Pub 11 2021 Issue 2

10 AUTOMOBILE DEALER NEWS ILLINOIS www.illinoisdealers.com A Training Plan That Matches the Team By Joel Kansanback, Executive Vice President, Brown & Brown Dealer Services W hen you construct a sales forecast and build a train- ing plan around it, you need to consider the talent level on your team. The entire talent and experience level will dictate how complex you can make your plan and what level of execution you can expect. Many times, keeping it simple is just better. Recently I was reminded of coaching a youth football team made up of third grad- ers — yes, that’s a team of eight-year olds. Football requires a lot of teamwork, and each player affects the others’ ability to do their job. When children are eight, they don’t know much about the game. They are lucky if they know their job let alone what someone else’s responsibility is. They for sure don’t know why they are being asked to do what they are being asked to do. On TV, they see throwing, catching and running, for sure not blocking. The coaches in youth football usually played at some level and they have a love and passion for the sport. They can’t wait to share their knowledge and passion with their child. Commonly this passion and enthusiasm is directed at winning or having a kid make a big play. At the beginning of the year, the coaches vow to make it fun, educational and safe for the kiddos. Winning will be a second- ary goal and success will be measured by how many children come out for football next year. When the first practice comes around, we were overwhelmed by what it took to get a group of eight year old’s to do any- thing in a coordinated effort. Regardless we ran drills and repeated the same plays over and over. The coaches maintained their focus on safety and having fun. CONSULTANT’S CORNER