Imagine this – you’ve just successfully rolled out a branding package. Your employees are donning newly minted regalia, your leaders have memorized their talking points and your website features a refreshed mission statement. Your inclination may be to revel in your well-earned success, but the work of brand management is only just beginning. The reality is that people have short attention spans. New language stays top of mind for a while. Inevitably, some of your ambassadors will revert to deeply rooted past messages or start to morph their talking points into unapproved iterations. And at the same time, the world around you shifts, mandating adjustments and additions to your messaging. That’s why consistent, recurring ambassador training is critical to brand management. 

What is ambassador training?

I’ll start by defining the term ambassador. Anyone who represents your organization is an ambassador. From the receptionists who greet people upon check-in to the CEO who presents to your board of directors, anyone who speaks on behalf of your organization is an ambassador. Ambassador training equips each group of people with strategies and messages to use when interacting with your constituents. These trainings are targeted and specific to a person’s role within the company. How you train your client-facing employees differs from the ambassador training you do for your marketing and media departments. They are all critical in creating a cohesive and well-constructed brand package. 

What should my ambassadors take away from training?

Everyone who completes ambassador training should walk away with three key things: 

1. A firm understanding of how to speak about the company. 
2. Strategies to right-track conversations when they take a turn.
3. Confidence that their role is integral to the company’s overall brand. 

You have to strike a delicate instructive balance. If you are too forceful in your brand positioning and messaging guidelines, you may create unnecessary stress and worry. If you’re too soft, your audience won’t walk away understanding the importance of staying on message. Ambassador training should focus on empowerment – your team knows your company best. Aligning their experience with specific messages and strategies should only make their job easier. 

Why should I repeat ambassador training and how regularly should I do it?

Ambassador training is not a one-time class to check off the list. It should be part of your regular cadence and structure. First, your company is likely on- and off-boarding team members regularly. As new people join your ranks, they need to be ambassador-trained. Depending on the timing, individual training may work best. But bringing everyone into the presentation may be helpful if a few people enter a department simultaneously and it’s been a while since your last training session. Messaging should also evolve as your community’s conditions change. Staying firm in your mission and values is essential, but you shouldn’t be so rigid that you can’t reflexively adjust when the circumstances dictate change. As your market conditions and position fluctuate, as you integrate new products and services, or when your leadership starts moving in a new direction, bringing the team together to retrain is essential. That’s all to say that there is no set frequency at which you should conduct ambassador training. Some organizations may benefit from a monthly reminder in staff meetings, while others can integrate sessions into their annual retreats. The critical thing to remember is that ambassador training is an ongoing process – not something you can check off the list and move past. 

Building meaningful and helpful ambassador training sessions is part of what we do every day at Obsidian. Having an outsider develop your training can be especially helpful – sometimes, a message relayed from an unbiased third-party observer can carry more weight. If you need help starting the process, we can certainly help.