First choice in training

J&L Industrial Supply earns the 2004 Progressive Distributor Sales Training Excellence Award

by Rich Vurva

Distributors often struggle with how to maintain consistent customer service levels. Can Salesperson A provide the same knowledge level and expertise to customers as Salesperson B? The problem is exacerbated when a distributor’s field salespeople, customer service representatives and outbound telesales force are spread among call centers and offices in multiple cities and time zones.

J&L Industrial Supply tackled that issue and differentiated itself as a metalcutting and finishing expert via a comprehensive employee training program. In the past 12 months, this specialty distributor of metalworking products headquartered in Livonia, Mich., devoted 8,300 hours and more than $335,000 to a variety of training efforts. The company’s hard work earned J&L Industrial Supply the fifth annual Progressive Distributor Sales Training Excellence Award.

“It’s critical that our internal and external sales force be extremely knowledgeable about our extensive product offering, value proposition and service capabilities as well as the nuances of superior selling skills,” says Kim Shacklett, call center director. “That is why J&L has invested a tremendous amount of time and resources to make sales training a top priority.”

Two-tiered training approach
J&L, which calls itself Metalworking’s 1st Choice, follows a two-tiered, institutionalized product training approach. Every employee begins by completing a four-hour basic product identification class. Taught by Rob Gariepy of J&L’s Tech Team, the class familiarizes employees with the metalworking products the company sells and how customers use them. That’s followed by a series of 12 courses on core metalworking commodities. Offered about once a month, the sessions provide in-depth product knowledge of abrasives, grinding, turning, milling and other metalworking tools.

Two weeks after completing each course, employees must take a required test and achieve a minimum score of 80 percent to demonstrate their mastery of the material.

“Six months after completing the course, each person takes a refresher pop quiz to make sure they retained the information and that they’re applying it. Those who fall below the 80 percent score receive one-on-one tutoring,” Shacklett says.

The company maintains a database detailing each employee’s progress. It tracks the names of employees who have taken each course and when they took it, their test score, their trainer’s name and each person’s cumulative grade point average. Managers share the results with employees on a regular basis so they can follow their development.

“We want them to feel good about what they’ve achieved. We also give them a certificate of completion for each course,” says Shacklett.

Core supplier product training
To make sure employees stay up to date on the latest product technology, J&L also partners with strategic suppliers to provide product-specific training on an ongoing basis.

“We partner with our core suppliers to develop more in-depth product training when required,” says Shacklett. “We make sure our suppliers know what we want to accomplish. We give them very detailed guidelines about what we want to accomplish with each group of employees.”

“We don’t want the training to always be supplier-specific, we also want it to be product-specific,” says Gail Magdowski, corporate sales trainer. “Rob Gariepy works hand-in-hand with the supplier to customize the material to focus on the application as well as the features and benefits of the product.”

Following the classroom training, core suppliers schedule joint sales calls with both telemarketing and field salespeople.

Shacklett says the joint sales calls not only capture sales and create enthusiasm with the sales organization, but also help build stronger relationships between J&L people and suppliers.

“We try to identify the sales reps that need the supplier’s help with optimizing applications. The opportunity to close the sale is high through this effort,” Magdowski says.

Suppliers say the approach generates tremendous results.

“I never would have dreamed this approach could be so successful,” says Steve Brandon, the North Central area manager for Lenox. “We had three people in for two days and we got 72 new customers. The dollar volume was about $150,000 to $200,000. So, it’s pretty effective.”

Building better sellers
In addition to the product and application training, J&L works with a corporate sales training firm to provide sales effectiveness training. It teaches inside and outside salespeople how to target accounts, identify decision-makers, qualify account potential, upselling and cross-selling techniques and closing skills.

“Our objective is to make sure everyone is speaking the metalworking language, looking for ways to make our customers more competitive and delivering our value proposition effectively,” says Shacklett.

How does J&L find the time for so much training? You can’t turn off the phones and refuse to talk to customers just because you want to schedule a training session.

One useful tool is Siemens’ Blue Pumpkin software that assists management in making the best scheduling decisions. It schedules training sessions when the system says it’s the most opportune time to pull employees off the phone without negatively affecting customer service levels.

“We’ve been able to accomplish all of this training in the past year with no overtime, and still maintain strong service levels,” says Shacklett.

This article originally appeared in the January/February 2004 issue of Progressive Distributor. Copyright 2004.

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