Learning Pays for Those Willing to Develop New Skills
By Alan Donahue
I created the rule as a reminder to myself that we are constantly bombarded with new products, new procedures and new processes. Learning is like a life jacket in today’s fast-paced world so you don’t sink below the waves of inevitable change.
Over the years I have written a set of 19 rules for my life. Most of them come from a career in sales and management, plus a few from parenting. Rule No. 16 says, “Never stop learning.” I created the rule as a reminder to myself that we are constantly bombarded with new products, new procedures and new processes. Learning is like a life jacket in today’s fast-paced world so you don’t sink below the waves of inevitable change.
Ultimately, we have two basic responses about learning — acceptance or resistance. Resistance is like a self-inflicted wound. If you want to have a successful career you need to keep learning. If you want to have a successful personal life you need to keep learning.
I had an extremely, overprotective mother and she never let me learn how to ride a bike. When I was 32, my daughter Destiny told me one day, “Dad, I am going to teach you to ride a bike so we can ride together.” I was intrigued staring down that fork in the road of acceptance and the road of resistance. I decided to go with it.
My patient daughter helped me become a skilled rider, and for 10 years we road mountain bikes together. I feel lucky that I did not break any bones as we rode trails, creeks and hills on our adventures. I am glad I said yes, and I learned a whole new hobby in the process.
Learning Takes Initiative
Beth, who works for me in my Memphis, Tennessee, showroom, took a turn down a daring road of learning. Because they are a smaller location, her counter team would need help from time to time.
Beth decided she would step up to the counter and learn how to help the plumbers. She learned new part numbers, some new customers and also plumber lingo. Her counter team seriously appreciated the help, and her plumbers were glad she understood more about their end of the business. I asked her how it was going and she said, “I feel more confident every time I go back there and every time a plumber seeks me out!” The amazing thing is that Beth undertook learning the parts counter by her own initiative.
I believe successful people crave learning new things. Sometimes it is exhausting but I believe it is always rewarding. One of the things we are weak on in our industry is teaching and training. A self-starter who actively seeks out learning opportunities will continue to grow. Just remember to encourage your people who do this. Let them know that somebody appreciates them.
Do Not Give Up
My daughter Amber has an employee that is older and she has given up on learning new things. In her case it has made her unproductive and stagnant. Some of the smartest and most motivated people I know are her age, but they have kept on learning.
Also, people who will not learn are a liability. They will not be able to stay up to speed with other team members. Two sales people I have lost had completely abandoned their desire to learn anything. It is a warning sign. Both of these people started out as amazing employees, but at some point, they decided to stop learning anything and consequently took a nose dive in customer service abilities. When customers asked them, “Can you help me,” their response was some form of, “No.”
I hate telling a customer I cannot help them and it has resulted in me learning more and more in the plumbing wholesale industry. Here is the thing: you may not know the exact answer to a question, but do you know somebody who does?
Karen, one of our plumbing customers in south Arkansas, called me and inquired, “Do you know anything about State commercial water heaters?” I was honest with her and said it was a weak area, but if she gave me the information I would check it out. She is a good details person — she had the model number and serial number off of a 20-year old water heater her husband was working on. They needed to know if they could still get a gas valve for it.
I fired off an email to one of my State sales reps named Tanner with all the information. He is the go-to guy for all things State Water Heater related. Within a few hours Tanner had found a gas valve for the heater and sent me pricing and availability. It is OK not to know as long as you know somebody who does know. Then use that as a learning opportunity. I am not likely to try and become a State Commercial Water Heater expert, but I did learn that even 20-year-old units still have parts available.
How to Develop Staff Skills
What are some steps you can take to learn more? Your company may offer some internal training opportunities. We offer training modules on different areas of plumbing sales from the ASA. They are electronic training sessions so they can be done at your own pace. Also, when doing something like this, take notes. Notes help imprint things you learn onto your memory.
Learn from your team. We have a total of five showroom people at our company. We maintain a group text for asking questions and also for sharing things that we have learned. Beth and Savanha are the best with our sales order entry system. It may be difficult to reach our amazing IT guy Chad, but we know that these two people might be able to answer our question easily.
Learn from your vendors. Vendors like Kohler and Delta have trainings available online. Both make them mandatory to different degrees. Also, their web-based trainings contribute points to their sales performance incentive fund (SPIFF) programs. That is right: Learning pays! To go along with that, if you have an opportunity to visit a vendor, do it. The two most amazing vendors I’ve visited were Delta Faucet and Hansgrohe. I received hands-on training on their products and got to meet some of the engineers and designers who created the product.
In closing, when I think of learning I think of Jango, my golden retriever. He is 8 years old, but I find that saying of “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks” completely false. Despite his age, Jango loves learning. Because he mastered voice commands years ago, I started working on hand commands. He has learned them extremely fast. And I can tell he wants to learn even more. If it’s tru that an old dog can still learn new tricks, what’s your excuse?

Nearly 30 years ago Alan Donahue declared to his wife he would “accept any career as long as it’s not in sales”. That was just prior to his accepting a sales position at Falk Plumbing Supply. Today, Donahue, Falk Plumbing Supply’s showroom manager, loves helping his staff learn to be great sales people by focusing on the customer’s needs instead of the sale.
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