Due to the slumping economy, a friend of mine recently made a pretty big career change that landed him his first sales job.

Interestingly enough, and to the surprise of my friend, the company hired him without having any previous sales experience or knowledge about the product offering he would be required to sell.

His first week on the job, he was required to shadow another sales rep in the field to “learn the ropes” before being thrown into the fire and given his own territory.

The “training” that he received during his first week, he told me, barely got him by once he was let loose on his own. In fact, he had to go out and procure new business leads in an industry he previously had no knowledge about or any formal sales training. So, it should come as no surprise to learn that he struggled his first few weeks on the job and wanted to quit.

Although he has struggled in his new sales role, my friend has been able to procure just enough business to bring home a decent paycheck. However, he says he wishes his company would offer him some formal sales training or education because to this day, he still has only received one week of “training.”

Sadly, sales reps in distribution operations across the country can relate to my friend. In fact, when speaking with an industry sales coach last month, he told me that only 5 percent of all jan/san distributors are actually investing in educating or training their salespeople.

So like my friend’s company, I’m saddened to hear that distributors are sending their inexperienced salespeople out into the field that don’t know the true meaning of how to sell and are likely losing out on opportunities because of inexperience.

Although the economic climate may not be the best time to send salespeople to education seminars or training classes, distributors should still be investing in their sales employees and helping them learn the best practices of salesmanship.

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