About Partena Professional
Partena Professional is a leading HR services provider in Belgium, supporting organizations with payroll, HR advice, and a wide range of workforce solutions. With hundreds of employees in customer-facing roles, from payroll consultants to legal experts, the company operates in a complex environment where every interaction can impact customer value.
To support growth, Partena set out to embed customer centricity across the entire organization, not just within sales, but across all roles interacting with customers. The ambition was clear: make every employee who interacts with customers responsible for identifying needs and creating value, turning everyday conversations into opportunities.
The challenge: scaling a mindset, not just a program
After launching a customer-centric program for customer-facing employees, Partena faced a critical question: how do you scale this across more than 800 people and sustain it over time?
Relying only on external trainers was not an option. The organization needed internal trainers who could:
Translate the message into their own teams’ reality
Handle resistance from non-sales profiles
Ensure consistency across dozens of teams
Continue training new employees in the future
At the same time, these trainers were not professional facilitators. Many had limited training experience and were stepping into a new role alongside their day-to-day responsibilities.
We needed to make sure that we could continue this ourselves. Everyone joining Partena should go through the same program. That continuity was a key requirement.
Kim Claesen, Area Manager at Partena, explains
The solution: a pragmatic, hands-on train-the-trainer program
Perpetos designed a focused train-the-trainer program to prepare a group of around 30 internal trainers to deliver the customer-centric workshops themselves. Trainers first went through the same content they would later deliver, ensuring they fully understood the mindset shift (from product-driven to customer-centric conversations) and could internalize the structure of the program. This was complemented by hands-on practice sessions, where they simulated real workshops and delivered parts of the training in front of their peers.
Rather than stopping at training alone, Perpetos provided ongoing support through one-on-one coaching to include also the team leaders of the customer facing teams and co-delivery. Trainers were guided on how to adapt their approach to different audiences, refine their delivery style, handle resistance in the room and include the first line management as partners in this transformation.
They didn’t just explain the training. They showed us how to give it, how to adapt, how to react, how to deal with resistance.
says Kim Claesen
A program built for real-world adoption
One of the key strengths of the train-the-trainer program was its practicality. The content was not theoretical but tailored to Partena’s reality. Trainers learned how to adapt exercises to different roles (payroll, legal, sales, etc.), use real customer cases, and keep workshops light, engaging, and accessible.
You can translate the workshops to every role. You just adapt the exercises to their reality. That was a big differentiator
says Kim Claesen
The program also emphasized a human, people-centered approach, aligning closely with Partena’s own values and making the transition less intimidating for participants.
Continuous alignment and customization
The train-the-trainer program was not a fixed blueprint. It evolved continuously based on feedback from trainers and early workshop waves.
Perpetos worked closely with Partena to:
- Simplify content where needed for non-sales audiences
- Adjust pacing and structure of workshops
- Share practical tips for handling resistance
- Align on messaging to avoid misconceptions (e.g., “this is not about pushing products”)
- Stimulate the trainers to become coaches of the teamleads
This continuous dialogue ensured the program stayed relevant and effective throughout the rollout.
The results: confident trainers, consistent delivery, real impact
The train-the-trainer program enabled Partena to successfully scale its customer-centric transformation across the organization. Partena now has a network of trained internal facilitators who can independently deliver the program, ensuring long-term continuity.
With a shared structure, language, and approach, trainers deliver a consistent experience across the organization. The combination of practical content, real-life cases, and human delivery led to high engagement among participants, even in teams with initial resistance.
As Maxance Derzelle, Project Manager at Partena Professional, observed:
There was a strong dynamic in the groups. People challenged each other and started thinking about how to improve their approach.
The broader program, supported by the train-the-trainer approach, contributed to a significant increase in lead generation, with an overall growth of nearly 90% and some teams achieving increases of up to 600%.
These outstanding results were also driven by the introduction of clear lead-generation targets for all teams.
Once again, this demonstrates that the combination of setting clear objectives, creating the right focus and mindset by explaining the “why,” and providing people with practical guidance on how to apply it in their daily work is a powerful formula for success.
Overall Sustainable results:
One year after launching the pilot Train-the-Trainer program, and with nearly all 800+ customer-facing employees at Partena having completed the Customer Centricity program, the results are stunning: the number of cross-sell leads almost doubled, while conversion rates increased by almost 20%. This was driven by the improved quality of the leads, as consultants gathered more relevant and richer information during customer conversations, combined with a stronger follow-up and sales approach from the sales experts and customer relationship managers.
Collaboration with Perpetos: a true co-pilot approach
Throughout the train-the-trainer journey, Perpetos acted as more than a training provider. They became a true partner for implementing a mindset change, embedded in the process, adapting continuously, and supporting trainers at every step.
From one-on-one coaching to co-delivery and ongoing feedback loops, the collaboration ensured that trainers didn’t just understand the content but also were able to bring it to life.
It’s not just giving a workshop and leaving. They really follow the evolution and support the trainers individually
says Kim Claesen
From training to transformation
By investing in a train-the-trainer program, Partena Professional turned a one-time initiative into a scalable transformation engine. Instead of relying on external expertise, the organization built its own capability to drive customer-centric conversations across teams, and over time. With Perpetos as their co-pilot, Partena created a system that makes customer centricity part of everyday work.
Perhaps most importantly, the program proves that large-scale behavioral change is possible.
You want to get 800 people through a program like this. It’s not easy to find a partner who can handle that. Perpetos can.
Kim Claesen
