Many franchises seem to undervalue the benefits of training.
The reason could be that they don’t realize that every dollar spent on training can offer a tremendous ROI. Training can quadruple sales, supercharge customer satisfaction, and repeat business, result in much higher employee retention, and offer an amazing return on investment. Every dollar you spend could put $4.00, $5.00 or more in your pocket. It is hard to think of another investment that offers ROI that comes anywhere close to that.
Let’s explore some opportunities you might have overlooked.
Your Workforce Has Changed, But Your Training Hasn’t
How has your workforce changed since you designed your current training programs? Has it been one year, two years, five years or more? If you look at your employees today, you could find that when you designed your training, only 10% of your workers were millennials but that today, 60% of them are. Or maybe only 20% of your employees were native Spanish speakers when you designed your training and today, that percentage has risen to 40%.
Changes like those are not threats. They are opportunities to increase the productivity of your employees with a training investment that pays a significant ROI on every training dollar you spend.
Your Employees Are Now Working in Multiple Locations
Many franchises assume that while most businesses had remote workforces during the Covid-19 epidemic, their franchises didn’t. Is that really the case in your franchise?
Let’s say that you are a retailer that had two stores five years ago, but that you now have 10 stores in five states – yet your training has not been updated. That is not an unusual situation. If similar changes have taken place in your company, it could be time to consider delivering your training to a more widely distributed workforce using mobile technology.
One effective way to deliver training to franchise owners and employees in multiple locations is to start delivering your training on mobile devices. Mobile training lets you train more people, wherever they are, without really spending more money.
You’ve Accepted the Idea that Some Problems Just Can’t Be Fixed
Have you developed blind spots and agreed to live with substandard results in one or two key areas? Maybe you don’t have enough repeat customers, or you are getting negative reviews online. Or perhaps your field technicians do a “pretty good” job of servicing the equipment you sell – they could be doing a little bit better – but hey, that’s good enough, right?
Companies that fall into that pattern are often missing a chance to increase profits by training their employees more effectively. Let’s say that you are a retail franchise that earns $2 million a year from sales on the selling floor. If you can train your salespeople to sell only 10% more on an average transaction – a goal that can be very effectively reached through training – that means that you have the potential to increase your sales by $200,000 by making a training investment that costs a lot less than that.
Training cannot solve all problems. But if you are living with unsolved, nagging shortfalls, turn your attention to training.
You’re Facing High Turnover and Low Worker Satisfaction
This is another area where “good enough” thinking can cost you more money than you realize. For example, it is tempting to think “All these young workers today have low loyalty, they’re not going to stick around anyway, so why throw away money to train them?”
Effective training plays an excessively big role in increasing employee retention. When workers know how to do their jobs better, they experience less frustration and stay longer. When your commissioned salespeople sell more and increase their income, they value their jobs more and are more hesitant to leave. And of course, well-trained employees add more income to your bottom line while they are with you. Because they stay with you longer, you don’t have to spend money to recruit and train their replacements. It is another example of how a modest investment in training can pay you very big returns for every dollar you spend.
So, Is “Good Enough” Good Enough for Your Franchise?
Chances are that you would never say that your products are “good enough,” that your advertising is “good enough” or that your company reputation is “good enough.” Why should you settle for “good enough” for your franchise training?
Lots of new things are happening in business as 2024 begins. Shouldn’t your training be new – and absolutely terrific – too?
About Evan Hackel
As author, speaker and entrepreneur, Evan Hackel has been instrumental in launching more than 20 businesses and has managed a portfolio of brands with systemwide sales of more than $5 billion. He is the creator of Ingaged Leadership, is author of the book Ingaging Leadership Meets the Younger Generation and is a thought leader in the fields of leadership and success.
Evan is the CEO of Ingage Consulting, Delta Payment Systems, and an advisor to Tortal Training. Reach Evan at ehackel@ingage.net, 781-820-7609 or visit www.evanhackelspeaks.com