ABSTRACT
The word “sell” can have a bad connotation. One definition is “to persuade or induce,” and people associate that with a salesman attempting to get you to buy something you do not want. You just told the salesman you would buy the new car and now he wants to sell you undercoating and a protection plan. Do you need it? Another definition of sell is to cause an idea to be accepted. That definition is closer to what we mean when we say Training within Industry (TWI) must be sold. Even with a program as beneficial as TWI, people still need to be convinced to use it. They are already working a full week and have their own methods to instruct, make improvements, and deal with people. They may be satisfied doing what they are doing, and the change will take effort. Yes, they do have problems, but they have to be convinced that the TWI Programs will solve any of them. Furthermore, there are hundreds of competing programs on the market and who is to say which one is better than another. In addition, TWI was developed over 70 years ago. Isn’t there something better available now? If you just found TWI by attending a conference or reading an article or listening to a friend, you may be impressed by it and think your company should be using it. The caution is to NOT try to sell it at this time. The simple reason is that you do
not know enough about it and a poor start can lengthen its implementation time, or prevent it altogether. Therefore, the first person to whom you must sell TWI is yourself. You must convince yourself that the overall benefits of the TWI Programs will greatly outweigh the associated costs. This means you must study the programs and research them as much as possible. You must become knowledgeable enough so that you can counter the majority of objections that will surely be voiced.
