The Dealer's Performance Comes Back to One Thing: People Performance
January 2010 Construction Equipment Distribution www.cedmag.com 17 Professional Development them to do more with less. These are the people who must be produc-tive and understand what it takes to survive. It's the quality of your people that will make the difference. While there may be no championships, it sure helps with the bottom line. Luxury Vs. Necessity It's been my experience that one of the areas hit hardest by budget cuts is the training function. Unfortunately, train-ing is a term that is many times misun-derstood. Be careful before considering it as a luxury or a nice to have item, unless it is a miscellaneous catch-all line item where inefficiencies are buried. By cutting your training budget just to save money in order to ride out this economic storm, you may actu-ally be doing more harm than good to your organization's bottom line. Training in its simplest form consists of technical and transactional processes. How does the business system work, how does our product differ from the competition, what are the company policies, etc. Even in the service department, managers may place excess time into training, instead of policy, because it is easier to explain. Unless you're planning on increased hiring this year, this function has minimal need. However, when it comes to professionalism, acquiring general knowledge, or acquiring particular knowledge or skills, then education under the term training is something to consider. After all, these are employees who help keep the organization running. If you have poor performance on their part, it could mean poor performance for the organization as a whole. The AED Foundation, with its Personal Development Plans, Self Study Courses, Certification Programs, and Seminars do not merely train your people. It's available to help you educate and develop them. What's the distinction between training and education? Education is what you receive after you have been trained. You see, when you train someone, you teach them what to do. When you educate someone, you teach them how to think. When your kids go to school and learn how to count, that's training; when you teach your kids what counts, that's education. It may be a clichà , but people are our greatest asset. If you value your employees and trust that they will be the ones who keep the company running and successful during these difficult economic times, you are ahead of most companies. Keeping them is important. Show them that you believe in them with professional education and development. n r. Dale Vaughn is president and CEO of OCT Equipment, a Case dealership based in Oklahoma City, Okla. Please visit us in CONDEX Booth 821