Training Firm Uses Innovative Marketing and High Customer Satisfaction to Drive Revenue

OverviewCountry or Region: United StatesIndustry: Professional services—Training

Partner ProfileGlobal Knowledge provides IT and business-skills training in training centers, private facilities, and online. Based in Cary, North Carolina, it has 1,300 employees around the globe.

Business SituationGlobal Knowledge, a Microsoft partner with a Gold Learning competency, wanted to increase its Microsoft revenue and win industry recognition to drive increased market share.

SolutionGlobal Knowledge developed a proprietary marketing methodology called Target, Acquire, Personalize (TAP) and worked to retain existing customers through maintaining high levels of customer satisfaction.

Benefits Cost-effective targeted leads Recognition through industry awards Increased revenue Industry-leading customer satisfaction

“We’ve succeeded each year, with double-digit growth in Microsoft training—even during the recession.”

Andy Wright, Director of Product Marketing, Global Knowledge

Global Knowledge, an international IT and business-skills training company, is a Microsoft partner with a Gold Learning competency. To increase its Microsoft training revenue, Global Knowledge wanted to improve its marketing and focus on customer satisfaction. It developed a unique marketing methodology to target potential customers with personalized messages. It meets customer needs through hands-on training using the largest instructor pool in the industry. Global Knowledge marketing efforts, which result in a cost per lead that is less than 20 percent of the industry average, won the 2011 Microsoft Marketing Innovation Partner of the Year award. The company has achieved double-digit growth in Microsoft training revenue every year since 2007. Global Knowledge continues to increase its high rate of customer satisfaction: 92 percent of its Microsoft students would recommend its training.

SituationGlobal Knowledge is an international company that provides training in IT and business skills. Incorporated in 1995, Global Knowledge has 1,300 employees in 16 countries and affiliate partnerships in 7 other countries. The company is headquartered in Cary, North Carolina, and is owned by the New York–based investment firm MidOcean Partners.

“The IT training space is a very fragmented marketplace, with numerous players of varying sizes,” says Andy Wright, Director of Product Marketing at Global Knowledge. Some companies focus on a particular technology partner or region, but Global Knowledge works with multiple vendors in many geographies.

Global Knowledge is a Microsoft partner with a Gold Learning competency. When the company achieved that certification in 2007, it set three goals. “One was to achieve double-digit growth in Microsoft training revenue each and every year,” says Wright. “Another was to win a Microsoft Partner of the Year award. A third, longer-term goal was to be the number-one Microsoft Learning Solutions partner in terms of market share in both the United States and the world.”

To achieve the growth these goals represented, Global Knowledge decided to modify traditional marketing tactics for building brand awareness, generating cost-effective qualified leads, and driving meaningful response from targets.

Growth would also depend on meeting customer needs. Global Knowledge has found that its customers generally need to

know how to effectively plan for, implement, and manage a range of technologies despite limited resources and tight budgets. “I’ve never worked with a customer who said that its IT budget was too big,” Wright says. “When our customers invest in a new technology, they have to do it right. If a deployment schedule slips by two months because they underestimated the resources required or started to configure software incorrectly, that’s a big problem. That’s why training is so important—especially for IT professionals, such as network engineers, system administrators, and trainers who will train the end users.”

In short, to achieve its goals, Global Knowledge had to both attract new customers through marketing and retain existing ones by maintaining high levels of customer satisfaction.

SolutionTo improve its marketing, Global Knowledge developed a proprietary marketing methodology called Target, Acquire, Personalize (TAP). In the targeting step, TAP builds Global Knowledge brand awareness by syndicating content across a large network of partners. TAP also uses paid and organic search engine methods, including many search engine optimization (SEO) techniques and web partnerships. “We use a complete marketing mix—including white papers, webinars, seminars, and event marketing—to meet people and learn about their needs,” Wright says. “We’re continually casting our net, and we focus on targeting the right audience with the right message.”

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In the acquisition step, Global Knowledge seeks to own leads, rather than merely renting names. The TAP methodology guides potential customers to “self-qualify” by providing areas of personal interest that can guide future interactions. Global Knowledge also uses an outside call center to further develop its leads. “We seek a personalized approach to lead acquisition and lead development and qualification,” Wright says. “We’ve seen that providing information that is of interest to the customer makes for a more meaningful and effective response.”

In the personalization step, integrated sales and marketing efforts reach out to prospects based on their desired type of instruction, location, industry, and other preferences. For example, the marketing department delivers email messages to customers on behalf of their territory sales representatives.

The TAP methodology, with more than 20 million outgoing marketing “touches” per year, drives a continuous stream of prospects, generating hundreds of thousands of new contacts per year. Previous buyers are also targeted. Beginning in 2010, Global Knowledge and Microsoft launched a regionally focused TAP initiative specifically focused on Microsoft training.

Long-term success, however, requires not just effective marketing but also meeting customer needs. Global Knowledge regularly monitors customer satisfaction by conducting its own quarterly surveys. “In a nationwide survey in September 2011, we found that the two most important things customers are looking for in Microsoft

training are high-quality instructors and the ability to increase skill base through hands-on training,” Wright says.

