The development and evaluation of a sales training program

In 1978, Stanton and Buskirk maintained that anyone could be trained to be a salesperson. Even if we accept this assertion to be true, however, we would still need to know what kinds of training, and over what periods of time, would result in the achievement of training objectives. In addition, there are a variety of criteria (such as increased sales, improved presentations, orientation, advanced training, skills development) that describe constituents of effective training. Each trainer is guided by a unique set of objectives. This study began, therefore, with an examination of the literature in order to inform the task of designing an appropriate sales training model. Following the literature review, the most appropriate features of three training models (Nadler, 1982; Goldstein, 1986; and Boyatzis, 1982) were utilized in the development of a specific needs training model, referred to in this study as the Walsh model. The development of the Walsh training model was the first of three major components of this research design. The second major component was the application of the training program (the Walsh model). The third component consisted of the evaluation of the model's educational effectiveness. In this study, the training program was administered at a selected work site where sales personnel received the organization-specific training. Evaluation was carried out via an experimental, repeated measures, 2 x 2 factorial research design utilizing an experimental process comparing those who received training and a control group who did not receive training. All 60 randomly-selected subjects were evaluated on six company-selected indicators of sales performance both before and after training. Based on Campbell and Stanley's (1963) work, this approach was designed to measure key organization-specific criteria that were considered indicative of improved sales performance (after training). There were two primary research questions guiding the study: (1) What effect would training have on sales performance? (2) What differences in training outcomes were the function of previous sales experience? Findings revealed statistically significant differences between the two groups (after training) on five of the six variables measuring sales performance. Interaction effects of previous sales experience were not significant.