Service Training Designed Around How Your Teams Actually Work

Frequently Asked Questions

• How are service training programs structured?

  Global Partners Training is ultimately focused on participants’ interpersonal skill acquisition and development. Our programs make heavy use of live, interactive experiences in face-to-face and virtual (small group webinar) modes.

  A blended program typically contains live face-to-face workshops, live interactive coaching webinars, self-study through e-learning modules and field work. This carefully designed sequence, along with measurement and certification systems, virtually guarantees the embedding of new behaviors.

  To fit your workforce schedules, workshop-only and full-virtual programs with identical skill-based content are available and supplemented with e-learning and field work.

• What is the typical program duration?

  Training programs can range from 6 to 40 hours of actual training time and may be delivered on a single day or over a period of 3 to 4 months with multiple touchpoints.

• How large are the training groups?

  Given the interactive nature and striking a balance between cost and personal attention, the optimal workshop size is 12 to 15 people. Smaller groups are possible to fit your needs.

  Instructor-led webinars are run with around six participants per session, and therefore, multiple sessions of a webinar may be scheduled for a typical training group.

  We will help you determine the most efficient way to cover your desired participants considering their locations and availability.

• How do you “customize” the service training programs? Who owns the customizations?

  GPT programs are customized in three different ways, as follows:

  1. Assemblage: While some of GPT’s popular programs are turnkey, your customized program can also be assembled from GPT’s wide portfolio of proven training modules, which fit together like bricks and are routinely updated to keep them aligned with current best practices in instructional design. Our early conversations and the assembly process ensure alignment between the training program and the skill sets and business outcomes you are looking for.

  Training programs and associated intellectual property (IP) remain the exclusive property of Global Partners Training.

  2. Role Plays: To enable practice in a safe environment and prepare your trainees to try new skills on the job, GPT utilizes role plays and case studies that are custom-written based on interviews with key members of your team. Our mutual goals are:

  Immediate relevance for participants. Your company’s industry niche, products, customers, sales and service structure and culture are unique. Live experiences are designed to simulate frequently faced, high impact situations using familiar company names, job titles, status differences, emotional postures, etc., so participants are practicing skills they can use right away in their jobs. And even though participants are initially practicing these new skills in fictitious situations, they are building mental muscle memory for handling any challenging situation they face in the future.

  Focus on desired business outcomes. Your company goals and training priorities are also incorporated into our choices of situations for the cases and role plays and in the stated objectives of the participants. For example, a program prioritizing new revenue generation will be written quite differently from a program aimed at improving customer satisfaction. Regardless of primary emphasis, service training typically yields positive outcomes in multiple areas.

  Custom case studies and role plays become the client’s property and are not used or shared with other clients.

  3. Field Work: In long-form programs, participants are required to try their new skills on the job and report back about their experiences orally and in writing (What did you try that was different? How was the response of your customer different than usual? How much time and money was saved? etc.). In shorter programs, participants create SMART action plans, setting them up to try their new skills immediately in a more self-directed manner.

• Where is the program delivered and what languages are offered?

  Global Partners Training retains a roster of over 150 experienced, qualified local facilitators in most major industrialized nations and regions, and has delivered training in over 50 different countries. To minimize costs, we typically deliver face-to-face workshops in your local corporate facility or at a local off-site conference facility.

  Live coaching webinars are usually run on Teams and require an internet connection. Video-on is preferred for better interaction. Digital program components delivered via the Carli® app (desktop or mobile) require an internet connection.

  Workshops and webinars are led in the local business language of the participants by a facilitator who speaks the local language and is familiar with the local culture.

  Program materials, including presentation slide decks, videos, printed and electronic materials are provided in English by default. Complete or partial translations are available for programs at an additional cost.

• How is the program supported with technology?

  Program participants may use our customized Carli® app, currently supported by a Training Industry Top 20 platform company. Participants can view their training program progress, access e-learning modules and other learning resources, select their webinar sessions and access other features via desktop and mobile app (iPhone and Android). If deployed for your program, access is included for at least six months.

