The Ultimate Sales Machine - Chet Holmes [17]
Exercise
With training, every one sings in harmony. What kind of music is your organization creating? Write down whether the following statements are true or false in your business:
All employees perform each aspect of their job with a high degree of excellence and consistency.
Results are somewhat predictable because training and skills are consistent.
Each supervisor would give a similar answer for each question or problem.
Each employee would give a similar answer for each question or problem.
Client treatment is similar, no matter who the client deals with in our company or department.
All staff members know what is considered good performance or attitude.
If you answered false to any of these statements, you aren’t serious enough about training. Without training, employee activity will be intermittent, inconsistent, moody—maybe even indifferent or rude—because you have not set standards. With proper training, every employee will know the ideal procedure for initial contact with a client, the questions they need to ask every single client no matter what, and the follow-up procedures that you absolutely insist upon. The more proactive training you have, the better the…every thing in your organization. This book will take you very deep into all these issues, but the purpose of this chapter is to emphasize that the most important thing you can do is to insist upon mandatory and regular skills training.
Training Sets Standards
Deliberate and constant training radically improves employees’ understanding of company objectives and helps to raise and set standards of performance. If you don’t train, you can’t expect people to get to the next level. That’s why most companies stay small or have to continually waste time addressing the same issues and problems over and over again.
Training Makes Money
Quality training is guaranteed to make you money. In the case of the company going after manufacturers, it had been in a four-year decline when we started our program. With consistent training it experienced a dramatic and much-needed increase in sales. Your sales team knows what to do and can handle any situation with ease because you’ve covered it in your weekly sessions together, right? It’s the same with customer ser vice (which you will learn more about in Chapter Three) and every other area of your business.
When clients experience consistent top-notch ser vice no matter who they are dealing with in your organization, they will keep coming back. Without training, you’ll lose clients that might be saved if you proactively address issues as they arise. Standardized client interaction and follow-up procedures mean that you are constantly building better client relationships that will lead to repeat business and referrals. Again, this book will give you a full formula for all these things in subsequent chapters.
Training also saves you money because it reduces employee turnover. When employees know exactly what to do in any situation, they have the tools to thrive in your organization. Training boosts confidence and reduces stress. Because training also sets a clear path for performance, it will be easier to mea sure and reward employees for exceeding performance standards. With organized and regular training programs, your company or department will be a better place to work.
Train or Be Derailed
The health of your business is not so different from that of your body. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. If you were choking, would you rather your friends try to learn the Heimlich maneuver right then and there or would you prefer that they already had training and practice doing it? Training is proactive. It keeps your company healthy and prepared no matter what crisis arises. If you don’t train, you force every one to be reactive, so your chances for survival decrease dramatically.
Training