Robert Herjavec, the “nice Canadian” shark from the hit show Shark Tank, gave a fabulous keynote speech at the CallidusCloud C3 event. He was everything you would expect him to be…exactly what you see on TV.  He shared fun behind-the-scenes Shark Tank stories, and sales advice for professionals, and entrepreneurs.  There was one quote, however, that resonated the strongest for me: “Talent doesn’t scale.”

“A” Players in Training

I’ve recently been referring to “talent” as “A” Players. These professionals train themselves.  They’re learning, adapting, and continually moving forward with or without formalized training. The unfortunate reality is that you can’t just go out and hire a bunch of high performing A-Players.  These A-Players are the talent he is referring too.  And they don’t scale!

Defining the Process

This is where training comes in. However, there is one step that needs to happen first: Define the process.  The point Herjavec made was simple.  Everybody is out there selling “the best _______”.  Most products actually don’t sell themselves. You aren’t going to close on a deal because you have the best product… and because you’re awesome. You’re going to close deals because you have a sales process that works for whatever widget you sell, into whatever market.  And process scales!

Spread The News

So, now THIS is where training comes in.  Your A-players have defined a process that works. And now it is your job as the training leader to spread the news. This is your time to shine because training enables the scaling of business processes across all of your human resources. Quality process training can turn your C-players into B-players, and who knows you might even get your “B”s to become “A”s.  The only thing that is certain is that your process training is the only option available.  Somehow non-A-players must LEARN, and practice, the process. And training is the only department equipped with the ability to make that happen. This is YOUR time! (hat tip: Herb Brooks)

Love Your Learners!

Do your learners love your training courses? Are you respectful of their time and provide the right content, at the right time, in the right format, in an engaging style? It’s not just sales teams that have talent that doesn’t scale. The rest of the organization has the same problem. So, no matter what department your developing training for, or who your audience is, do everything you can to love your learners.