Over the years, I’ve trained many professionals, and just as importantly, many professionals have trained me.

In both situations, I’ve learned something that may seem counterintuitive: More training isn’t usually the answer to professional growth. If it were, I’d be the smartest and most successful person in the business. I’m neither.

So why isn’t more knowledge the answer?

Depending on the source, auto dealers spend upwards of $1 billion each year training their employees. That’s a huge investment, which raises an important question: How much of that knowledge actually gets applied?

At some point post-training, most professionals know what to do, why they should do it, and what outcomes to expect. Yet many, if not most, who participate in training across F&I, sales and service fail to apply what they’ve learned in their day-to-day roles.

Even if you account for the natural 65% drop in training information retention within the first seven days after training, there’s still about 35% of the material that lingers for a few weeks before fading. And even that portion often doesn’t translate into action. Why?

The issue isn’t the quality or quantity of the training. The real culprit is mindset and resolve. Closing the gap between learning and doing starts with us. It requires discipline, risk-taking, discomfort, persistence and sometimes the frustration of relearning. These aren’t exactly appealing traits to promote change, but they’re necessary.

Why Lack of Application?

When F&I professionals are asked why the gap exists, their answers are often consistent. Some say the training is too theoretical. Others will point to a lack of time. Many feel they’re forced to practice new skills directly with customers, which can be costly and uncomfortable. Some say their systems or processes don’t support new approaches. And perhaps the most frustrating, some return from training and their manager doesn’t support the very changes they were sent to learn.

So how do we close the gap between learning and doing?

First, we must decide if we truly want to apply what we’ve learned. If the answer is yes, great. If not, we need to ask ourselves why. Is the material not relevant? Or are we avoiding the discomfort that comes with change?

If it’s the latter, you’re not alone. In my experience, the aversion to discomfort prevents more people from reaching their potential than anything else. Growth requires pushing through that initial pain. Those who do can eventually see the payoff.

Another common obstacle is the desire to “be ready” before taking action. Many people adopt a perfectionist mindset, believing that more preparation will make execution smoother. While that may sound logical, it often becomes a trap. The pursuit of readiness often indefinitely delays action.

Perfectly Ready Isn’t Necessary

The truth is that applying new skills is messy, and we rarely feel fully prepared. Progress begins the moment we take the first step, not when we feel ready. The desire to feel ready is a powerful deterrent to growth. The feeling of being confident and competent the first time we try something different is difficult to obtain.

Or, if we fail in our first few attempts, the discomfort we experience causes us to abandon what we thought was a better way and revert to the familiar comfortable path, limiting our growth and accepting unrealized potential.

This leads to another challenge: focusing too much on the end result instead of the first step. Confidence and competence don’t happen overnight. Applying new knowledge takes patience, repetition and persistence. The discomfort that comes with change is temporary, but the benefits of growth can be lasting. Staying committed through that uncomfortable phase is tough, but it is where transformation begins.

Tech Help

Looking ahead, advances in artificial intelligence-assisted experiential learning may help bridge the gap by allowing professionals to practice in realistic, low-risk environments rather than on live customers. That will certainly help. But until it becomes the norm, the responsibility remains ours.

We have to make a decision: Do we want to improve enough to endure the discomfort that comes with applying what we’ve learned? Training can take us only so far. Real growth happens when we turn knowledge into action, even when it’s uncomfortable, imperfect and challenging.

In the end, closing the gap between learning and doing isn’t determined by how much we know. It’s determined by what we do with the knowledge we have.

John Tabar serves as executive director of training for Brown & Brown.