Finding the Right Training Company Series  

Part 2: Creating Your Shortlist 

Finding the right training company can be a project in its own right. Apart from the complexity of a rapidly expanding market, most stakeholders understand the inevitable risks of trying a new vendor or training consultant. In Part 1: Knowing Your Needs and Your Options, we summarized the rapid growth of the corporate learning market in recent years and suggested two steps to getting started. 

Now, it’s time to create a working shortlist of training companies. The goal of the shortlist is one of curation. It’s simply impractical to do a detailed analysis of the entire market. 

What happens without a shortlist? That depends on your market knowledge. There are a few pitfalls to avoid:  

• Setting a numerical target. Some will begin with a goal of sending out an inquiry or request for proposal to a certain number of vendors (procurement or precedent may dictate a need for a specific number of bids). The problem with the numerical target is that sending inquiries to training companies or training consulting firms that are not a good match will create unnecessary work for you and for those firms.  
• Trial and error. Another very common approach is best characterized as trial and error. You always want to be agile and open to revising your process, but without a good shortlist to start, you may be creating a lot of downstream stress. You might start with one set of vendors. Then, as those vendors begin to respond, you can tell that you’re missing something, so you reach out to other vendors. Meanwhile, time is passing and, if you have a deadline, you’re soon bumping up against it. In extreme cases, you may be reaching out to potential partners with only a few days or hours before the deadline. Some of those vendors will hustle to get in a response, but the solution they pitch may not represent their best work.  
• Insufficient or high-level comparison. With an apples-and-oranges list of training companies to compare, the analysis is only surface level. They may not offer the same categories of solutions, they may differ in terms of the industries with which they work, or they may have entirely different business models. By creating a shortlist based on more detailed decision criteria, you can then do more detailed analysis.  

These pitfalls are avoidable if you define your decision criteria and create a shortlist that aligns as closely as possible. Those are the next two steps in finding the right training company (we’ll pick up from where we left off in part 1). 

Step 3: Revise preliminary decision criteria and review with decision-makers 

• Will you need a guide to help you answer the questions on this list? If so, consider working with an expert consultant on a readiness plan.  
• What are the types of solutions that will enable you to meet the business needs you’ve already identified? 
• What are your internal capabilities to meet this need?  
• Do you need a product or a service? 
• What are the features of the product or service that you think you need? 
• Instructional features (quality, engagement, measurement) 
• Technology features (authoring, delivery, integration, data) 
• Creative media (video, graphics, branding) 
• Content or subject-matter (in-house content, commercial stock content, premium content) 
• If a service, would you expect to outsource a project or is a staffing solution best?  
• What sort of timeline and budget have you established?  

What becomes the default criteria? It’s price. In the organizational learning and development industry, price is very much connected to details of instructional approach, technology, creative media, and content. It will be very difficult to evaluate price if you haven’t determined what’s most important or if your shortlist of vendors does not understand your needs.  

Step 4: Create a shortlist to request quotes or proposals 

• Do market research using online directories, professional networks, etc. For example, you can find AllenComm on Training Industry, eLearning Industry, Brandon Hall, SHRM, and others. 
• Spend time on a prospective vendor’s website to ensure that they provide the products or services you believe that you need. For example, the AllenComm site not only describes our services but includes case studies for select projects. 
• Assess vendor reputation by looking for awards, reviews by industry analysts, and client reviews posted on 3^rd party sites. Most AllenComm reviews are posted on eLearning Industry and SHRM.  
• Conduct initial screening or discovery calls to get a sense of their responsiveness and fit, prior to requesting a quote or proposal. In as little as 20 minutes, you should be able to determine if it’s worth a longer conversation.  
• Narrow down the list based on the evaluation criteria, research, and discovery calls. 

As you follow these activities, you will inevitably learn more about what will be important in your final decision. Once you have a shortlist of training companies that is manageable for your timeline and is proportionate with your anticipated investment, you’ll want to share any updated criteria with all those who will be involved with the decision.  

Creating a well-reasoned and well-researched shortlist will strengthen the process’s credibility and set your selected vendor up for success. Of course, it also mitigates risk, can streamline downstream decision-making, and increases the likelihood that the recommendations you receive along the way will be relevant and insightful.  

What’s Next?  

Now that you have your shortlist of training companies or training consulting firms that align specifically with the needs of your organization, it’s time to engage with the suppliers on that shortlist. There are many different approaches, some of which may be mandated by your organization. In part 3 of our proposed series on Finding the Right Training Company, we’ll focus on requests for information, quotes, proposals, and other ways to engage with the firms on your shortlist.