Trainer Dunja Schenk Reveals in the Interview how She Achieved This
From fully booked to empty – Covid brought the further education market to a standstill in the last year in no time. Like many other trainers, Dunja Schenk was hit by the effects of the pandemic. She has been working as an independent trainer for 10 years and had to adapt to the changed conditions – with great success! Despite Corona, she managed to be practically fully booked again. In the interview, she revealed to us how individual trainers can achieve this, which formats she uses, and how she convinces her clients.
How did you experience the beginning of the pandemic?
For me, it started like it did for many others. When the lockdown was announced on Friday, March 13, 2020, and my phone rang almost non-stop in the afternoon because clients were canceling their training sessions, I was deeply shocked and initially fell into a hole. Up until then, I had been a 95 percent analog live trainer. Suddenly, my kids were at home, my husband was working from home, and everything turned 180 degrees. I had to let that sink in first.
From suddenly being unbooked in March 2020, you are now, a good year later, fully booked again. March 2021 was the most profitable month of your career so far. How did you manage that? What steps did you take to get there?
After the initial shock, I sat down and learned a lot. Even though I had been quite active in the digital world before, I first looked at various video conferencing tools (I think I checked out up to 16 different ones, as many different tools were used by my clients too). I wanted to know exactly how everything worked. Besides, I also tested various whiteboard tools. I invested the time when I was practically unemployed in my further education. Both in the digital field and in didactics, because I had to figure out how to convert my existing seminar concepts into online formats.
My learning was: everything is possible, you just have to do it differently. In my mind, I had to break down barriers from “I can only conduct a stress competence or resilience seminar in person” to “this can also be done online – but differently.”
Another important point was analyzing the problems of the clients. What are their challenges in this situation? It quickly became clear: it’s about efficiency and organization in the home office, virtual leadership, virtual team meetings, the use of collaboration tools, or stress management in times of Corona, etc. This resulted in completely new topics landing on the agenda. Through my research, I was usually one step ahead of my clients here and could offer them support in their challenges with Zoom and Co. The demand was and still is huge in this area.
We at persolog also notice that there is still a need for learning about Zoom and Co. Many have initially waited for everything to “normalize” back to the state before the crisis and now realize that it’s not happening.
Yes, I also initially experienced a wait-and-see attitude among my clients, but eventually, the question arose as to how long we should continue to postpone booked face-to-face seminars. From autumn 2020, many clients contacted me to change the appointment to an online format. Many clients have also already announced that they will continue to use online formats even after the pandemic. I believe we trainers have to convince customers that many topics also work online and that it takes openness to try new things. It is important to find new solutions together.
What seminars do you offer and how has that changed?
Before Covid, I offered 1-day training sessions 80 percent of the time, with the smaller part being 2- or 3-day training sessions. Shorter seminars (e.g., half-day seminars) were practically non-existent. Travel times also had to be planned sensibly. That has now changed completely, towards shorter online training sessions of 2-3 hours. Whole or multiple days, on the other hand, are becoming less common. Many clients are concerned whether a whole day online might still be too exhausting. Therefore, I now divide the training sessions into smaller sections or offer blended learning formats right away. This has worked very well. This also attracted completely new participants who I hadn’t had before.
What does blended learning look like for you?
For the assistant area (where I originally come from), I have developed a blended learning on the topic of “Digital Office.” The training consists of one or more preliminary videos, a live online part, suitable blog articles, homework or challenges via email in between, self-developed content, and a one-hour follow-up workshop for reflection. I like to call it a learning journey. It is well received because it is more sustainable for the participants, as the learning is spread over a longer period, and the seminar group is in exchange for a longer time.
How do the prices differ, and how do you manage the scheduling?
Even though I have heard from trainer colleagues that online formats are seen as “less valuable” by customers and they want to pay less for them, I have fortunately not experienced that so far. So far, I have been able to maintain my daily rates for online formats compared to face-to-face training sessions with my clients. As travel times are eliminated, the client saves money at this point, and I save time. If I used to work for a client for a day before, it now happens that I give training to client A in the morning and to client B in the afternoon. Added up, I earn practically the same or usually more in one day, because the half-day rate is usually a little more than 50% of the daily rate. However, due to the shorter time slots, I also have more administrative effort and more pre- and post-processing. Therefore, I try to schedule similar topics for one day. However, I also love variety, so it works for me even if there are different topics on one day.
How far in advance do your clients book a training?
Before, it was often clear in January what I would do in December, and there wasn’t much leeway. That changed extremely last year, and suddenly clients asked if I had time next week. The reason was surely the great uncertainty among companies last year. In the meantime, the planning is becoming a bit more long-term again, and the requests come about 2 to 3 months in advance. Many stick to the online format, even if more face-to-face is possible again. I am fully booked until the end of September, but the rest of the calendar year only has a few small gaps. If cancellations come, I can often fill these times elsewhere now. Overall, everything has become more last-minute.
How do you convince skeptical clients to book online seminars?
Since until recently hardly anything else was possible, I didn’t have to convince much. Otherwise, I suggest that we do a small test in the form of a 2-3 hour training session or a short, interactive online lecture and wait for the participants’ feedback. If the participants are satisfied, we do further sessions. I have actually been able to win customers, whom I myself was skeptical about beforehand whether an online training would work at all.
