During May and June, US pilots identified being “rusty” – after not flying for months – as a partial reason for more than a dozen “mishaps” according to the Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS).
That’s worrying. But pilots are not the only ones feeling rusty. Many businesses get the sense that the training they are buying (and the trainers delivering it) are a little rusty too.
COVID has changed the world and it has changed what your clients need from you. We need to ensure that what we deliver is fresh.
We’re always going to feel ‘rusty’ unless we refresh our knowledge consistently.
As Alvin Toffler famously suggested: we need to learn, unlearn and relearn.
It’ particularly true for training professionals delivering the learning!
Learn Unlearn Relearn
The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn
Alvin Toffler
Sometimes we don’t unlearn. Instead we rely on skills, techniques and knowledge that are long past their sell-by-date.
Like an example? 
Recently, my nephew texted asking me what I thought of the old-school “break up email.” “It guilts them into responding,” he was advised.
Not familiar with this old-fashioned (out-of-date) sales technique?
Here’s how it works:
In a last-ditch attempt to get a client to respond to your emails, you could send them your “break up email” like this:
Since you haven’t responded to my email, you must either be:
A. Climbing the seven highest peaks
B. Practicing your Olympic dive
C. Really busy – I’ll take you off my list of interested people but if you become less busy, please schedule a quick call in my diary via [YOUR DIARY LINK]”
Though you may have laughed, you likely also cringed. It’s not exactly the most modern, fresh, or authentic approach is it?
So imagine for a moment that you have someone training your salespeople to use this discredited and ‘last-century’ sales technique!
You’d want your money back!
Fresh Modern Validated
To energize your team for today’s buyers and challenges, it’s critical to work with a learning professional or training company who refuses to depend on out-of-date, ‘rusty’ training.
Likewise, you don’t want to work with any consultant relying on research published prior to January 2020. So much has changed since COVID.
(If the consultants you’re talking to are still quoting the debunked Mehrabian study published in 1971 or something else of that vintage then thank them for their time and put down the phone.
Fresh, modern, authentic and up-to-date is the kind of training your team deserve.
Customized Practical ‘Bespoke’
Off-the-shelf training may be better than no training, but it’s designed for the masses and it’s probably the same thing that people have been training for years.
What people really want is training that’s right for them, right for their business and right for their current challenges. Some people call this ‘bespoke’.
When I first presented sales training in the UK, my client introduced me to the delegates and suggested that my training was “bespoke.”
I had never heard the word ‘bespoke’ before but she said it like it was a good thing.
Now, it’s become my favorite way to describe customized, personalised and up-to-date training material.
Reflects Real World Challenges
Training design must be based on real-world, meaningful situations that reflect the kinds of challenges that you are facing in your business.
Training that is fresh, modern, authentic and bespoke will always be more effective than that which is out-of-date, redundant or ‘rusty’!
What additional thoughts and personal learnings can you share?
