Free Guide for Administrative Professionals
Yes
Getting Approval for Administrative Training and Development
Assistant must-knows for selling yourself, your value, and your potential.
Overcoming “No”
Selling your executive on supporting your professional development is a skill. It’s the art of persuasion. After training, coaching, and consulting thousands of assistants, we’ve seen the same pattern: most assistants don’t treat getting approval as a process. They treat it as a single yes-or-no moment. “Yes, I get to go,” or “My manager said no,” and that’s the end of it.
Instead, treat a “no” as the opening move, not the final word. Ask yourself: “This is a program that will make me a better assistant and a more valuable employee. How do I make that case to my executive?” That question alone starts changing how you prepare.
How to Convince Your Boss to Send You to Training
We hear this constantly: “My executive will never approve this,” or “There’s never a good time, they’re always busy.” So the request never gets made. It comes down to positioning and belief. You have to genuinely believe you’re worth investing in, and that you and your executive both win from it.
How do you convince your executive? You’re selling yourself, your value, and your potential. Before you walk into that conversation, know the benefits you’re offering and prepare for the questions you’re going to be asked.
Try This Before You Download
Run through these three questions. If any of them stop you, that’s exactly what the guide is for.
Can you say what you want in one sentence?
Do you know whether your executive responds to numbers, skills, or expertise?
Do you know what you'll say if the answer is “not yet”?
What a Good Ask Sounds Like
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I'd like to attend [program name] next month. It covers [specific skill], which directly supports [something your executive already cares about]. The investment is [amount], and I'll come back and share what I learn with the rest of the team.
That’s the shape of an ask that gets approved: what it is, why it matters to them, what it costs, and what they get back. The full guide shows you how to fill in your own details, including what to say if you’re told no.
What's Inside the Guide
Our comprehensive Getting Approval for Training and Development eBook can help you market yourself and the training program you’re interested in. Inside, you’ll find:
Real, practical guidance drawn from Joan Burge's 50-plus years in the administrative training industry.
A framework for evaluating whether a program is actually worth requesting, before you ask.
The exact language and persuasion tactics that get an executive to say yes, and what to do when they still say no, including what to do if the budget genuinely isn't there yet.
A one-page recap you can print and bring into the actual meeting.
Guidance for choosing the training path that fits where you are in your career and where you want to be next.
Ready to Attend Your Next Assistant Conference, Workshop, or Course?
Download our free eBook, Getting Approval for Training and Development, fill in the recap, and send your ask this week.
For a more data- and KPI-driven approach to a specific request, see our companion guide by Kayla Hutchens, Championing for Administrative Professional Training.
FAQs
Treat it as the start of a conversation, not the end. The guide covers exactly how to respond: what to ask, what to offer, and how to come back with a stronger case.
No. The framework works for any training request, a conference, a certification, an online course, or an onsite workshop, regardless of who’s running it.
This guide focuses on the persuasion side: believing in the investment, vetting a program, and reading your executive. Kayla Hutchens’ companion guide goes deeper on KPI language and building a numbers-based ROI case. They’re meant to be used together.
That’s covered too. The guide walks through how to time your next ask to your organization’s budget cycle instead of letting a timing problem end the conversation.
Short enough to read before your next one-on-one, and built around a one-page recap you can print and actually bring into the meeting.
Lead with what it is, why it matters to them, what it costs, and what you’ll bring back. That order does the persuading, not the individual words. It’s the difference between an ask that gets tabled and one that gets a yes.
Whether the person leading it has actually worked in the role, what you’re getting for the registration fee beyond the content itself, and what happens to the materials once the session ends. A program worth requesting holds up to those questions.
Know what you’re offering, not just what you’re asking for. Prepare for the questions your executive is likely to raise, and be ready to say specifically how the training connects to your actual job.
A one-sentence version of what you want, a sense of whether your executive responds to numbers, skills, or expertise, and an answer ready for “not yet” in case that’s the response.
This guide walks through the language and framework for building one. For a more numbers-driven version built around KPIs and ROI, Kayla Hutchens’ companion guide covers that ground.