You have a sunny outlook for business in the next year. What a great problem to have! However, you don’t feel your staff is up to the challenge of meeting the increased needs of your current customers and the demand from new customers for your products. Maybe your sales staff is struggling with the tasks that help them increase your business even more. Perhaps your production employees are having a hard time completing orders at the current rate and you have no idea how they are going to increase their productivity and efficiency. Or, maybe your supervisors are struggling to lead their people amidst their other tasks, such as reporting.
Now is the time to consider training your staff to proactively address the coming demand! But, where do you get training? Here are some ideas:
For Sales/Business Development Staff:
- The B2B/CFO Franchises provide outsourced sales support as well as other services to B2B companies, including manufacturers. They offer free webinars on various sales topics and certification programs for sales leadership. For example, the Sales Xceleration Group offers a Certified Sales Leader program to raise the expertise level of sales leaders.
- Sandler Sales Training is a recognized leader in the sales training space. They have franchises all over the country and offer training in sales, prospecting, sales leadership, account expansion, and personal and professional growth. They offer a yearly Virtual Summit and both online and in-person training courses.
For Production Employees:
- ToolingU – SME offers online courses and manufacturing certifications to help companies build a capable and inspired workforce. They have nearly 600 online classes, virtual labs, instructor-led training, certifications, apprenticeships and consulting to make training convenient for every level of production worker.
- Community colleges also offer skill specific training and certifications in such areas as forklift driver training and welding. With locations convenient to most manufacturing companies, community colleges can be a great, low-cost resource for training your manufacturing employees.
For Supervisors:
- Again, community colleges offer leadership and supervisory training to company employees and this is often a low-cost option for training.
- Many Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) centers offer customized supervisory/leadership training to manufacturing companies. These can be offered onsite or as an open enrollment event.
One thing to remember about any of the training situations above is that, many times, there are grants that can help offset the cost of training for sales, production or supervisory staff. Most grants will cover online training and typically reimburse companies at least 50% of the training cost. Check with your local Job Center to see if they have Incumbent Worker training funding, or with your state’s economic development department to see if they offer grants to cover the cost of training.
There are many options to upskill your workforce and prepare your manufacturing firm for success!
