Tuesday, July 9, 2013

YOUR DISTRIBUTOR AND TRAINING

A couple of weeks ago I had the priviledge of spending some quality time with a distributor who showed me how he was providing added value to his customers, especially the BSC. This distributor gets it. He understands that anyone can sell price, but not everyone can provide real training and education to their customers. Let me rephrase that. Not everyone wants or cares to provide the education and training that makes them a true value added vendor for the BSC.

So what is he doing? One thing is that he purchased some quality video equipment and then created an entire library of 3-4 minute training videos on just about any technical subject needed. Following that he created educational information that the BSC can access as needed.

He then made available to his customers what I would call a Kindle on steroids. Companies can obtain as many or as few as they desire depending on how extensive they want to utilize the benefit. Most companies provide a unit for each area manager and stand alone project managers. Great concept isn't it. There is a small user monthly user fee associated with the service but think of the savings in training costs if you can just connect to the subject matter you need and conduct an instant short training class wherever and whenever it is needed.

I mentioned this concept to a non competing distributor last week and was told this concept is now very prevalent in the industry and is provided by many distributors. I asked him if his company utilized the idea and the answer was no. His reasoning was they want to provide the PERSONAL touch to their customers, in person and up close. Seems to me it would be a great time saver to the distributor representative if they didn't have to go out so much at night to help train. So let me ask you readers--How many of you have this or a similar service available from your distributor? If it is available, do you take advantage of it? Why or why not? I really would like to know how extensive this is happening around the world. Just leave a comment in the appropriate space after this article.

One of our companies, Tripod Learning Associates has been working with some organizations to develop short videos etc. just like the first distributor I mentioned above has and we have not found it to be that prevelent in the distributor industry. In fact, some BSC's have contacted us to assist them in developing a similar program inasmuch as their distributor does not provide this service. It seems to me that a distributor would want to jump on this service and make it available to their customers. We don't see it as competition but rather an opportunity for all of us to work at improving the communication and training in our great industry.

While I'm on the subject of communication and training, are any of you producing regularly scheduled pod casts for your employees to listen to? This is a great way to communicate new procedures, remind employees of project work that needs to be done or just to recognize a crew on great work or an employee's birthday or anniversary. It's not hard to do and can be so effective. Not long ago very few of our employees owned or had access to a computer but that has changed and will continue to change. I strongly recommend you consider this method of communicating. I can tell you that we have been doing our regular Monday morning free Tripodcasts for nearly 5 years and are continually amazed at the growing response and communication that takes place as a result of just reaching out weekly to the industry.

I have long been an advocate of having a strong relationship with 1 or maybe 2 distributors to help you grow and build your company. These are just additional ways they can help. My distributors were a very integral part of my business and we developed some very strong and mutually profitable relationships.

Till next time.

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