Doing it Right

As I look forward to Thursday's seminars at JCK Las Vegas, I’m reminded of Brad Huisken’s saying, “sales training doesn’t work…” Huh?  He really said that?  Further, he explains, “…sales training doesn’t work if it’s an event.  It has to be a process.”

After completing my Spring visits around Western Canada, I’ve been doing some renos at home.  The new home we moved into in March isn’t exactly the Taj Mahal, it needs some TLC and personal touches before we can call it our own.  The flooring guy said they could install the new lino in about a day, and the carpet could be done in another two days.  One corner of our basement had to be filled-in as the pad had sunk long ago and two layers of previous carpet failed to hide the flaw.  Before the flooring goes down, the baseboards have to come off.  If we’re replacing the baseboards with a newer style, the door casings won’t match, so might as well take them off too.  If you’re going to replace all of the trim, it’s an ideal time to paint.  In order to paint, there’s some patching that needs to be done.  Oh, and by the way, the exposed concrete footing wall should be framed, insulated, drywalled, trimmed and painted too.  Okay, so the three days of flooring installation requires three weeks of other work; without which the new features will be dragged down by everything else in the room.

Going to JCK Vegas to attend a sales training event is like the carpet installation.  One or two days and “all’s good,” right?  Wrong.  Without some sales experience, you won’t know what the heck they’re talking about.  Without product knowledge, you’ll have a hard time filling in the blanks that the sales trainer is referring to when she talks about answering objections, or romancing the product.  Without an instore sales manager guiding your attempts at putting the training into practice, you might apply new knowledge to the wrong scenarios. 

Learning to be a superstar jewellery seller is no easy one-day fix.  It has to be important enough to spend the time continuously to learn, practice, refine and perfect.  If you’re not going to Vegas, pull that sales training kit off of the shelf, and give it a once-over this weekend.  Think about how nervous you were the first week on the sales floor, and how much more proficient you are today.  Now imagine another 5, 10 or 20 years, and how much more effective you’ll be at serving your clients then.  There’s always more to learn, and until you’re closing, adding-on and gaining referrals from 100% of the people who walk into your store, you’re not done.

Proverbs 1:2-5 “for gaining wisdom and instruction; for understanding words of insight; for receiving instruction in prudent behavior, doing what is right and just and fair; for giving prudence to those who are simple, knowledge and discretion to the young – let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance…”