The Ultimate Sales Machine - Chet Holmes [20]
What I do, in my own companies and with clients, is constantly teach the same information again and again until the skill is permanent. The skill improves again with another training session, but there is greater improvement because it’s the same material being covered. The falloff occurs again, but it’s not as dramatic as last time. Then another training session takes place and then another, and the skills improve even more, and the dropoff is even less. You see that, with each training session, mastery is that much closer.
How to Run a Training Session
To begin a training session, people should be told what to expect:
What will be covered
How long it will take
How the information will be covered
The objective of the particular session
The obtained skill or knowledge that you hope they will gain
When people have a clear understanding of what they are about to hear and see, they will be mentally prepared and focused for the training.
It is important to create a training environment that is conducive to learning. Make it fun! Create an open environment where people can make comments, jokes, and suggestions without reproach. This isn’t military training. People should look forward to it because they know it will be interesting and stimulating. As I mentioned in the beginning of this chapter, learning is not something most people do naturally. Since most of your staff will be reluctant to take time to train, you must make training fun, interesting, stimulating, and even an exciting experience. And above all, training must be mandatory. Put it on a schedule as a nonnegotiable commitment. No doctor’s appointments. No dentist appointments. No excuses. Even one-person armies must treat it this way. Set a schedule and commit to following it—no matter what.
As you will learn in Chapter Eight, we retain significantly more information if we both see and hear it rather than just hearing it. But we retain the most information if we are actively involved in our learning such as when we participate in role playing or other learning exercises. At the very least, always use visual aids in your training because they drastically increase retention. Data dumps are okay for initial sessions when you need to relay a lot of information. However, the highest retention will come from practical application and regular and consistent involvement. That’s where you get the big gains in productivity. So don’t just create a training booklet and hand it out. Set the time, reserve the room, and make the training session mandatory.
Encourage questions, jokes, insights, participation, and humor. Treat all questions with respect, no matter how pointless you think they are! Keep your people focused, but don’t make them feel stupid.
There are a variety of training methods and tools you can use to suit your material. It is a good idea to mix a few methods to meet your needs and keep people awake. Let’s consider a few.
Lecture Format
This means you talk and they listen. This method is good for a data dump but not for anything that requires substantial input or group processing.
Group Questions
You present broad questions to the group and ask for a show of hands. This method keeps people engaged because it is interactive. Asking group questions is also very helpful when you want to show what is at stake in a given training session. Leading people to their own conclusions is much more powerful than you telling them what that conclusion should be. You might ask the following series of questions: “How many people get frustrated when they don’t know the answer to a customer ser vice question?” “How many of you would like to be so much of an expert that no matter what comes up, you are prepared to deal with it?” “Who here thinks that training and role playing would give them additional insights into how to deal with more situations?” Asking these types of questions can guide a group to the conclusion you