I’ve always loved music; participants in some of my courses over the years will have encountered it being used to signal breaks and lunch or utilised in the background when group exercises are running.
In particular, I have always loved the bass guitar; from early memories of listening to John Deacon in Queen, Paul McCartney, Dee Murray (who for many years was Elton John’s bass player) and others, it was always bass lines that drew me in.
Back in 2011 I was encouraged by my then partner (and now wife) Nicola to learn to play the bass guitar, so I embarked on the journey (which I’m still on!). Now, once I’d decided to do it, I sought the advice of a close friend (and bass player) who gave me some invaluable tips. Firstly, don’t scrimp when choosing your instrument – cheap is not good when it comes to buying. The problem with cheap bass guitars is that they can be far more difficult to play and when you’re learning, you need something that is really well made. You can get a new bass guitar for £99 but its playability and tone will match the price tag. After taking advice, I purchased a second-hand Japanese-made Aria bass made in the 80s that was perfect.
The second tip he gave me was to get lessons from a proper bass player and not a guitarist who ‘dabbles’. This way you get to learn the fundamentals and create the right habits from day one – this will help you to develop as a player and not instil bad habits and hit a plateau that many self-taught musicians reach.
There are many parallels that can be drawn between this analogy and training in business. Our front-line staff in sales & service are often the deciding factor in whether our customers choose to return and recommend us. If a new starter is given poor quality tools that are difficult to use it will make their job harder, and if they don’t receive the right training from an expert right at the start of their journey they will inevitably develop bad habits and cut corners because they don’t know what they don’t know.
I was talking to an acquaintance recently who recalled the story of a dealership local to him. Aftersales was struggling; Service Advisors didn’t have the skills required to confidently sell genuine parts and workshop hours and customers were taking their cars elsewhere for the work to be done. The sensible solution would have been to put a training plan in place, deliver it and then set some clear KPIs to measure its effectiveness. What they actually did was increase their labour rate to offset to downturn in hours sold!
The moral of this story is this – the investment that you make in your people by giving them world-class, bespoke training that is tailored to your business will pay you back handsomely; a £99 solution won’t.