Home Library Translate
A A A
Share »
Follow us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter Follow us on LinkedIn
Connect »

Blog: Training and Development

Menu

  • This Blog's Home
  • Guest Writer Submissions
  • Policies
  • To Subscribe to a Blog
  • About
  • Feedback

Who Needs Training: Who Gets to Decide

By Jack Shaw on February 13, 2011

My last article about Was the Guy Who Won the Client’s Audition Better than You? may have really seemed off-topic to some, and my apologies to those who didn’t find my sentiment to their liking, but I think it was a valid point. Maybe I can re-address it here in different and more positive terms with a shorter story.

While my article may have been illustrative of a training situation, it is not probably one common to many of us. It is to me because I am a voice actor, actor/director, communicator and trainer. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like to think in terms of absolutes. There is the trend to put everything with a number–the three things you need to know, ten ways to do this or that, five secrets to wealth and posterity.

Pardon my substandard English: It ain’t possible! While the number gives an absolute answer–and absolute answers are comforting, life is too complicated to be set in stone. From my customer service days I have a different perspective regarding clients.

Clients are our livelihood; there is no denying that. Without clients, we cannot survive. But we have to engage them in a professional, oftentimes subtle way. Clients have to want you–and you in particular if your business relationship is to become successful.

We all need help, but we like to ask for it. A subtle offering, a soft sell may be the answer.

I played tennis when I was younger. I used to go off by myself and practice serves in a local court. One day, an older woman in her sixties was watching me play.

“You need some help badly.”

Was I that bad?

I tried to ignore her. I needed to work on my swing.

“I can help,” she continued.

“Really,” I said sarcastically.

I was young and had been taught to respect my elders so I didn’t have a rude comeback–just the sarcasm, which she ignored.

“You can use my Wimbledon racket,” she said.

She got my attention. Her approach wasn’t optimum, but she got my attention by letting me know in a subtle way she had the “chutzpah” and the “chops” to work with a kid like me.

I learned from her. She became my unofficial trainer and coach. She had been to Wimbledon and she was good. When I got to where I could win a set or two occasionally, we stopped–but only because I had school. I had no real designs to be a pro. I played in college, but only for fun.

Play for keeps. A client that needs you and qualifies in his mind is the one you want.

I think what I learned is that, if I hadn’t felt I needed the training no amount of “you need training to succeed” sentiment was going to make me ask for it–let alone pay for it. I knew I needed it and she had let me know her qualifications–take it or leave it. I took it.

We need to make our qualifications known in such a way as to draw attention to them in the right way. Not egotistically, not arrogantly. I don’t care how good we are, if that’s the way we express our qualifications; that’s how we lose customers, that’s how we lose clients. We can’t get too “big” for them. Bully me into using your services. You might, if I think I need you badly enough, get me once, but not twice.

Better to compliment the good, say you can help. Give potential clients the opportunity to see for themselves or hear from others how you good you are. The likelihood of a fit and long-term relationship is much enhanced.

End of shorter story. By the way, I still have that Wimbledon racket.

—

For more resources about training, see the Training library.

« Previous Next »

Search Our Site

Meet the Blog’s Host

Jack Shaw is a communicator who does training and has been in the trenches as well as in management and development areas. His priority is how to communicate credibily in the workplace. [Read more ...]

Recent Blog Posts

  • Training Day – Professional Development
  • The PowerPoint Crutch and How to Fix It
  • Performance Management: Why Aren’t We Using Performance Information
  • Risk Averse? Me?
  • Failure Résumés—A Training Guide for Success
  • Rating Training
  • Are We Falling Into Internet Space?
  • Résumés Can’t Speak
  • Preparing Millennials–A Matter of National Interest
  • Training the “Educated” Consumer

Categories

  • Adult Learning
  • Assessments
  • Basics and Overviews
  • Coaching
  • Communication
  • Continuous Learning
  • Corporate Universities
  • Customer Service
  • Designing Training Plans
  • Developing Training Methods
  • Evaluating Training Results
  • Evaluations During Training
  • General Resources
  • Human Performance Technology
  • Implementing Training
  • professional development
  • Self-Directed Learning
  • Talent Management
  • Uncategorized

Blogroll

  • Jack Shaw

Related Library Topics

  • Communications Skills
  • Training and Development
  • Learning (Maximizing)
  • Adult Learning
  • Learners (Requirements of)
  • Terms in Training & Dev.
  • Types of Training & Dev.
  • Types of Learning
  • Self-Directed Learning
  • Student Skills
  • Corporate Universities
  • Facilitation
  • Designing Training
  • Learning Objectives
  • Training Methods (Designing)
  • Personal Development
  • Distance Learning
  • Talent Management
  • Evaluating Training
  • Continuous Learning
  • Human Performance Technology
  • Jack Shaw

Library's Blogs

  • Boards of Directors
  • Building a Business
  • Business Communications
  • Business Ethics, Culture and Performance
  • Business Planning
  • Career Management
  • Coaching and Action Learning
  • Consulting and Organizational Development
  • Crisis Management
  • Customer Service
  • Facilitation
  • Free Management Library Blogs
  • Fundraising for Nonprofits
  • Human Resources
  • Leadership
  • Marketing and Social Media
  • Nonprofit Capacity Building
  • Project Management
  • Quality Management
  • Social Enterprise
  • Spirituality
  • Strategic Planning
  • Supervision
  • Team Building and Performance
  • Training and Development
About Feedback Legal Privacy Policy Contact Us
Free Management Library, © Copyright Authenticity Consulting, LLC ®; All rights reserved.
  • Graphics by Wylde Hare LLC
  • Website maintained by Caitlin Cahill

By continuing to use this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy.X