A few weeks ago I ran a free online training webinar for the IGD. It turned out to be a record breaking attendance for the IGD with nearly 1,000 people signing up. What was the topic that got so many people excited?….5 Excel shortcuts that will change your life.
So, why did Excel draw such a crowd? Employees within the FMCG industry spend most of the time at their desks working in spreadsheets, whether they’re looking at forecasts, analysing EPOS, planning promotions, reconciling promotion performance or tracking JBPs. How many of these people have had formal Excel training relevant to their jobs? The answer is very few and many people are reticent to admit that their skills aren’t where they need to be for fear of looking stupid.
So when you’re thinking about your team’s development plans for the year ahead, consider how efficient they are in Excel and whether they would tell you if they weren’t. In my time running this company I haven’t met anyone who doesn’t think they would benefit from Excel training. How much time could your team save on spreadsheet work that could then be spent with your customer building relationships and selling? If you make it ok for your people to admit they’re not great at Excel and provide them with training, you’ll reap the benefits of a more productive team. Just one day’s training will result in more confident employees as well as more accurate calculations and analysis which all help to build credibility with customers.
Everyone I’ve trained in Excel has said the course has been more relevant and applicable for their roles than any other course they’ve been on. Please get in touch if you’d like to see what I could do for your team.