❗❗❗ "My salespeople need training"❗❗❗
☎ When I was working for Bell+Howell Powersports in the 90s, I received a call from a motorcycle dealer. He had recently purchased the Lightspeed Dealer Management System, but his salespeople weren't using it.He figured they needed TRAINING.
📅 So, we arranged for a five-day training and system configuration, on-premise.
🛬 I arrived at the dealership and met the owner, who showed me around.
🖥 Right away I noticed there were no computer terminals on the sales floor.
❓ "Where are the computers?" I asked.
😐 "There aren't any on the sales floor," he replied.
❓"Where are they?"
😐 "There is one at the parts counter."
❓"So...if I am a salesperson, I need to leave the sales floor and walk over to the parts department to generate a quote for my customer?"
😐 "Yup."
❓"Why not put terminals on the sales floor?"
😐 "Because I would have to buy more terminals and I didn't want to spend the money."
I did some quick calculations in my head (keep in mind this was 90s pricing):
💲Cost of three Wyse terminals ($300 x 3) = $900
💲Cost of flying me out to train salespeople for a week ($3500 fees + $300 flight + $750 accommodation + $200 car rental + $250 per diem) = $5,000
At that moment, as a trainer and consultant, I realized that training doesn't and shouldn't solve all performance problems (that hurt my ego a bit).
In fact, there are many steps that should be taken before considering training or skills development as a solution. I learned that from the excellent book "Analyzing Performance Problems" written by Robert Mager and Peter Pipe (the last copy I bought was in 2004 - I still refer to it often).
Christian Napier | Rakonto Founder / CEO
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