Two sides of the table: what training providers and their buyers told us

This page brings together the findings from a study I ran in 2024, asking training providers and the L&D teams who buy from them the same questions about how they work together. What does partnership look like from each side of the table? Where do the two views meet, and where do they drift apart? Each chart below comes with a couple of questions to take into your own business – not to test yourself against, but to help you think about where you might start.

Why now

When I first ran this study, the gaps looked like an interesting mirror. Today they feel more urgent. L&D budgets are under pressure, and more of the money being invested is spent to save money rather than to solve problems. In our webinar polls linked to The Business of Training Conference with training providers between September 2025 and January 2026, finding new customers topped the list of obstacles (62%) and almost half (47%) said their customers are already asking for proof of impact above all else. AI is making many offers look the same. In that world, the providers who stand apart will probably be the ones who get closest to the real problem their customers are trying to solve, and this data points to where that starts.

About the study

81 training providers and 32 L&D buyers answered mirrored questions: providers about how they work with their customers, buyers about how their providers work with them. Both were asked about six partnership behaviours – agreeing success goals up front, linking those goals to business outcomes, collaborating to achieve them, discussing long-term business goals, sharing industry insight and introducing helpful contacts or resources – alongside how they judge a strong relationship and what gets in the way.

I have been researching how L&D and its partners create business value for more than 35 years, from founding the Towards Maturity benchmark to my work as a CIPD Academic Fellow and co-writing The L&D Leader with Michelle Ockers. This study is a small, focused addition to that work: a snapshot from both sides of the same relationship.

Reading the data with care

• This is 2024 data. I share it as a baseline to test against, not as a picture of today.
• The samples are small, particularly buyers (32), so one person moves a buyer figure by about 3 points. Read gaps of under 15 points as directions rather than precise measures.
• Respondents came through my networks and chose to take part, so they are probably more engaged with these questions than most.
• Buyers were asked about their best provider, so their answers are a best-case view.
• Where two things move together, that is an association, not proof that one causes the other.
• Two buyers who may have been providers answering the buyer survey are left out of the charts, and one duplicate provider response was removed.

What the data shows

Same relationship, two different stories

Figure 1 – Same relationship, two stories

Three quarters of providers describe their approach as mostly partnership, yet fewer than half of buyers say the same about their best provider (figure 1). The widest gap is on help beyond the sale: 77% of providers strongly agree they help clients solve problems beyond selling, against 25% of buyers. None of this is about blame. Both sides want the relationship to create value, and they are describing it from different seats.

Questions to think about:

• If you asked your three biggest clients whether you are a partner or a supplier, what do you think they would say?
• What would they point to as evidence either way?

What buyers value, what providers do, what buyers see

Figure 2 – What buyers value, what providers do and what buyers see

Figure 2 shows that the basics matter most to buyers. 69% call agreeing success goals up front invaluable, and 62% say the same of collaborating to achieve them. Around half of providers say they always agree goals up front, but only a quarter of buyers say it always happens. The biggest mismatch may be the simplest one: coming to a common understanding of what the challenge actually is.

Questions to think about:

• On your last three pieces of work, who defined the problem, and did you agree what success would look like for the business before you started?
• When a client asks for a course, what is the first question you ask about the result they need?

The generosity gap

Figure 3- The generosity gap

The widest gaps between the two sides are on the extras. 73% of providers say they often or always introduce clients to helpful contacts or resources, and 38% of buyers notice it happening. For industry insight the figures are 74% and 41%. These are the places where providers can stand apart, and the opportunity is to turn introductions and insight into lenses that help solve the tricky issues, rather than extras added on the side.

Questions to think about:

• When did you last introduce a client to someone who helped them with a real problem?
• Which insight could you share this month that would help a client see their own challenge differently?

How do you know the relationship is strong?

Figure 4- How do you know the relationship is strong

Providers and buyers measure relationship strength differently (figure 4). 88% of providers count repeat business and 60% count the length of the relationship. Only 12% of buyers look at length; 81% look for providers who understand their challenges. Tenure might provide a false sense of security, but it could also give permission to ask deeper questions. Providers also read a willingness to share business goals as a good sign (57% against 31% of buyers), which raises a question: are goals not shared because buyers doubt they will be understood?

Questions to think about:

• In your account reviews, how do you measure how well you understand what each client is facing right now?
• With your longest-standing client, what deeper question have you earned the right to ask?

Note: providers were asked about understanding their customer’s goals and buyers about understanding their challenges, so that pair is close rather than identical.

What builds a strong relationship?

Figure 5- What builds a strong relationship

Both sides agree on much of the list. Buyers give more weight to regular check-ins (28% of their top-three picks against 21%), whilst providers lean more on after-sales support (17% against 11%) and on events. Buyers seem to want steady contact that keeps the problem in view more than extra service around the edges.

Questions to think about:

• What do your regular check-ins with clients actually cover, and could they spend more time on the client’s challenge than on your service?
• Which of your relationship activities would your clients miss if you stopped?

Who do we think is holding us back?

Figure 6- Who do we think is holding us back?

Asked about the biggest challenge in moving from transactional to partnership, about half of each side pointed across the table (figure 6). Buyers were more likely than providers to name their own organisation as part of the barrier (28% against 11%) – their capacity, their procurement rules, their internal stakeholders. That may be an invitation for providers to ask how they can help remove some of those frictions.

Questions to think about:

• What gets in the way of partnership inside your clients’ organisations, and have you ever asked them?
• Which friction could you help a client remove this quarter?

Note: these figures come from coding open answers by theme, so treat them as indicative.

Also in the data

Buyers want more than a transaction. 81% disagree that they prefer providers who simply respond to an order, yet just over half say even their best provider is a mix of transactional and partnership, or mostly transactional.

Customising to specific needs matters more to buyers than providers may realise: 88% of buyers find it useful for creating value together, against 69% of providers who use it.

The relationship often is small firm and large client. Just over half of providers work in organisations of 50 people or fewer, whilst around two thirds of buyers work in organisations of over 1,000.

A lead worth exploring

Figure 7- a lead worth exploring

Providers who say they always do three or more of the six partnership behaviours were twice as likely to strongly agree that they regularly meet or exceed their targets (38% against 17% of those who always do none). This is self-reported and the groups are small, so I share it as something to look into rather than a finding. Does generosity drive results, or do successful sellers have more room to be generous? Probably a bit of both, and worth testing.

Where to go next

This small study has highlighted questions that deserve exploring in more detail, together. How can providers and buyers get closer to understanding the business challenge rather than the learning solution? What has changed since 2024?

Contact me if you want to explore this within your own organisation. Plus The Business of Training Conference 2026 is the place for training providers to work on these questions alongside each other and alongside the buyers they serve.

Thursday 15 October 2026
The Royal Horseguards Hotel, London
More information and booking

You can read my reflections on the data in my LinkedIn newsletter, and I’d love to hear what you see in it.