How promotional agencies respond to the growing requirements
Experiences from practical work
Specific training programs for promotional staff are essential for the success of any kind of promotional activity. During each promotional campaign, the staff represents the advertised products, they are their business card and become the face of the brand for the consumers.
The obligation of the staff member is to make a convincing impression and be committed to their work even though it might be the first time he or she works for this product. However, the challenge is to ensure a good performance towards the target group which is only possible to achieve if the staff members feel comfortable and are well prepared. This means two elements are crucial to achieve the best performance. The selected stuff must fit to the product and he or she must be well informed and prepared for all situations that might occur during the activation.
Paying attention to these factors pay off since they have an important impact on the success of the activation and they ensure a perfect implementation of the planed campaign. It is one of the essential tasks of a professional promotion agency. Because of that and due to the fact that the responsible for the campaigns have constantly growing expectations, in our field marketing agency we include at least half an hour of training time for every assignment and define the perfectly fitting training concept together with our customers after the promotional concept has been defined.
Our nationwide acting shopper marketing agency cooperates with regional supervisor for 10 staff pools to ensure that the recruiting, the arrangement of details on site and the training is done in the manner that is expected. This way of working puts us in the position to have a perfect flow of communication and the promotional staff can relate to a direct contact person.
Each campaign requires individual preparation and we need to pick the fitting training concept for it. Depending on the demands of the campaign we pick or combine the following training modules:
Short training on the day of the event
The promotional staff will be trained by an employee at the location of the promotional activity. In advance, the regional supervisor discusses the campaign procedures with the promotional staff and describes the goals of the event. So that the staff who arrives a the location is already well prepared and only needs to get some further information on-site to do a perfect performance in his job.
Training materials
For most campaigns, we develop training materials in accordance to the individual demands and facts, which are used for personal trainings by the supervisor. Here our clients can rely on a longstanding and proved structure that will be used to obtain successful training materials. They will be used as a base for face-to-face trainings of the promotional staff.
Face-to-face training
…with supervisors: If you want to establish the regional supervisors as a experts for a campaign who will be able to pass on training content to the promotional staff it does make sense to get these experts together and train them intensively at a central point. The training material for these supervisor trainings is also be conducted by the agency. Sometimes it is advisable to record training content at this occasion and use it in the further process.
…with promotional staffing: Such a training day for all members of the campaign or at least for a regional group is advisable for campaigns in which we focus on having lots of experts at the same time. For the brand manager it is a good chance to get to know the brand ambassadors and to motivate them for the upcoming event in a very intense way. The training materials for these trainings are again conducted by the agency. This might be also an occasion that is advisable to record and use it in the further process.
The organisation of such trainings is part of our daily work. The follow-up work and the preparation of the training documents is also part of our agency’s service
Face-to-face online training
In nowadays it is very important to have the opportunity to do the trainings online also. For this a conference call underlined by using video is a perfect alternative to a personal meeting. Besides, the video conference can also be recorded and used for any (follow-up) training that may be required.
Training video
Of course, a training video with all the necessary information can be produced and made available to the staff members. For this purpose, all important information and materials are recorded in a video documentation and put into context.
All training modules are accompanied by many quality assurance measures such as online questionnaires to review all important facts or phone calls right before the start of the campaign to repeat difficult training massages.
The decision of how to select the right training module is determent by the expectations of the brand manager as well as the need for explanation of the corresponding products/services and the concept of the campaign itself. We are happy to assist you with preparing the right modules and by this form the base for conducting a successful campaign.