implementing the frameworks and seen how different approaches to the training plan can lead to success. Whether you have a small organization where everyone wears multiple hats, or a large organization with specialized roles, there is an approach to suit you.

Do you still have questions about which training sessions best fit your role or organization? Then don't hesitate to discuss this during the next Office Hour or, if you're in Growth or Mastery, discuss this with your coach.