Eps 31 - Directing Facebook training around the world

From a Harvard University Bedroom to a $511.44 Billion dollar business with 2.32 Billion monthly active users, Facebook has reached unprecedented heights in only 15 years. Why is this relevant? Today’s guest is Jeff Turner, International L&D Director with responsibility for all learning & people development outside of North America. Jeff tells us of the lessons he’s learned in developing people at one of the most iconic brands on earth and (exclusive) what he’s about to do next…. can you guess? Ask for referral The perceived kudos of being a supplier to Mark Zuckerberg’s company means, that there is no shortage of vendors trying to get a foot in the door.  As a training business owner, how easy is it for you (or your team) to get time with someone like Jeff? What Jeff recommends (when seeking the attention of people like him) is to leverage the power of referral. That means using your network strategically to get an introduction through a mutual contact. TIP – listen to Andy Lopata (Eps 3) explaining why referral is so powerful and why he wrote a best-selling book on the subject. So, when seeking an opportunity to present your training business credentials to prospects, it sometimes makes sense to take the indirect path and let someone else point out why you are worth meeting. Dr. Robert Cialdini refers to this as the principle of Pre-Suasion. Have you given any thought to how you can ‘pre-suade’ your target decision-maker through referral? Get out there I’m a big fan of Billions, the US cable tv series from Showtime starring Damian Lewis and Paul Giamatti. In a recent episode of series 4, Bobby Axelrod’s (played by Lewis) hedge fund sustained a massive cyber attack which took the company’s network and entire phone system offline. Absolutely no one could trade and the business was about to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in a single day… [But that wasn’t the worse thing...]: None of the young, but brilliant traders had any connection to the people they bought and sold from…. They didn’t know their phone numbers and couldn’t call them because they had never met them. They didn’t even know what they looked like! They had no relationship to fall back on when they needed help.  In this day and age of Facebook, Jeff knows that his network (not his ‘likes’) will make or break his new training business as he leaves the corporate world to go out on his own. So, he gets out there and meets people, builds connections and puts a face to his name. Jeff’s launch won’t be a landing page or a video. It will be a real live event with real live people who can meet him, listen to him and get to know the person they’re buying before they ever buy his brand. Question: What’s your strategy to get out there and meet your buyer face-to-face? Biggest takeaways you don’t want to miss:  How Jeff got from sales trainer to directing facebook L&D worldwide How to get the attention of corporate L&D managers when selling your training Why Jeff feels that L&D deserves a place at the strategic level Why workshops alone are not the way to fix impactful leadership problems How Jeff feels about leaving a salary and security to venture out on his own How Jeff plans to market his business to his ideal customers Some helpful resources for you mytformation– Jeff’s new training business website [IRL] eventbrite– Jeff’s launch event ‘Challenging Team Dynamics’ in Dublin [IRL] linkedIn– Jeff’s professional profile on LinkedIn newsroom – Facebook’s newsroom page with up-to-date business statistics