Big Grower November 2021 - 10

THINK BUSINESS
A Smart
Investment
Training should never be considered an expense. Instead, it should be treated as a
worthwhile investment for your business.
BY MARK RICHARDSON
A
bout 25 years ago I was on a panel
as part of an MBA program, where
another panelist said something that
I will never forget. He said, " Training is an
investment, not an expense. "
I remember at the time we were very
busy and looking for things to cut from our
schedules. Oftentimes, one of the natural places
businesses look at cutting back on is training ...
that's a big mistake!
Turning the clock forward to 2010, I was
leading a group of 14 established business
leaders that were just coming out of the
downturn of 2008-2009. I asked them: " How
many of you have decreased the sales training
that you had before the downturn? "
Four had increased training and 10 had
decreased it to save time and money. I then
asked, " How many of you have seen sales
increase versus decrease in that same period? "
The four that had increased the training had
seen an increase in sales while all 10 that had
decreased it experienced a decline. Additionally,
the companies that increased training had seen
better retention and more of a gung-ho sales
environment in very tough times.
NOT AN OPTION
Over the years, I have watched many different
businesses treat training as an option. I have
seen businesses get away from practicing in
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favor of doing. I have witnessed training topics
and techniques not really change while there
have been many changes in the industry and the
marketplace.
The reason I like the theme that " training is an
investment " is that it forces you to rethink your
paradigm. As an investment, you want to see a
quantifiable return. You need to not only look
at cost and effectiveness. And like traditional
investments, you need to stay current on where
to place your resources.
FIVE TIPS
The following are a few tips for improving
your training mindset.
1. Don't do it all yourself. You should be
the orchestra director, not the person
playing every instrument. Make a list of
training topics and then think about how
they might be accomplished. Doing it by
yourself means too much work and the
team will be bored.
2. Create a training budget for training.
If you see a 5% ROI in effectiveness,
retention and profit, then investing
1% on training would make a huge
difference.
3. Work with your team to mentor each
other. If an employee is particularly
good at something, then ask that person
to present " Top 10 Tips " on that subject
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10 NOVEMBER 2021
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in a meeting. The team member will
feel pride in teaching others while also
becoming even more committed to these
best practices for themselves.
4. Create a library of materials. These can
be training videos, webinars, websites or
whatever works for your organization.
Leverage this as a coaching tool when
developing new employees or improving
existing ones.
5. Instill accountability in each team
member for their own improvement.
When coaching, try to give them little
incentives that show how they can take
their game to the next level.
When you are time starved, it is difficult to
invest in things that might not have a shortterm
ROI. But remember your business is
a movie not a snapshot. This longer-term
perspective is the difference between being
good and great.
Mark Richardson is an author, speaker, columnist
and business growth strategist. He has written
several books on business management, including
" How Fit Is Your Business? " and " Fit to Grow. "
His latest book is " Control Your Day Before It
Controls You: The 7 Steps to Mastering Your
Time. " All of his books are available on amazon.
com. He can be reached at mrichardson@
mgrichardson.com.
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Big Grower November 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Big Grower November 2021