The value of repetition is often neglected. Let me say that again, the value of repetition is often neglected.
As an example, the popular children’s show Blues Clues repeats the same episode from Monday to Friday each week. Children watch the same episode five times in five days. The developers of the show realized that for the child to really learn the concepts they are teaching that week, that the level of comprehension increases due to the repetition.
As an advisor to business owners, often my clients ask me, “Why do I have to tell my employees the same thing over and over again?” Because sometimes it takes 51 times! The correct answer to this question is that employees need repetition also to thoroughly develop a new skill or habit.
The sales team is the same way. Although it seems more complicated, sales is simply following a system. The best salespeople have repeated their sales system so many times they have become unconsciously competent in the skill. Unconscious competence is the 4th stage in the four stages of learning a skill. There is a lot of repetition involved in learning a skill.
I think the secret is to make repetition our friend and accept it as an important part of business growth. If we stop assuming we only have to explain a change for the better once, we won’t be as frustrated when it takes 51 times.
We are trying to be better at this at our firm too. We have made the mistake of sharing knowledge with our clients once and assuming they remembered everything we said. If we shared it verbally, they may not have been listening that one time! Taking our own advice, we are documenting our recommended actions into different formats, so our clients have access and can review is over and over again.
It reminds me of my old piano teacher – practice, practice, practice. That would be the other time I didn’t appreciate the value of repetition!
