La importancia de la formacion continua/The importance of the ongoing training

What is the problem about the formation in Spain? We had to make a law in order to force insurance companies to train their workers… We had to! So, what is the problem? Don’t we know the importance of it? How are we going to keep our competitiveness?
Unluckily to train workers in a formal way is not very common in the enterprises, specially to their sellers. I guess it’s usual in our personality. And sometimes it is only done to fill the file and to achieve the suitable hours.
We are losing an excellent chance to keep the team more competitive and more motivated, since this is one of the things that people demand.
I usually see sellers with years of experience who believe that they cannot learn anything else. Sellers that are not subscribed to marketing magazines, that read nothing about sales. Even they do not read articles or magazines about the product they sell or the rivalry’s product or the market of the product.
What’s wrong? Why doctors are ongoing trained and they are in contact with news and magazines? Why do the sellers think that the ongoing training is not necessary in his job? This is why the funny, nice and regular-to-bars sellers remain in our country.
I have seen sellers that they hardly know how to use computer software, how to create a PowerPoint presentation or to speak other languages. They are not interested in learning this kind of things. Therefore the annual budget for training of the enterprises is not utterly used, and only a few of us make use of it.
And it is even worst when we talk about learning other languages. “Why the hell do I need English if I only sell in Spain?”, sellers say. I have seen letters of people applying for a job with terrible spelling mistakes. And these mistakes are not only the accents.
What is the answer of these people? “Yo ya tengo el culo pelao”, “By now, nobody is going to teach me how to sell”, etc.
I think training is vital. What make us go forward is the interest in knowing new things, in knowing how to use the technology, etc. Moreover we save time, we are more informed and we are more suitable for our customers. So the customer feels that a conversation with us always means to learn something, to know the innovations of the market, changes in legislation, new products or new focuses of existing products.
Due to that, we will be able to get the status of consultant. We will be asked for advice in new investments or in the purchase of machines. They will be ready to listen to our opinion. This put the rest of the non-trained sellers far away from us.
By the way, do you know where are most of the “culo pelao”-sellers? They are jobless or subordinates.
Here you have a very funny video about the importance of knowing English. I hope you like it.