Books Unwound

This is part of an in depth review of  The Ultimate Sales Machine: Turbocharge Your Business with Relentless Focus on 12 Key Strategies, by Chet Holmes.  We will focus on 1 section at at time and distill the best information to help your business now.  This should not be considered a replacement for the actual book, which will usually have a lot more in depth information as well as stories, which are an important way to communicate the essentials.  If you find the information in these posts helpful, I recommend buying the book or borrowing it from your library.  

Chapter Two: Instititute Higher Standards and Regular Training: Preprogram Your Organization to Run Like a Finely Tuned Machine

In chapter two, Chet Holmes focuses on training.  While this may be groan inducing, he makes a clear case for its importance in any size organization, even a sole proprietorship.  The clear fact is that only around 10% of individuals are predisposed to enjoy and seek out learning.  The other 90% just won’t go out of their way to improve their work skills, which is why you need a clear and mandatory training system.  

Holmes says that to stay at the top of your game as a professional company, and as professionals within a company, you need to constantly update your knowledge.  Doctor’s are required to do this, and we are all glad they do.  On the television show M.A.S.H., Hawkeye was always reading medical journals and learning new medical procedures, even in the midst of a war.  Can your organization do the same in the midst of competition to be the best in your industry and gain new clients?  

Sadly, there is little official training at most companies.  Any training that does happen is usually one shot, which has very little long term benefit.  It is easy to see training as silly and just an interference with work.  This is especially true at smaller companies.  However, training can sharpen your skills and help you get far more accomplished.  

Do You Use the Tribal Method?

The tribal method of training is where information is passed from one employee to the next, in no organized fashion.  This happens when a new hire is told to shadow an existing employee and learn from her.  There is no formal training, just “on-the-job” training.  This is a very inefficient style of training, and can even be counter-productive.  If an employee has a bad habit, the trainee will likely pick it up.  Think of it like the telephone game that children play.  If there are ten children, one of them thinks of a phrase, such as “the sky is full of pink birds today.”  That child whispers the phrase into the next child’s ear, and so on, until the phrase gets to the last child, who says aloud, “that guy is farting ink terds all day.”  Its silly and everyone laughs.  However, it is no laughing matter when you pass information along this way at your business.  The end product is never what you intended it to be.  Tribal training is the worst kind that you can possibly have. 

Truly successful companies have classroom-style training where they educate employees on proper practices and procedures.  This way, everyone is getting the same information.  Doing this type of training regularly with every employee will improve skills and the level of professionalism at your company.  The key is to make these sessions regular and non-negotiable.  

The fact of the matter is, your industry is probably seeing advancements.  Your competitors aren’t sitting still either.  But without consistent training, you are not moving forward, which means you are losing ground.  

Holmes points out that is does not matter if you are a Fortune 500 company or a one-person army, you need to constantly be working on your skills.  The same is true if you are the head of a department at a company or just a single employee.  

Without good training, you can expect employee activity to be inconsistent and unfocused.  With proper training, each employee will know what to do in every situation.  Training will positively effect every single part of your business, making it better all around.  To increase the efficiency, effectiveness, professionalism and reach of your company, the best thing you can do is to institute regular madantory training for all of your employees.  

Set Standards

Chet Holmes says, “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

According to Holmes, quality training is guaranteed to make you money.  When your clients experience professionalism at every level of your company, they will continue to come back.  Once you create a standard for client interactions and follow up procedures, you will be on track not only for great repeat business, but also a steady stream of quality referrals.  

While good training will make you money by making employees better at their jobs, it will also save your company money.  Good training reduces turnover because it gives employees what they need to thrive at your company, which is good tools and clear direction.  Holmes says that training boosts confidence and reduces stress.  Once organized, with good training in place, your company will actually become a better place to work.  So consider that as you put off training, you are actually hurting your employees by not establishing clear systems and procedures and repeatedly teaching them.  

