trainers; the almost invisible resource

Qualified professional trainers might be best described as a company’s highly important on-call resource and yet the least easily found. We are by and large, an elusive lot with the often-used term ‘freelancer’ itself conjuring up visions of a highly independent and somewhat cavalier individual that comes and goes.

When corporate managers are surveyed about their use of independent trainers and facilitators their most frequent comment is how hard they are to find. These managers are used to having information at their fingertips; research, contacts, and consultants. Yet try to find a facilitator and they must resort to phoning a half dozen friends and colleagues with a conversation that goes something like this.

“Hi Jeanine, our sales volumes have taken a dip. I think the team needs a good workup on thinking outside the box so I’m looking for someone sharp that can run a course for me on relationship selling. What was the name of the woman that you used so successfully last year for your department and have you got her web address? Oh she doesn’t have a website. How about a phone number or her e-mail - and do you know what she’s up to these days?” And so forth.

It’s ironic really when you consider that so much of the content that we teach is about planning and organization. There’s a quote that goes “physician heal thyself” we could paraphrase it and say “trainers train thyself”. I’m as guilty as the next person in that I have been training for years and only recently did I get around to creating a personal website.

This paradox about the lack of trainer’s visibility got me to start thinking about the idea of creating an online community of trainers that would enable them to share issues such as billing rates and marketing ideas but also to serve as a bridge between trainers and their potential clients. After consulting a dozen friends and associates in the field we emerged with the idea of NAIT – the National Association of Independent Trainers. www.naitrainers.com

NAIT is now a reality and will offer many advantages including a nationally promoted database by geographic region that enables a purchaser of services such as training, facilitation and coaching to peruse a all of the CV’s of NAIT members that are locally available. Another advantage to members is the added prestige that comes from membership in a national body of peers. All this at an annual membership rate that most members will more than make up in the first hour of the first gig they gain from the database. So let’s get visible!