Profit IdeasCost-to-Serve Math and the Internal Trainer
Dr. Kerri Laryea, President — iKlarity
• management strategies • distribution industry trends • new opportunities for distribution industry • personnel development • leadership training • Distribution Personnel Training and Development • cost-to-serve math • cost-to-serve in distribution
In this video interview, Randy MacLean sits down with iKlarity president Kerri Laryea to discuss Bruce Merrifield's cost-to-serve math program and the role that an internal trainer plays in the process.
As discussed in other videos, cost-to-serve (CTS) is the all-important other side of the equation when it comes to managing finances. After all, no matter how high your margin may be, you can't make money if your CTS is even higher.
Therefore an understanding of CTS math is needed to control costs on that side of the business and, thanks to changes in the market and technology, this understanding is becoming more important than ever.
"When I partnered with Bruce, he'd already had a strong philosophy and message that he's been delivering for some time," Kerri said. "However, as technology has evolved, distributors have an improved ability to use the techniques that Bruce has honed over his decades of distribution industry experience."
"The road to profitability requires getting everybody on-board," Kerri continued. "Things tend to only work as well as people understand them. You want all of your employees to have some understanding of these concepts and to strive for a high level of employee engagement."
"Our CTS training program has a lot of flexibility, but it was primarily designed for use by an internal trainer," Kerri said. "We give that trainer all the tools, videos, and an instructor manual so they can drive change within the organization. The ultimate goal is to deepen the instructor's knowledge and understanding even as he's teaching everybody else. He then steps down and lets one of his trainees become the next instructor."
The beauty of this program's approach is that you aren't just buying a course, you're getting a training resource with the tools to customize that training for your organization. It makes it easier to prioritize the learning process and ensure that employees learn the most important lessons in a timely manner. In a way, you're not just getting one course but instead a variety of courses.
"The program features 49 lessons along with some suggested learning paths," Kerri said. "Bruce and I recommend that employees learn one new lesson each week which would make it a year-long course. Thanks to the learning paths, you can break that material up so your trainees learn the information that might be more relevant to your business earlier on in the process."
Companies that have used Bruce's information have been able to achieve tremendous results, often completely outperforming competitors, without the advantage of having a course. With the help of this course, you might see those same kinds of results in a much shorter time frame.
This new CTS math program can equip your employees with the knowledge and understanding needed to drastically revamp your profitability. Perhaps best of all, the course can be tailored to suit your organization's needs and – since it's a blended course with an online component – can operate completely on your schedule.
For more information about Dr. Kerri Laryea, visit: www.iklarity.com