|
JUN
2008
|
30
|
A Big Restructuring…
|
Well… I made my July 2008 deadline! It isn’t all perfect but I’m making progress and getting closer to what I wanted! I’ve also fixed the link if you want to send me a comment on what I’ve written.
As I mentioned in my previous entry, I decided to restructure my website to reflect the way my customers view my business. The change is more about my focus than what I actually do. I think the key point is rather than an emphasize training which I’ve been doing for a long time, I want to shift the focus to the sales process that best meets your needs.
It’s about providing my customers with an objective assessment of what they are currently doing and who they have doing it. It’s a review of their current strategies and tactics for reaching their revenue targets and making adjustments to increase the probability and shorten the timeframe wherever possible. It’s about providing solution options and alternatives to help you improve your top-line performance and profitability.
It’s not that I won’t do training – that depends on what you, my customer, want me to do. I’ve found that most companies are simply disillusioned by the results they’ve received from training and aren’t spending a lot of money on it. Instead of training being a catalyst for change, it’s most often viewed as an event. It’s done on a periodic basis without any follow-up or reinforcement.
My experience has been that if you want training to be successful, meaning you probably want some behavior to change, it requires three elements:
- Follow-up;
- Reinforcement; and,
- Management support.
Very few folks grasp the full implication of change in a single event. That’s not because they’re slow or stupid. It’s because it’s difficult and often painful! When it gets tough or time is critical, people often revert to what they were doing previously because they know how to do it that way! To do something new takes more time, concentration, and effort – three commodities that are in short supply!
This is why those three required elements are so important. The follow-up component finds the rough spots and helps people through them. The reinforcement gets people back on track even when they’ve slipped off due to problems or time. And management support may be the most important component because without it, nothing changes.
I’ve looked at the way I learn new processes. Whether it was when I was learning commercial lending or even more recently as I was learning new parts of digital photography, my process has been the same. I do it with the text open! I use the material as a guide. I’m not required to memorize anything in advance. I can go back and reference the material as often as I want. I go as far as I can without the guide and when I get stuck, I open the book! Novel approach, huh?
People won’t do it with the boss looking over their shoulder! The get concerned about the boss thinking they should know this already… why do they have to refer back to the material over and over again? When will they know what to do next? All those job security issues come running to the foreground.
If companies don’t really believe in training anymore as a result of their poor experience with it, it’s not enough to tell them to use the material as a follow-up and to reinforce what’s in it. I think we’ve got to find another way of making it happen. And I think the return has to be greater than someone just learning a new more efficient methodology or processes.
So what’s the answer? I’m working on some business process software that guides sales people that are involved in a complex sales environment. It’s still early but as I make more progress, I’ll let you know.
I’d like to hear from you about your opinion on the whole training debate – is it effective or not? When is it effective? What made the difference? Your opinion is important to me. Thanks in advance!
Until next time…
DF
|