Global Knowledge meets those needs by providing the largest pool of instructors in the industry and the most Microsoft-certified instructors of any Microsoft training partner. Its large, highly qualified staff and its global presence mean that it can provide scalable and consistent training solutions for companies regardless of location. “We offer an extraordinary training experience because our instructors are also consultants,” Wright says. “They spend some of their time off-podium, independently engaged with Fortune 1000 clients. So they can bring to the classroom not only a knowledge of Microsoft products, but also real-world case studies along with tips and tricks that they have used in hands-on work.”

Furthermore, Global Knowledge invests in its own curriculum development team. “We have subject matter experts who actually write content,” says Wright. “So we can offer not only official Microsoft courseware, but also additional curriculum to meet customers’ particular needs.” These needs may involve specific uses or combinations of software, or training on new products for which Microsoft has yet to release an official curriculum. In fact, sometimes Global Knowledge provides Microsoft with curriculum that becomes official content shared with other partners.

In other words, Global Knowledge sees the partnership with Microsoft as mutually beneficial. “We get official content that is endorsed by Microsoft, which puts some

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“We have the highest customer satisfaction in the industry: 92 percent of our Microsoft students are willing to recommend Global Knowledge to a colleague.”

Andy Wright, Director of Product Marketing, Global Knowledge

customers at ease right away,” Wright says. “We also get direct access to new technologies. And we provide feedback and insight to Microsoft about curriculum development and what we’re experiencing with customers around the globe.”

The partnership not only helps customers by providing top-notch training, it can also reduce overall costs. “We can help our customers make the most of their Microsoft investments, providing training through Software Assurance Training Vouchers,” Wright says. These vouchers, offered as part of the Microsoft Volume Licensing program, pay for training in a new technology. He says, “Microsoft provides these vouchers because it understands that the biggest factor in the success of an IT solution is the skill of the managing team. And these vouchers cannot be used with ‘gray-market’ training companies that are not certified by Microsoft.”

Global Knowledge also has program managers who can work with large customer organizations to handle the administrative complications of training numerous people. “We can do a skill-gap analysis, develop a training plan customized for large clients, and then administer that plan,” Wright says. “That can relieve many of their headaches.”

BenefitsGlobal Knowledge has used its marketing methodology to generate cost-effective, targeted leads and win a Microsoft award. By seeking to meet customer needs, it has dramatically increased its revenue and maintained outstanding levels of customer satisfaction.

Cost-Effective Targeted LeadsThe TAP marketing methodology provides Global Knowledge with meaningful leads at reasonable costs. “We have a cost per lead that is less than 20 percent of the typical industry average,” Wright says.

The lead-acquisition campaign elicits action from the prospect, thus increasing the usability of information in personalizing the relationship. “Over time, we develop a personalized relationship that provides value-added services to our prospects and customers,” Wright says.

Recognition Through Industry AwardsIn June 2011, Global Knowledge received the Marketing Innovation Partner of the Year award from Microsoft. Walid Abu-Hadba, Corporate Vice President of the Developer and Platform Evangelism Group at Microsoft, says, “Reaching into new markets to grow its base of trainees, Global Knowledge has significantly increased training market share for official Microsoft learning products as well as adoption of advanced Microsoft products.”

The Microsoft award comes on top of numerous other accolades. “We’ve won the highest awards from Cisco, Red Hat, and VMware,” Wright says. “And we’ve been recognized by the readers of Redmond magazine for eight consecutive years as having the best Microsoft training in the industry. But I’d always wanted the big one from Microsoft. I’m particularly pleased with this Partner of the Year award.”

Increased Revenue The company’s efforts have resulted in outstanding year-over-year revenue

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“The size, experience, and quality of Global Knowledge lower the risk for clients. They lower the possibility of failure in new technology deployment.”

Andy Wright, Director of Product Marketing, Global Knowledge

growth. Wright says, “We’ve succeeded each year, with double-digit growth in Microsoft training—even during the recession.” The company is thus making steady progress toward its long-term goal of being the domestic and global market-share leader.

Industry-Leading Customer SatisfactionGlobal Knowledge is perhaps most pleased with the reactions of its customers. “We have the highest customer satisfaction in the industry: 92 percent of our Microsoft students are willing to recommend Global Knowledge to a colleague,” says Wright. “Furthermore, 98 percent would take another course from Global Knowledge, and 90 percent say that they got at least a 20-percent boost in their job performance as a result of the training.”

It is not only the students but also their supervisors who are satisfied. “There is an inherent risk to any company in selecting a training provider,” Wright says. “But the size, experience, and quality of Global Knowledge reduce the risk for clients. They lower the possibility of failure in new technology deployment.”

Thus Wright is particularly pleased that Global Knowledge customer satisfaction is highest in the industry, and rising. “Our overall customer satisfaction rates are 11 points higher than New Horizons and 15 points higher than Learning Tree,” Wright says. “And our scores on these independent evaluations—including overall customer satisfaction with Microsoft training—have increased year over year.”

Microsoft LearningMicrosoft Learning is committed to offering certification and training that recognizes and validates real-world IT skills for IT professionals, developers and students. Return here to stay up to date on the latest news and resources for Microsoft certification and training.For more information about Microsoft Learning, go to: www.microsoft.com/learning

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For More InformationFor more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers in the United States and Canada who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:www.microsoft.com

For more information about Global Knowledge products and services, call (919) 461-8600 or visit the website at:www.globalknowledge.com

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Document published January 2012

Software and Services Microsoft Programs and Practices− Learning Solutions Competency