Now it is much easier to educate yourself technically, the internet has opened hundreds of possibilities to learn, organizations such as AVIXA, Cedia, among others, provide online courses at a lower cost than we paid a few years ago.
Juan Tamayo*
To develop projects with expected returns, in which you can work with planning, making as few mistakes as possible or projects in which at the time of connecting equipment, programming and installing do not become trial and error scenarios, you have to execute education plans within your company. As a designer I have had the possibility to be on several work fronts, I hope that the advice given in this article will help the development of projects.
Before starting we must divide, but not separate, the working groups within the company. Remember that there are commercial staff who are the ones who sell the ideas to the clients and the technical staff who execute them. There must be the right channel of communication and knowledge of the development capabilities of each one.
It's happened to them that their installers say "I don't know how they sold this, if you can't do that." I generally recommend companies that want to enter the world of installation to hire a person with experience in the subject to work in the commercial area or if the technical team is large, locate a technician in the commercial area as an advisor. Remember not to overload this person with work.
Training you should have in your company:
Before starting this differentiation, I want to clarify that I will not talk about commercial training, the sales process is led by people who know the subject. These trainings of which I speak are based on the installation technique and the objective is to carry out a technical growth of your company, to optimize the area of project development.
a. Commercial training in product for sales: this group of trainings help the commercial staff to know the product that is being offered, its fundamental objective is to associate the product with specific purposes of operation. In several companies they require the seller to learn the table of specifications by heart, they believe that it is a plus when closing the business. I distrust these sellers.
What these trainings should look for is to learn to read the specification table to explain to the client what it is for and possible use scenarios. For example, the contrast in a video projector serves to differentiate the black, gray and white tones, the sensitivity of a speaker is related to the sound pressure, among many other examples. Usually the manufacturer delivers this type of training.
b. Technical Product Training: This group of trainings helps technical personnel to know the product, know how to install it, know the possible points of failure, how to solve failures, what a specific product can do and what it can not do. This will help the commercial advisor to quote the project with the right products, because the installer will be able to recommend what and how to use it. Usually the manufacturer delivers this type of training.
c. General Technical Training: when I talk about general I refer to the fact that the installer or the group of technical personnel must be trained in topics that the products do not teach. For example, how to design the pipe for a project, how to install the wiring, management of data networks, mechanical structures, reading of plans, among other topics. This type of training manufacturers do not do it, generally the staff has learned it in trial and error processes (self-taught) or have been trained by third parties, the latter being more profitable for the company, even if the expense is prop.
Why Invest in Employee Education
There are several reasons for the investment, in many companies they still consider it an expense, let's explore some benefits:
- Spending on projects would be reduced due to technical errors. In some projects I have seen that by using the inadequate technique in installation they have to resort to buying elements again to start the project.
- To be able to carry out an evaluation of acquired knowledge to apply in subsequent projects and customer loyalty. Basically you gain faster the experience that many customers are looking for, the satisfaction of a well-done project allows your client to hire you for after-sales such as maintenance or new projects and additionally recommend you to other potential customers. A dissatisfied customer doesn't call you back and will speak ill of your service.
- Opportunity to open new lines of business. By having trained personnel in several areas you can analyze new lines of business. For example, if you only made sound, you can already think about making video, integration among others. Education generates evolution, and evolution delivers transformation.
- And finally, and I think the most important, is the motivation of the employee. Many are afraid to educate why the employee leaves and that money is lost. I consider that they are risks that must be taken, in many cases I have seen contrary situations, in which the educated employee generates feelings of remuneration towards the company, can deliver more because he receives from the company. An uneducated employee can cause the company to not generate enough profitability.
Now it is much easier to educate yourself technically, the internet has opened hundreds of possibilities to learn, organizations such as AVIXA, Cedia, among others, offer online courses at a lower cost than we paid a few years ago, and at that time we had to pay ticket, lodging and other expenses.
Additionally, manufacturing companies such as Audio-Technica have strived to deliver adequate and digested information. A few years ago the manufacturers sent the manuals and one as an engineer had to analyze how to develop the project, now everything is easier, they have engineers like me to explain how to use the products in the development of their projects.
I hope that this information will serve for the growth of your company.
*Juan Tamayo is a senior application engineer for Audio-Technica Latin America, with more than 10 years of experience carrying out audiovisual projects as a designer, integrator, consultant among other functions. You can write to [email protected]
