I was watching a marketing video this afternoon. The speaker (Rich Schefren) talked about three styles of marketing: Make and sell, Sense and respond and Anticipate and preempt.

His point was that Make and sell was the old model; sense and respond the "current" model and anticipate and preempt the "new way" (I am grossly oversimplifying).

I saw this as a reflection of the way training, or WLP in general has worked: in the old days we made a training course because we though people wanted it or because we thought they should. Then we did needs analysis to see what they really needed and responded with some sort of intervention. Those to accurately reflect what we've done as an industry. So if "anticipate and preempt" is the new way for marketing, how do we apply it to training?

My thought is that we need to work to figure out what our customers (in-house or outside) will need and preempt that need. It goes beyond needs analysis, it is needs anticipation. We would need to know our customers very well, though. We'd need to know our business segments well. We'd need to know the marketplace well and the individuals well. (Oh, and I'm not saying, "gosh Micorsoft just came out with xyz, I guess we might be using it so we'll add it to the 50 other Microsoft classes we have.)

Do you know an individual or organization that is doing a good job at this, or is it uncharted waters?

--john

Oh, BTW, the video is excerpts from a talk he give. Here is the link http://www.strategicprofits.com/strategy/the-rumors-are...ew-report-is-coming/ [I put it in raw on purpose.] I'm a client of Rich's: he's taught me a lot.

quote:

Do you know an individual or organization that is doing a good job at this, or is it uncharted waters?

Absolutely, yes. A seven-year old renewable energy company in Seattle excels at this. They have anticipated what the utilities, the goverment, and individuals will want and need when it comes to wind, solar, and hydrologic energy - they are miles ahead of the curve. They have anticipated what type training will be needed and got the ball rolling right away. They anticipated the hardware requirements and its associated complexities. The only downside I see at the moment is that the quality of the product itself suffers. Scientists are not allowed to work the bugs out of the programs - it takes too long. The company does not seem to mind sacrificing the quality. The scientists do - but they end up leaving sooner or later - so there's a turnover problem there. Seven years later, they are still King. It works for the time being. But the question is, how long will it work?

As for training adopting the anticipation and preempt strategy, I think ASTD does a very good job of handling that for us - in a general sense. It has always been a necessity for consultants to do this, so I see nothing new about it. To expect training departments to have the time to intimately know the market, etc., and anticipate what it will be, and what is needed, and be expected to deliver it, is going a little far. I don't see them ever getting good at it. The average company is still in the reactionary mode, not only when it comes to training, but everything else. Do you think anyone in the run-of-the-mill organization would listen to trainers about what the future needs are?? I can't imagine it. They will believe consultants, but I doubt the internal people will have much luck - only increased frustration - just being realistic about it.

P.S. When it comes to marketing videos: it's Buyer Beware. I saw nothing new in that video. But then I only watched 3/4 of it - too boring.

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