The Tribune

By Scott Farrington

It costs money to provide your people with professional training. The better the training, the more money it costs. The bigger and more important the outcomes, the more you are likely to spend.

Coaching costs money, too. Really good coaching costs much more than you might expect. But if you want to identify the obstacles, improve the present and change the future, and blast through to better performance, you have to pay the price. Remember, you always get what you pay for. There isn’t anything that produces greater results faster than good coaching, but it is not cheap.

Look at some of the world’s best tennis players. These players actually travel with their coach, pay for all incidentals, plus a salaryand bonuses. As we say in the Bahamas, t’aint cheap my friend.

But training and coaching cost in other ways as well. How, you say? Besides the monetary output/cost to train and coach, you have to now find the time, the place, the who, the when and the how. This all takes time to plan and strategise.

This is especially tough with sales. While your people are being trained, they are not producing and are not making sales. The same is true of coaching: It takes time. It is hours away from the work you hired people to do.

I have a saying: “NO CHANGE, NO CHANGE”. Change comes with a price. As you train and coach people, there is a beginning, there is a middle and there never is an end.

The BEGINNING is the hardest. It is like trying to move a giant round boulder. The initial energy expended to achieve motion is the greatest. However, once the boulder begins to move, it becomes easier to keep it in motion.

The MIDDLE is the part of training where consistency is the key. Once you start, you should not stop for obvious reasons. If you stop or take a break, then the big boulder you set in motion begins to slow or change course.

There is no END because once you stop training, two things happen. One is that the boulder will eventually stop rolling, and you are back to the beginning again. The second is, if you stop, you stop covering new ground and achieving new results and change.

But if you believe training and coaching is expensive, try not training and coaching your people. The boulder remains a boulder, and serves no purpose. The real expense is having assets/boulders that are not fully developed/rolling. What is expensive is the time you lose not producing and covering new ground, and achieving the results you are really capable of producing. The opportunity cost far exceeds anything you might pay for training or coaching, regardless of the expense.

If you think training and development is expensive, what is really expensive is not training and coaching your people. So the suggestion is: Begin, Maintain and never End.

All of these marketing strategies are certain to keep your business on top during these challenging economic times. Have a productive and profitable week.

Remember, “those who market will make it’.

• NB: Scott Farrington is president of SunTee EmbroidMe, a promotional and marketing company specializing in uniforms, embroidery, silk screen and promotional products. Established over 27 years ago, SunTee EmbroidMe has assisted local businesses from various industries in marketing themselves. Readers can contact Mr Farrington at SunTee EmbroidMe on East Shirley Street, or by e-mail at scott@sun-tee.com or by telephone at 242-393-3104.