Let’s say you have a stellar idea for a training program you could market. Perhaps it’s a unique skill or knowledge you’ve learned that you’d like to pass along to others. No matter how good your idea is — unless it’s designed and delivered well — could easily flop!

Here are 5 steps for designing fun, successful training programs:

The primary question to ask yourself here is: What do you want participants to be able to do after the training that they can’t do now? This question may seem self-evident, but don’t skip over it. Write out the answer to this question clearly.

Another way to put this is from the standpoint of the participant: What do I have to gain from going through this training? Clearly define the goals of the training and as you do so, move on to the second step.

Training objectives quantify the goals of the training. By their very nature, they should speak to your customers’ pain and pleasure, and as such, you can use them in marketing your training.

As an example, training objectives for making crepes might look something like the following. (Note that the training objectives each begin with an action verb and describe a process integral to making the world’s best crepes.)

Make the World’s Best Crepes Training! On completion of this training you will be able to:

a. Select the best pan for making crepes.
b. Know how to prepare the pan to receive the batter.
c. Select, measure and blend the proper ingredients.
d. Determine when the pan is hot enough to cook crepes.
e. Know how much batter to pour into the pan.
f. Determine when the crepe is ready to flip.
g. Garnish your crepes in a variety of delicious presentations.

Using the above example, “Make the World’s Best Crepe Training,” the most effective way to conduct this training would be with a small group in a kitchen. During the training, participants would watch the facilitator perform a step, then mimic that step on their own. During the process, the facilitator can coach and make adjustments to what the participants are doing. This is by far the most effective method for conducting this training but definitely not the most efficient, especially if you’re trying to teach hundreds or thousands of participants.

Perhaps the next most effective method of delivery would be a video in which the facilitator demonstrates and discusses the steps for making crepes. This method can still work, but it lacks the hands-on element of the first approach. However, what it lacks in effectiveness it gains in efficiency as hundreds and thousands can watch a video in their own home simultaneously.

A third delivery method would be a written recipe card. This method is also high in efficiency, but low in effectiveness. This written approach will focus more on the ingredients and the mechanical process and less on the finesse of cooking.

For your training, you’ll want to figure out which delivery method provides optimum effectiveness and efficiency. You don’t want to sacrifice benefit to the participants for the sake of your efficiency.

Adults learn by doing. Few facilitators are good enough at what they do to keep an audience engaged with a straight lecture. But keeping the audience engaged and entertained is not the same as training them. Appropriate projects, exercises, and assignments not only help keep your audience engaged, but more importantly, they help them learn.

For instance, if you were conducting the “Making the World’s Best Crepes” training via video, you could have the participants pause the video at key points and have them actually perform the steps you just demonstrated. Another exercise you might have them do offline is to decide whether they want to make sweet or savory crepes and to pick three different fillings they’ll prepare for serving their crepes.

Exercises, projects or assignments should always be directly associated with the learning objectives. You can be very creative in designing these. Make them fun and interesting!

The tendency is to skip this step. We’ve designed our training and are all excited about delivering it. We just want to launch! But without a trial-run of the training, we really don’t know if it will work. We think it’s effective, but will the participants learn? Will the training actually work? There’s no way of knowing without first trying it.

Both during and after the trial-run, take notes of any changes you need to make to the training before you take it live.

Offering great training requires a clean process. These 5 steps provide a template for designing killer training that gets results.

If you want to get your training into the hands of people who want to pay you for your knowledge, then use these 6 marketing secrets to get started.