Enhancing the credibility of the training functionInvolving line managers in sales trainingRakesh, the training manager of Direct2U, wasdenied funds toconduct any training for line managers at Direct2U by SanjayShah, the CEO of Direct2U as thefirm was not in a profitablesituation that he could notallocate more money for thetraining of the line managers although the necessity of thetraining was very much crucial and essential.Rakesh was looking for somealternatives and in-hand statisticsto convince Shah. Rakesh was working in the company from thepast 3 years and handled the R&D single handedly. Thecompany wasnt able to achieve its target of last year and thisyear too it was struggling to achieve 75% of the targets. Rakeshwas a part of the sales management team and thus understoodthe importance of this training program .As the sales team wasnot performing well rakesh wanted training for Line managerswho would coach the sales teamand improve the firmsproductivity. Asthe firms profit wasrelatively downShah wasnot ready to invest on training this left Rakesh in a statetogather more points to convince Shah.Rakesh was the perfect fit for the job of training manager atDirect2U ashe hadworked as Sales representative,Area

Manager and then Regional manager for 10 years and had goodexperience .Even though Rakesh nothaving any qualificationfor the job of training manager but his experience in sales madehim get this job. Rakesh always updated himself ontrainingprocess and his interest inOn-The-Job training impressed theinterview panel and he got the job.Rakesh training program was quite innovative and unique,avoiding the overused lecture method as long as he could.Hisexperience in industry helped himdesign training programswhich had a lot of scopeof interaction; feedback, experiencesharing and practice.It included some real life casesandanecdotes. Using a lot of role plays toreinforce the learningskills and points.However, Rakesh satisfaction level was lowasthe outputof the training was not used practically.Inefficiencyof line managers was pushing the results down. Field visit gaveRakesh a better understanding; Rakesh understood that noneof the line managers and SRs was practicing the methodstaught at training programs. Rakesh was personally told by oneof the SRs about the feedback theyreceive from their Linemanagers regarding training programs which wasdiscouragingto apply the methods learnt during training and rather forcingthem to be practical while dealing with customers. Also, the SRswere convinced that classroom programs are just a waste oftime and were staunch believers in the philosophy of On theJob Training. Rakesh never had issues with this method but his

experience had taught him that OJT was just a wayto learnshortcuts and thumb rules which caused more harm in thefuture as the SRsdidnt gain any value addition.Rakeshunderstood from the field visit thatmany managers believethat some men were born as salesmen and no person couldbecome a good salesman through training. They felt thattraining programmes were essentially paid vacations for theemployees and were seldom willing to send their employees ontraining programmes.Rakeshs dream of establishing a proper training scheme was ina state of getting washed away when herealized himself aboutthe cost cutting programs the firm is planning to take up andhis job at stake. Rakesh was successful in impressing the CEOabout the training program but due toas the company was notable to meet its revenue targets,so in order to meet profittargets,companywas not ready to spend moreon T & Dprogram on the contrary they are looking for the cost cuts.The return on investment, ROI for money spent on training wasnot tangible.This was the major concern for Rakesh.Mr. Shahbeing skeptical about the training proposal brought out byRakesh. Rakesh putting all his efforts for the last 6 months intodeveloping a training program on coaching for line managersbecause he believed that they needed to bebetter equipped tomentor and coach sales representatives work with them. Shah