Education & Your Business

I just sat through a Webinar that was a duplicate to an In-Person seminar I attended last week.  Why you ask?  Because it’s important enough to me to continue my learning experience to take the time to do it!  Sure, there are a hundred other things I would have liked to be doing, and sure some of them were important, but the bottom line is, if I stop learning, I stop being effective at my job.  And since my job is to help others through coaching and training, it doesn’t make sense to stop learning.

So, I guess the question then becomes, how many of you are continuing your education?  Maybe start by asking yourself, has business changed in the last 10 years, 5 years, the last year?  If you answered “yes” to the business question, then why aren’t you changing with it?  In many cases you are watching your business slow everyday, and yet are you doing anything to correct it?  Education at every level is the only true answer to continued business success and then it still may not be enough!

I understand not attending every seminar because of time, but last weeks seminar attendance was poor, and unfortunately, most seminar attendance everywhere, regardless of the speaker can be poor...why?  Because you don’t believe you could learn any more than you already know?  We spend thousands of dollars a year on Technical training, and yet when it comes to managerial or sales training, very little is spent.  Certainly vehicles are changing and this requires a lot of technical training, but what about people’s perception of our industry through the Internet, are we learning the various new ways to deal with these types of issues?

I know, more questions than answers here, but unless and until we are able to answer these questions truthfully and openly with ourselves, nothing is ever going to change.  Knowing what works and even more so, what doesn’t work any longer requires additional education through someone that has the background and credentials to know is the answer to many of those questions.

Education is the lifeblood of any industry.  Without us keeping up with the changes in the way we do business, we slip behind and that costs us in both customers and revenue.  The business practices, sales and customer service personnel need to be trained just like out technical staff.   We recommend a minimum number of training hours for the entire staff for each quarter.

Lastly, through my association with other training companies I have seen a resurgence of Webinar type training, even webinars on DVD’s.  these options can be better for some because in the case of the DVD’s you can train when time is available, starting and stopping as needed to achieve the balance between customers and a little “free” time. 

The last area that I wanted to cover here is, just because you think you know what is going to be said, don’t avoid that training!  Many coaching and training companies update their classes regularly and even though the name of the class may be the same as a class you heard last year or the tear before, there is a better than good chance it has additional information not previously included.  Maybe you had been having a bad day the last time you heard the class,  and because your head wasn’t into listening you missed something? 

Bottom line here: EDUCATION IS THE KEY TO SUCCESS, both yours and your customers, remember that and count on that!!