Industry education: a major thrust of WMDA.

As Webster states, education is "the action or process of educating or being educated," or "knowledge and development, resulting from an education." The Woodworking Machinery Distributors' Association is proud to be a leader in the education of the sales and service personnel in the woodworking industry. For years, we have offered training for new salespersons and some technical support people at North Carolina State University for dealers, manufacturers and importers of machinery and supplies. This program covers basic wood technology and machinery process with some plant tours and experts from the industry speaking on various relevant topics.

We realized that this fell much too short and an expansion of programs was needed. Hence, in the last two years, we offered our first Service Persons Training Seminar and advanced Sales Training Seminar. Our plan is to use these as a springboard to better educate our industry, followed by regional seminars on specific production disciplines, i.e., rough mill automation, flat panel processing, sanding, finishing techniques and even basic maintenance and technical troubleshooting for the woodworking manufacturers as a whole. These would be very generic seminars with people from all facets of our industry assisting in their curriculum layout and instruction.

I would like to be a little more specific on the seminars we have offered to show you what we feel is needed in our industry to assist the manufacturer of today and the future, but more importantly, to obtain feedback and determine what other views and ideas can be formulated for the betterment of our industry as a whole.

Our basic Sales Training Seminar conducted at N.C.S.U. with the assistance of its Fine Wood Curriculum Department, is held every two years depending on the number of new people in the industry. It is a one-week program that covers many facets of the woodworking industry, such as tooling, rough mill, sanding technology, panel processing, etc. A combination of laboratory, classroom and factory visits offers the attendees a good insight into our industry. In addition, some very basic marketing skills are discussed, such as what a sales engineer needs to know, what the customer expects from the people in our industry and other sales-related topics. In a nutshell, it provides an overview that we hope will be developed by seminars and schools for their individual companies or multiple manufacturers, in the case of full-service dealers.

Many of us who attended this basic training seminar at N.C.S.U. have talked for years of organizing continuing education programs for those who have industry experience and want to further develop their skills via a more relevant presentation on our type of technical distribution. In early December last year, WMDA held a seminar in Chicago given by Dave Kahle of DaCo, who specializes in distribution sales training.

Topics such as relationship building, time and territory management, self-style development of selling plans and strategies, systematic self-improvement, handling objections and controlling the sales process, and selling solutions and avoiding the price war game were discussed. Our industry believes that a relationship must be built between vendor and customer for mutual benefit. A win-win situation is needed and from seminars such as this, we hope to work on our end of improving this relationship. All of us must learn to listen and to ask the right questions. Product knowledge is a must, but we must learn how to get it across to the customer and to learn about his needs and requirements - not what we want to sell them that day!

Equally important, if not more so, is the service and training aspect of our industry - the "after the sale" follow-up that is often forgotten and the long-term problems of keeping the unit running that arise. Our first attempt to solve this dilemma was in the fall of 1993 at the Applied Technology Center at GRCC in Grand Rapids, Mich., where we organized a Basic Service Technician Training Seminar. Each of the importers and manufacturers of machinery obviously have good, well-trained technicians, but we felt there were many holes, and as in the sales side, an overview of the industry was required.

A course outline was developed to cover mechanical, hydraulics, pneumatic and electrical functions of machinery. Equally important, classes on communication and conflict resolution were provided by Stan Bigelow of Interact Corp. of West Virginia. This powerful program revolves around long-term customer satisfaction and includes negotiating solutions to strongly held positions, principles of persuasion through problem-solving, win-win solutions, customer self-awareness and role playing for conflict resolution.

As in all first-time seminars, we learned a lot about how to improve the next one. However, most importantly, in talking to the people in our industry, we found the need for such training seminars, the amount of people interested in helping with these seminars and how much knowledge we really have available if only we can set up the format to get this to the people who need it. Plans are currently being made for future Service Training Seminars with experts from the various importers and manufacturers sharing their knowledge with their fellow industry members.

The last spoke in the wheel is probably the most important, but will also be the most difficult to accomplish without a lot of "pride swallowing." Regional seminars for the wood products manufacturer, for even such things as maintenance and operation training, are a must for our industry to survive and flourish. Plans include basics in mechanical hydraulics, pneumatic and electrical troubleshooting; how to read manuals and schematics; and safety procedures in a wood manufacturing facility. Such seminars could only become successful with assistance from fellow organizations as well as possible joint efforts with groups including universities, trade schools, the Brotherhood of Carpenters, AWI, AFMA, etc.

Obviously, companies are offering training seminars on various levels, but most are specifically geared to a brand of equipment or one facet of our industry. We feel a broader, more generic overview is required in many cases and there is simply nowhere to go for this knowledge. The WMDA wants to follow Webster's advice and take action and continue the process of educating our industry. We welcome your assistance with this endeavor.