Last week we talked about a post from Selling Power discussing the top issues on the minds of sales leaders in 2010. Shortly after posting I came across these interesting new stats published in the December/January edition of E-Learning Magazine from the Spring Board Project. I would say these statistics create a strong case for why we need to continue to train our employees.
50% of employers say they currently have such a serious gap between their needs and employees’ skills that if affects their productivity. In today’s business world, there is no room for drags on productivity. According to this statistic 50% of businesses could improve their productivity by providing additional training for their employees.
48% of employers do not provide ongoing education or skills training primarily because of cost. Budgets are tight so this is certainly a valid point, HOWEVER if you are one of those company’s whose productivity is struggling due to lack of training you may be costing yourself more money to your bottom line because you won’t spend the money to invest in your employees.
80% of workers show keen interest in pursuing further education and training.
Give the people what they want, it just may be what your company NEEDS.
62% of workers say a convincing reason to pursue training is that the future economy will be extremely demanding, and if their skills are not to up to date, someone will pass them by. This is very true; you could also take this stat to a broader view. Given that the economy will be demanding, if you do not update the skills of your employee who is to say that your customers won’t pass you by for a competitor with better-trained employees?
Certainly training your employees can be expensive, and in tough times there may not be the financial resources available to run a true training program or to hire an outside resource. With that in mind it’s time to get creative. Take advantage of free resources available via the web. Article sites, blogs by sales trainers, websites like Selling Power which offer thousands of free resources, coaching your employees, role playing, all of these things are free and can be beneficial to the needs of your employees.
If you know someone is struggling with handling price objections you could first send them an article on handling price objections, and then schedule time to role-play and practice handling those objections. These two simple things can really spring board the employee ahead, and will cost you nothing but a little bit of time.
This year stop using budget as an excuse to not train your employees, and get creative with free resources. Your bottom line will thank you.
Shannon Gburzynski Sales Management, Sales Training coaching, Leadership, sales, sales coaching, Sales Management, Sales Managers, Sales Progress, Sales Representative, sales skills, Sales Success, Sales Training, sustained learning
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