Marketing Training & Mentoring FAQ

Why tailored training?

• Because everyone’s different. SharpEdge Marketing’s training programme is totally flexible, providing an opportunity for you to give your staff the marketing training that’s exactly right for them and you – exactly the right topics, at exactly the right level.
• Because it will save you time and money. Some training courses can be expensive and take your staff away from the office for too long. But SharpEdge Marketing will come to your offices, and deliver training for half a day at a time. That means no travel and overnight costs for your staff, and they can carry on with their jobs before and after the training. Your staff get personalised training with minimum disruption to your business.
• Because it’s all about your business. Tailoring training to your staff means they learn the information and skills that relate to your business – not just theory. Your business is the working case study. Your staff will learn to think differently about your business, so they can make a difference.
• Because you get follow-up. To make sure your staff are fully supported and getting the full benefit from what they have learned, SharpEdge Marketing offers ongoing marketing mentoring, so your staff have an experienced marketing professional as a guide for several months after the training has finished.

Who’s the training designed for?

Anyone in your business who wants to find out more about how marketing works, and how they can apply it. Typical staff might be:

• PAs or sales administrators who know little or nothing about marketing and want to develop into a marketing role, or add some marketing work into their job;
• Junior marketers, such as marketing administrators or marketing assistants, possibly new graduates, who already know something about marketing, but want to learn more about marketing theory, or better marketing practice;
• Mid-level marketing executives and managers, probably graduates with a couple of years’ marketing experience, who need to develop better skills for managing and developing marketing in the business.

What’s the content of the training?

There are a series of standard modules to choose from (46 at present – contact us for a list of current titles), pitched at three levels: Foundation, Development and Advanced.  The training can comprise a selection of modules from any level, depending on the trainee’s level of knowledge and exactly what they need to know.  Do remember though that the programme can cover other areas, if you particularly require them to be included. That’s the beauty of tailored training.

There are “How to” modules too, covering topics such as “How to manage a database”, and “How to improve your copywriting”.  These can be run as separate, stand-alone training sessions if required.

How does tailored training & mentoring work?

It’s a five stage process.

• A meeting with you to find out what you want to achieve by training your staff.
• An initial meeting with the person or team you want to be trained, to assess their current level/s of knowledge and discuss the training programme.
• Development of a training programme to meet objectives, pitched at the right level.
• Delivery of the training programme in-house.
• Ongoing mentoring, if required, for as long as agreed.

How long will it take?

As long as we agree is needed. But typically, after a first meeting with you, there’ll be a three-hour meeting with the trainees (followed by a piece of homework which they’ll need to complete to start the process). After that, the content will be delivered over four three-hour sessions, over two weeks.
Mentoring is ongoing follow-up, to make sure the trainees are using what they’ve learnt, and to give them the opportunity to ask questions and receive practical guidance. Typically this will include a two-hour session once a month for four to six months after the end of the training.

How do we get started?

Simply contact SharpEdge Marketing to arrange an initial meeting – there’s no charge and no obligation to go ahead.