Question

Hypothetical Telecommunications Discussion

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Please read the case and answer the questions at the end. Please respond to two of your peers. Do you agree or disagree?

Sales at a large telecommunications company were down for the third quarter. Management reviewed several strategies to improve sales and concluded that one solution would be to improve training for the large, dispersed sales force.

For the sake of expediency, the training department began using a needs assessment it conducted several years before as a basis to develop enhanced training. The plan was first to update the original needs analysis, and then to develop new training strategies on the basis of what it found. The department also began investigating new training technologies as a possible means to reduce training delivery costs. However, management was so intent on doing something quickly that the training department was ultimately pressured into purchasing a generic, off-the-shelf package by a local vendor.

One of the features of the package that appealed to management was that the course could be delivered over the Web, saving the time and expense of having the sales force travel to the main office to receive training. Hence, even though the package was costly to purchase, the company believed that it was a bargain compared to the expense of developing a new package in-house and delivering it in person to the sales force.

Six months after the training had been delivered, sales were still declining. Management turned to the training department for answers. Because no measures of training performance had been collected, the training department had little information upon which to base its diagnosis. For lack of a better idea, members of the training department began questioning the sales force to see if they could determine why the training was not working.

Among other things, the salespeople reported that the training was slow and boring and that it did not teach them any new sales techniques. They also complained that, without an instructor, it was impossible to get clarification on things they did not understand. Moreover, they reported that they believed sales were off not because they needed training in basic sales techniques, but because so many new products were being introduced that they could not keep up. In fact, several of the salespeople requested meetings with design engineers just so they could get updated product information.

Questions:

1. Outline the key decisions made from the beginning to the end of this case. Who made each of those decisions, and why?
2. Describe the ideal process for handling the concern about declining sales, ignoring for now the pressure from management.
3. What arguments could be made to convince management that working with an outdated needs assessment is not wise?
4. If you were asked to develop a training program for these sales agents, what content, method, and media would you choose? Explain your answers as best you can, given the limited information provided.

Source: Excerpted from Eduardo Salas and Janice A. Cannon-Bowers, “Design Training Systematically,” in Edwin A. Locke (ed.), Handbook of Principles of Organizational Behavior (Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 2000).

Answer 1

ANSWER 1:

Key decisions made:
1. The management decided that the solution for declining sales was to provide training for the large, dispensed sales force.
2. The training department decided to use an existing needs analysis as a basis for developing enhanced training.
3. To save time, the training department decided to purchase a generic, off-the-shelf package by a local vendor.

ANSWER 2 :

The ideal process for handling the declining sales would have been to carry out a root cause analysis involving all different stakeholders- salespeople, design engineers, training department, management and other relevant departments. This would enable to zero in on the exact causes for declining sales. Based on the outcome of the discussion, a new comprehensive strategy needs to be developed. The strategy should address all identified causes and should include the key metrics which could be tracked to ensure the success of the initiative.

ANSWER 3 :

Working with an outdated needs assessment is not wise due to the following reasons:
1. The business environment and business dynamics have changed tremendously which means the old framework is outdated and cannot be expected to deliver results.
2. The training framework was one-dimensional and does not take into account the feedback/ demands from sales staff, rather it just pushes the information onto them.
3. The existing framework does not include any of the modern sales techniques. It focuses only on the old traditional sales techniques, which the sales force is already aware of and would find to be repetitive.
4. The existing framework does not have the capability to deliver information for the large number of new products being introduced effectively.

ANSWER 4:

To develop a training program, I would first identify the key objectives that need to be achieved with the training program. The objectives should be specific and measurable so that we are able to measure the effectiveness of the training later. The content would include both modern sales techniques and updated product information on all new products. The content will be developed taking into account inputs from all departments and stakeholders. The method should be in the form of bite-sized videos which the audience would find engaging. Each of the video would be followed by a multiple choice assessment to ensure the effectiveness. Further, the content should be delivered via booth mobile and web, with an option for the salesforce to clear their doubts. The metrics should be tracked continuously to ensure that the training program is achieving its objectives. The program will also be updated based on feedback from the sales staff.

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