Today’s subject is coming from Poliana who’s asking what are the most common mistakes I’ve made as a trainer?
It’s a great question and I think that everyone should ask from time to time these kind of questions, because it’s easier to learn from other people's mistakes. This way you will save a lot of time, money any resources.
First of all, a huge mistake that I’ve made it was to think that ... if a person bought my course knows me well enough to trust me as a trainer and as a human being. So in my beginnings, I didn’t present myself to my students, thinking that they know who I am as long as they showed up for my training. BIIIIG mistake. Soon I realized that most of my students were in the search for answers to their problems. They’ve decided to attend to one of my seminars not because of who I was, but because in my training add they found a possible solution to their problems.
After I’ve made this huge discovery I still refused to present myself to them, thinking that if I do so it will look like bragging and as I’m sure you’ve learned in your childhood too, nobody loves braggers. I thought that if I wrote 2 rows about myself in my training add, it was more than enough for them to know me. I was so wrong. So if you think like me, let me tell you something: people want to know you, who you are, where you come from, what were your experiences, why are you standing in front of them, what’s your story, what are your successes and, most importantly, what are you failures? Because if you are showing them or telling them only about your successes they will not relate to you. You will be like an alien. Remember, they are in your classroom, in your training to learn from you. If you did not do something wrong in your life, if you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth or if you lived your life like Mother Tereza... You will not be believable. I’m not saying that you have to have lived a crazy life like I’ve had, but I’m sure that you will find some inspiring stories about yourself that your students can relate to.
Another mistake that I’ve made was to think that I was so good that I didn’t need feedback from my students. If you allow me, I might say that I was quite arrogant, not to take in consideration the feedbacks that were given by participants, even though they were not requested.
In my early stages of my career, I did a lot of free training, with open doors, one of the main reasons being the fact that I wanted to make myself known to the audience. It was very impressive seeing from one event to another that more and more people were deciding to attend my seminars. BUT.... During those times, I made my second mistake: I didn’t ask for their names, email addresses, the name of their dog or their cat and so on... So when the time to sell my products came, it was a total disaster. I trained for free for four years. And because I did not use a CRM - a customer relationship software, It was hard to track down all the people that I’ve met throughout the years. My advice to you: set up a system to collect all their emails because in the end this is your true capital. You might be the best trainer in the world, the most qualified, with the best product, but you won’t have anyone in your list to sell to.
And speaking of selling... The third huge mistake was not to make the sell, avoiding to ask if they would want to buy my products or to attend future seminars. I thought that presenting the product and the benefits it’s enough for them to make a decision. It was very unusual for me to start telling them what my product will do for them and for their lives or, what will they lose if they won’t buy my training. I thought that since I make my own decisions easy and fast, all the people are doing the same. Nothing more further from the truth because we don’t look the same, think the same and for sure we don’t act in the same manner. In my signature program Design Your Destiny I teach my students the large variety of thinking models and the way people act upon the decision making process.
The fourth mistake was to leave money on the table. It’s an expression saying that there’s always money on the table. Perhaps you guessed, I was ashamed to do upsells or to invite people to a second seminar or a third one. I felt like I was digging deep in their pockets for their money. Soon I realized that people are the only one capable to decide to how many courses they want to go and I was doing them a great disservice not letting them know about my other seminars. If I don’t tell them about the subjects that I’m teaching about, they have no way to know. So I had the most unpleasant surprises when I realized that for subjects that I was teaching, my students were going to other trainers.
“What costs nothing, worths nothing.
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And the last but not the least was to save their feelings. To be more specific I learnt that an empathic person understands the way that people are feeling towards their own problems, whilst a nice person or you might say a sympathetic person it’s buying their problems. Well, I was NICE. TOO NICE. Up to the level where if you were asking if you could come to my seminars for free because you have so many problems and you don’t have the money to buy the course, but you want so much to come and learn from me... I would say not only to come for free to my event, but I would ask if you have the money to pay for your coffee during the coffee break. YES! I know! I was naive and foolish to buy into all the peoples problems. The thing that I’ve discovered was not the fact that some of them might profit from me. The most amazing thing was when I discovered that I was not doing them any good by treating them like this, by giving them access to my resources. Then I decided to be firm and determined in asking my price and my conditions.
Let me tell you this: what costs nothing worths nothing. And it’s so true. So I started to ask people to buy, what are the reasons they should buy, what will they lose if they won’t make the purchase and I did not «negociate» the price.
There you have it: these are the most common mistakes that I’ve made, and these are not the only ones. I’m sure that you have your own mistakes and I would love to hear about them in the comments bellow.
I hope you’ll find this article helpful and remember that we are in the industry of building people and it’s a proven fact that together we are better. So don’t forget to share this with the world!
Yours in success,
Iva Berghmann