Train or Be Derailed

Training is the opposite of reacting.  In essence, it is proactive.  It keeps your company healthy and prepared for whatever comes at you.  Without good training, everyone is on their own to react in their own way when a problem arises.  Do you really want to trust the future of your company to the intuitive reactions of your employees?  While you may be able to adapt and react to any situation, the vast majority of your people will not be able to do so successfully.  Think tears, frustration, and outbursts of anger.  Training is the only way to ensure that when a problem comes at your company it will stay on track.  With consistent training, each employee will be pre-programmed to respond in a positive fashion.  Without training, your company may be derailed.  

Employees will be in one of two possible categories when they confront any situation.  Either you have trained them and they have the knowledge they need to address the situation, or you have not trained them and they will be forced to guess and make it up as they go along.  The choice of whether to train or not is yours.  

Why Training is Worthless without Repetition

Holmes argues that repitition is the key to preprogramming your company to run like a machine.  It is impossible to get good at anything without repetition.  So, if you want your employees to be good at something, you need to train them on it again and again until it is part of who they are.  The training should never stop, because humans have an infinite ability to improve.  

One and out training programs are generally worth very little.  Perhaps one small skill will be picked up by one or two employees.  Without continious follow up, very little sticks to the brain.  But with consistent repetition, skills will be made permanent.  So, when you decide to train, you will need to commit to it for the long haul.  

Consider what happens when you read a good business book.  You may get a lot of great information from it.  However, if you just read the book once and don’t implement any action strategies from it on a regular basis, the ideas will soon become a vague memory.  

Training must be consistent.  One skill should be taught over and over again until it is perminent.  Do not constantly throw new things at your employees.  Instead, reinforce and repeat until you know they have it.  

Training Sessions

Holmes gives some very practical advice on running training sessions in the chapter.  Here, you will get just a brief overview.  

It is important that employees know what to expect from a training session.  Let them know ahead of time what will be covered, how long the session will be, what type of session it will be, your objective, and what skill they can gain.  

It is very important to create an environment that makes learning easy and fun.  Your employees should be able to look forward to the sessions, both because they are fun and because they are seeing real results.  While you absolutely need to make training mandatory, it also needs to be engaging, so employees will not approach it as an uneccessary and annoying task.  

There are many ways to train, but one of the best ways is to get people actively involved in the lesson.  At bare minimum, be sure to include visuals.  Remember, there are many learning styles, but overall, someone is more likely to retain information that they have interacted with.  

Here is Chet Holmes’ list of different training formats:

• Lecture Format
• Group Questions
• Group Discussions
• Demonstration Training
• Role Playing
• Hot Seats (Going Deeper with Individual Employees in Front of a Group)
• Case Studies

Testing

Taking the classroom approach to training means that you should incorporate testing.  Holmes suggests that you start with a test before you do the training, and then use the same test again after you have completed the training.  This accomplishes two things.  First, it establishes for the employees what they are going to learn and helps drive the important points home during the training.  Secondly, it gives them a sense of accomplishment to get the questions right when the take the test again.  

You should also run spot quizes that grill employees on basic tenets of your business.  You may ask your sales rep to recite the company elevator pitch.  You may review with an employee the six steps of time management.  Anything that you want your employees to know down flat is material for a spot quiz.  

Conclusion

Training can be a big undertaking and seem like an impossibility for your organization.  After all, do you have the time?  That is why you need to personally master the time management techniques of the first chapter.  Also, that would be a very good place to start with your training for your employees.  Throughout The Ultimate Sales Machine you will come across other ideas that will fit nicely into a training program. 

The most important thing to understand about training is that it is absolutely essential.  Without it, your company will eventually fall behind and fall apart.  Even if its just you, you need to stay at the top of your game.  If you make a committment to training and stick with it, you will see amazing benefits for your company.

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Next: Chapter Three – Executing Effective Meetings

Buy or Not: This book is a buy.  It can be used as a manual for reshaping your business which you will refer to time and again.  Buy this book at Amazon.

Bradford Shimp helps small business owners and entrepreneurs build successful businesses.  Read his blog atwww.allbizanswers.com.  Follow Bradford on Twitter.

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Instituting Higher Standards and Regular Training”