Improving sales training cycle times for new trainees - An exploratory study

Sales training is a key organizational process used by many firms to develop high-quality salespeople into value-added agents. This development of salespeople as value-added agents can be accomplished in a number of ways. The results of this study suggest cycle time improvements in sales training can be achieved by properly preparing trainees prior to staging role-play exercises. The managerial implications of the results include indications as to how organizations can save on training by reducing the time it takes to effectively train new salespeople as well as evidence that demonstrates that the training enhancers we introduce can increase the initial revenue generating potential of these new salespeople. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.