LMA NEWS LETTER

"The only thing more expensive than education is ignorance. If you think training and developing people costs money, think of the cost of not doing anything!"

The last 3 years  has produced some dramatic developments by IT suppliers. The pace of innovation and change has become 'staggering'. The internet, growth of e-commerce and fierce competition in the year 2005 and beyond will place ever increasing  demands on  supplier companies to train and develop there sales, support and management teams. The current economic situation remains in question and suppliers face ever changing circumstances.

This year LMA have once again helped many IT companies with their training and development needs via 'tailored' in-company courses and  a series of public workshops.

WHY TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT?

Training consumes time and money and employs human resources. It  should be viewed like any other business investment and be cost  effective with a good return on investment.

With clear objectives, proper planning and co-ordination and good management, the success of a company will depend upon the  effectiveness of individual sales and pre sales support people. 
Improving the performance of key individuals who interface with prospects/customers will improve the overall revenue performance of a company.

The factors affecting the performance of a sales and pre-sales 
support people are shown in the formula:

Performance is a function of the reaction between the individual (I) and his/her environment (E).

The variable factors in the individual are his/her skills (s), knowledge (k), attitude (a)and motivation (m).

The variable factors in the environment are the rewards (r), job (j), leadership (l) and circumstances (c).

Management should aim to raise the value of 'each' of these factors.

Training directly affects skills and knowledge, it indirectly affects
attitudes and motivation.

Training should be seen as a continuous process designed to:

The overall training and development plan should include:

A company which does no training risks being outstripped by the competition or caught out by market changes. A company which conducts bad training risks the dissatisfaction of people, poor motivation and possible high turnover of sales and support people.

A company which conducts the right kind of training - for the right reasons - with the active support of senior management - makes a very valuable investment in its future and its most important asset - people.