by Chuck Holmes

To the casual observer, sales training at Bearing Service Inc. looks a lot like sales training at any number of other distributors. But, like the proverbial iceberg, what you see is only a small fragment of what is really there.

What you see is on-the-job training (OJT), off-site training using non-distribution resources, and some on-site training using imported facilitators. What makes it different from the plain-vanilla sales training so often found in distribution is the level of planning and preparation the Livonia, Mich.-based power transmission distributor puts into its training and the constant review to make sure it’s working (and to effect changes if it’s not).

Because of its training efforts, Bearing Service was named recipient of the first Progressive Distributor Sales Training Excellence award. A joint effort between the magazine and Corporate Strategies Inc. of Atlanta, the award will be given annually to a distributor that demonstrates a commitment to educating salespeople in the skills necessary to set themselves apart from the competition.

Sales training is part of Bearing Service’s efforts to solve problems and create opportunities; it doesn’t just happen in a world of its own. The account manager program is a good example.

“Outside salespeople go where the money is,” says LeRoy Burcroff, director of sales. “There are a lot of good medium and small accounts out there that don’t get enough attention.”

Bearing Service’s solution to the problem is to turn inside salespeople into account managers.

“The first step is to identify inside salespeople who can make the leap from reactive to proactive,” he says.

Such people are provided with an account list to research to determine what customers are buying and what they should be buying. Then they come into Burcroff’s office for a day of mentor training, with Burcroff as the mentor.

Using a phone with two headsets (only one of which has a microphone), Burcroff demonstrates the proactive sales call, using the account manager’s list. After the new account manager observes several calls, they switch headsets, with Burcroff auditing the account manager’s calls. He provides the trainee with a list of what he calls “lockjaw preventers” to help him (or her) get through the first calls with a minimum of problems.

In addition to one-on-one training, all 17 of Bearing Service’s salespeople receive ongoing product training, as well as OJT in the form of buddy calls.

“The person going with the salesman on a buddy call depends on the problem they’re solving,” Burcroff says. “If it’s an operations problem, the salesman’s buddy is one of our operations people.”

Burcroff also sends his salespeople through the Dale Carnegie sales course and has occasional on-site seminars using outside experts. He always scouts the outside resources before he puts them in front of his sales team.

“I want to make sure that I don’t waste their time. I don’t want them sitting in training thinking they could spend that same time better making calls,” he says.

Sales logs from both the account managers and outside salespeople provide Burcroff with a constant stream of information to analyze.

“It doesn’t take a lot of time to review the logs,” he says. “And, it helps us find areas where individuals need more help. If we find someone who needs computer training, for instance, we make sure that he gets it.”

According to Burcroff, sales training works at Bearing Service because the management team is supportive and the sales team is enthusiastically receptive.

“One of my jobs,” Burcroff says, “is to make sure there is enough take-home value in any training they get, that they are enthusiastic about the next training.”

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