I Am Always Right

        People always ask me the same question, “How do I increase sales and make more money?” My answer is usually preceded by a very important question, “Are you training and equipping your employees?”

 I mean, how do executives expect to increase sales and profits when they do not focus on the people who are directly responsible for it? It would surprise you to know how many companies have either an antiquated ineffective training program or none at all. Now hear this; the fastest way to increase your growth and profits is by training and developing the skills of the people who are handling your customers.

 Whether you are a car dealership, a jewelry store or a financial advisor, make certain you have an effective training program that is focused on the development of your most important asset, your people. It baffles me to think that there are companies that spend $100,000 on advertising to get customers in their door, yet they spend nothing … or next to nothing … on training their employees to properly handle that traffic. I would wager that if a company that spent $100,000 on advertising and nothing on training decided to spend $90,000 on the ad spend and $10,000 on training, they would have a far higher ROI, both immediately and in the future. Customers that get mistreated or mishandled end up costing the company future business.

 The fastest way to increase your company’s value is to train your people effectively. Showing a video to a new hire, dispersing a manual, and then simply asking if they “understood everything” is not an effective way to train.

 An effective training program must include:

1. Training
2. Testing
3. Practice
4. Repetition
5. Accountability

To properly train someone you must first have the knowledge transfer. Then, you must have testing in place in order to see if the person actually understands the material. Your trainee must also have the ability to practice in order to gain confidence and feel comfortable executing their newly developed knowledge or skill set. And, the most important of all is repetition.

Training isn’t something you did; it’s something you do! -Brad Lea

In order to achieve mastery, one must have repeated exposure to the material. That is why we used to sing and write the ABC’s repeatedly. This is why it takes us listening to a song a hundred times before we are able to sing it word for word. Just like a professional team or athlete trains over and over again to maintain that high level of play, the bottom line fact is that we need repetition in order to retain the information and allow it to become second nature.

 The last item required in an effective training program is accountability. If we train someone to answer a phone a certain way and we walk by later and hear a different dialogue, we need to speak up immediately and hold that person accountable.

 If an employee openly objects to training, you should find a new employee who is willing to train and develop their skills in order to better serve the company, the customer and themselves. Too many companies allow their employees to dictate how and when they will train. The problem with this is that if a company doesn’t train their employees, their customers will often time do it for them! And trust me, you DO NOT want your customers doing your training. Your customers will train your employees to give away profit and not have the best interest of your company in mind.

 Naturally, employees with great training are better prepared to handle customers, build value, solve problems, ask for referrals, be professional and grow your revenues and overall value. Why do you suppose it is that the companies with the best training always have the best results? Why do the teams that have the best records follow the same principals? Because in order to win, especially in this day and age where there are a million people competing for the same customer, if you don’t take the time and energy to train your players effectively, you are destined to lose the game.

 Making sure your employees are properly trained and prepared for all aspects of the job is always my answer to that question and that is why I am always right.

- Brad Lea