Principles for Implementing Effective Training – Part 1

Here's a scenario that has played out in many different companies in every kind of industry: Management purchases a training program or hires a consultant to provide some in-person training for a week or two. The employees are motivated and excited during the training period and try to apply what they've learned. For a while after the training event is concluded (one week to one month), employees make efforts to apply their new skills and things improve. There may even be an outstanding individual or two who, through personal ambition, make some permanent changes. After some period of time, however, almost all employees end up doing the same things, the same way they have done in the past. The training is dubbed a failure, and management either discards the idea of training as a worthwhile investment or looks for "better" training.

Perhaps you have been through this cycle personally either as a manager or employee. It's not uncommon, yet why does it always seem to turn out this way? As an instructional design expert, I know that not all training is created equal. Some programs are poorly designed and will never facilitate real performance change; however, most importantly for this article, assuming that the training is well-designed, managers may not understand what is required of them in order to implement the program.

Implementing a training course for your sales associates requires some level of understanding about instruction and learning. In this and next month's articles I will explain some general and effective principles that will help any store owner or manager make the most of their training efforts.

Principle 1: Keep the goal in mind

As a furniture store owner or manager, you understand that the only way to succeed in this business is to sell furniture. Period. You don't succeed through bringing increased traffic to your store. That may be something you measure (and you certainly know what you are spending for it), but traffic is not your ultimate goal. If those visitors don't buy furniture, what's the point of getting them to visit you?

The same mindset is helpful when considering training. The success of any sales training program is measured by the amount of furniture sold. If a training program does not increase your sales associates' skill or ability to sell furniture, you are wasting money and effort. Every effort to implement the principles described herein must be done with an eye focused on the ultimate goal of selling more furniture. If you keep that in mind, you are more likely to succeed in your implementation efforts.

Principle 2: Transfer

With the ultimate goal of selling more furniture firmly in mind, it becomes clear that in order to sell differently, we have to act differently. That should be the point of any training program—demonstrating to the sales associates how to act differently so as to increase sales. The challenge then is to translate or transfer the knowledge and skills they learn while sitting in front of the computer, participating in a workshop, or reading a workbook to their conversations and interactions with customers on the showroom floor.

From an instructional perspective, some programs are better than others at helping learners make the transfer once they've completed the training. But, even with well-designed training programs, you will get the most out of your training investment if you participate in helping your associates make the transfer.

One very effective way of doing this is to have post-training job aids and/or worksheets that the associate can take with them to the showroom. The purpose of these materials is to remind the associate of what she learned in the training, and to help her apply that skill or knowledge while "on the job." Some training programs include these behavior-change-facilitating materials, and sometimes you will need to create them yourself.

Without such materials, any training program will have limited power to change behavior. Having a system in place that helps you follow-up with your employees after they've completed the training will help them improve their interactions with customers and sell more furniture.

Next month's article, Principles for Implementing Effective Training – Part 2 will continue this topic by discussing two additional principles for implementing effective training.