Where does professional Quality training fit into your organization’s business model? Many folks reading this post come from small to mid-market companies, entrepreneurships and startups. Yup. I can see you cringe as you read this question.
Professional quality training most likely falls far down on your to-do list, if it’s there at all. You have bigger fish to fry, like revenue generation, for starters. Like securing investors for your startup. Like meeting payroll.
However, the folks receiving professional Quality training typically work for larger companies. Therein lies the problem. Therein lies a tremendous opportunity as well.
Professional Quality training for yourself and your staff more than likely isn’t part of your business model. Will it ever be?
Let’s say you sell for small to mid-market companies. Perhaps you are the CEO of your startup (and the Chief Sales Officer!). You assume your company’s products, platforms and services will work, as promised, once delivered and implemented. Professional Quality training and processes are part of the design and implementation of your deliverables, aren’t they? What happens when the company you are working for has an inconsistent, or band-aid, approach to implementing quality practices and procedures? Ouch, there goes your bottom line.
What if you are a sales engineer working for small to mid-market companies or the CEO of your startup (and the Chief Sales Engineer!). How involved are you in professional Quality training, processes and procedures, for your company? Do you assume the behind-the-scenes quality issues are being addressed?
If you are the CEO of your small to mid-market company or startup, is professional Quality training addressed if and only if the customer complains or returns product or cancels an order? Hmmm. Are you using your early adopters as a beta-test for your minimum viable product which is way too minimum and hardly viable? Lack of attention to quality issues, early on, can create negative market receptivity to your eventual offering.
Professional quality training seems like a luxury only well-established, larger companies can afford. Most quality professionals seek positions with these larger companies. The quality status quo reinforces itself. As a quality professional working for a large company, there is some assurance of job security and less risk. Larger companies have been in business for longer. Their legacy manufacturing and production models are equated with a solid quality culture. Hopefully.
What happens to quality input-throughput-output when small to mid-market companies, entrepreneurships and startups are involved? What is this impact on your competitiveness and your profitability?
There are more than a few small and nascent companies who feel they are on the outside of the Quality scenario, looking inward. It seems to me that there are a lot of assumptions and mis-assumptions being made. I also feel that small to mid-market companies and startups are grossly underserved when it comes to professional Quality training.
What has been your experience selling, supporting, and founding products, services and platforms for today’s globally competitive market space? Where does professional Quality training fit into your competitive arsenal?
Babette N. Ten Haken, Founder & President of Sales Aerobics for Engineers, LLC, traverses the sales-engineering interface®, bringing entrepreneurial mojo to small and mid-sized businesses in the manufacturing and service sectors. She builds revenue-producing business strategies for technical startups. She provides you and your colleagues with an arsenal of collaboration tools and communication skills required for today’s globally competitive marketplace.
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