  After completing a training program, alumni are invited to access MyGPT, a digital hub where they will find helpful support tools, reminder cards, articles of interest, videos, special events and other helpful resources to keep their knowledge at their fingertips and their skills current.

• How do you handle training logistics?

  Global Partners Training is equipped to handle complete program management for training on a global basis, from booking training venues and scheduling to emailing invitations and reminders. We strive to work seamlessly with your in-house resources, corporate university and travel department to keep costs to a minimum and enable the best training experiences for participants.

• What does Global Partners Training do to make sure the training works?

  To heighten your chances of training success, Global Partners Training maintains rigorous certification standards — a combination of program attendance, demonstration of skills, completion of key exercises and oral presentation of a final written case report. While certification will feel like a real achievement for your individual participants who earn it, and they will proudly display their colorful certificate, we at Global Partners Training focus intently on Certification Rate as the ultimate quality metric for our own team’s performance.

  Relationship training is often more difficult and uncomfortable for participants than technical training, and our programs may involve many steps. If participants are getting certified at a high rate, we can be sure our facilitators have connected well with your participants, encouraged them to follow through on attendance and assignments and drawn out their best efforts. We can also be confident that participants have not only learned new knowledge and new skills, but that they are actively applying those skills on the job, and your company is getting the promised benefits of your training program.

  Our clients also have a role in quality training. We have found that an important key to participant engagement and high certification rate is top management and local day-to-day supervisory support for the program, and we will encourage you to help us build that support and accountability network, so everybody wins.

• How will we know the training is working?

  Global Partners Training is an innovator when it comes to ensuring skill adoption and achievement of desired business outcomes. For more information, please check out our web page on Validated Behavior Change.

  After each training program, we will hold an executive briefing with you to discuss the results of the program, including evaluations from the participants, skill adoption progress (e.g., how frequently participants are taking desired actions) and qualitative and quantitative business outcomes (e.g., reduced escalations, new revenue opportunities, favorable comments from customers, etc.).

• How much does the program cost?

  Global Partners Training strives to keep your total program cost as low as possible while delivering a complete, transformative program that yields business value far exceeding the cost of the training.

  We will work with you to find a program length and format that fits your budget and training schedule. Fees are quoted after initial consultations to understand your program goals and requirements.

• Why should my company invest in a service training program?

  Clients invest in service training programs for many different strategic and tactical reasons, among them:

  To build on your service strengths to differentiate from competitors.

  To align your service offerings with your customers’ goals as part of a customer success, servitization or XaaS strategy.

  To bring freshness and global consistency to your service language, culture and brand.

  To develop a permanent source of new revenue from your service operations.

  To better align your marketing, sales, product and service teams by adopting internal and external customer focus.

  And more

  We believe a customer-centric culture creates its own success, and companies in technical industries that make service training a steady strategic priority are going to be the most resilient, long-term winners.

• Why would a service-oriented program make sense for salespeople?

  While pure product innovation will always give technology companies an edge over rivals, there is an unmistakable industry trend toward moving the customer to the center of corporate missions and operations. Customers are demanding integrated solutions, and with new pay-per-use availability or value-based pricing models coming to the forefront, the initial equipment sale is no longer the end of the story for a salesperson.

  Long-term customer retention and expansion requires product, sales and service teams to understand each other and work together to serve the ultimate customer’s goals. The experiential components of the service training program in particular lead salespeople to wake up to the reality that they are members of a team with a larger purpose and show them how to dialogue effectively with the external and internal customers, clearing roadblocks to excellent customer experience and new, sustainable revenues.

• My company has training resources. Can we deliver the program in-house?

  Yes, Global Partners Training offers train-the-trainer programs with ongoing support. While most clients prefer the flexibility of a turnkey outsourced solution, in-house delivery can work when your company has experienced trainers on staff with idle bandwidth and you are ready to make a long-term commitment to a training program.

  We will certify your trainers on the program and provide ongoing support and updates to the program. Technology, e-learning and measurement systems may be included. Please contact us if you are interested in exploring this option.