Sales Strategy
Jimmy DeGroot: I just spent $600,000 on a Teaching Moment May 22, 2025 (0 comments)
Appleton, WI--Drawing from his leadership experience at WD-40 Company, Garry Ridge recalls a story that’s been passed down from early IBM leadership where an employee made a very expensive mistake valued at $600,000.
Naturally when the mistake was discovered the employee thought he was going to get fired. But IBM founder, Thomas Watson said, “I just spent $600,000 educating that man. Why should another company benefit from that investment?”
In Garry’s Book, “Any Dumbass Can Do It,” he highlights the importance of embracing mistakes as "learning moments" within an organization. Garry used learning moments to build security and trust within WD-40 by encouraging them and not making them punitive. This allowed the culture of WD-40 to flourish and thus to enjoy employee turnover rates in the single digits. It’s an understatement to say that Garry is big on culture. In his mind, it’s everything. Cultural transformation begins with employees first feeling truly heard and then feeling safe.
Does your store provide a safe environment where your team feels truly heard? Do they have reason to feel their job is in jeopardy on a monthly basis if they don’t hit certain goals? Is your employee turnover rate higher than your inventory turn? Think about how working on your culture could create a happy, healthy, wealthy place to work. Perhaps pick up Garry’s book and learn from the best. Any dumbass can do it.
James (Jimmy) DeGroot is a professional jewelry sales and operations trainer from the jeweler’s side of the counter. Having been in management and the jewelry business for over 20 years, Jimmy offers weekly training to jewelers nationwide via the Train Retail website. Jimmy is an AGS titleholder and specializes in training relevant and timely methods for jewelry teams. He can do a full training on making Bridal Presentations the best they can be, among many other regular training options. Contact Jimmy at jimmy@trainretail.com or call 920-492-1191.