Training in Motion

Motion Industries wins Progressive Distributor Sales Training Excellence Award.

by Richard Vurva

When it comes to training, nobody does it better than Motion Industries. The world’s largest distributor of bearings, mechanical, electrical and fluid power transmission replacement parts and hose products, this $2 billion company operates from more than 500 locations and employs 5,700 people in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. With a footprint that large, it’s imperative to have a structured training program in order to maintain a reputation for providing service that has resulted in multiple performance awards from major customers.

Responsibility for training in the wholly owned subsidiary of Genuine Parts Company falls to the Motion Institute of Industrial Education. Established in 1988, the Motion Institute has trained more than 10,000 people in the last five years alone. 

In recognition of its long-standing commitment to training and education, Motion Industries earns the 2003 Progressive Distributor Sales Training Excellence Award. This year marks the fourth year the magazine has singled out one distributor for its effort to provide ongoing training to employees.

Training is job 1
Training at Motion starts the day a person is hired. Recent college graduates participate in Motion’s corporate sales and management training program. The 15-month program mixes classroom learning with on-the-job training at the branch level.

“We start them off with the very basics like introduction to industrial distribution and take them through various skill sets,” says Danny Waters, director of corporate training.

Formal training includes classroom sessions in Birmingham, Ala., Chicago or Los Angeles every six to eight weeks in sales, fluid power, mechanical power, electrical power, bearings and industrial processes. In between classes, trainees spend the rest of their time at a Motion Industries branch.

“We want them to learn every job in the branch, from driving the delivery truck, working the sales counter and the warehouse, to learning telephone sales, accounts receivable, accounts payable, purchasing and everything that goes on in a branch,” Waters says.

Dave Wigginton is branch manager in Montgomery, Ala., which has 12 employees. All of them have attended at least two of the Motion Institute classes. Wigginton says the courses always receive high marks from branch employees.

“They feel like they’ve gained knowledge and have a better understanding of the products or system they were studying. It not only helps us but it helps them when talking to customers and solving customers’ problems,” he says.

About 60 days after a trainee completes a class, the Motion Institute sends a questionnaire to the trainee’s manager to determine the effectiveness of the training and to gauge how the trainee put the knowledge to use.

Certification and credit
In addition to trainees, veteran salespeople can choose from among 35 course offerings, 12 of which earned college-level status and are certified by the American Council of Education’s College Credit Recommendation Service. 

The Institute offers from one to four levels of training in Motion’s major product groups. For example, there are three levels of mechanical power transmission training, three levels of fluid power training and four levels of electrical training. Plus, 11 industry-specific courses teach employees about the processes used in industries they serve, including paper manufacturing, iron and steel, poultry processing, automobile manufacturing and printing.

“We want employees to learn about the products we represent and how to sell them, but also how to troubleshoot and maintain them,” says Jack Lawley, who attended the Motion Institute as a new hire in 1999 and now sells training to customers. 

Training isn’t limited to new hires and outside salespeople, however. About five years ago, the company developed the Eagle program dedicated to train inside salespeople. The program was started for two reasons, according to Ralph Buntyn, senior vice president of marketing. 

“One was to give formal recognition to our top inside salespeople. Secondly, it was to provide them with additional training so they remain on the cutting edge of new technology, products and skill sets they need to do their job,” he says.

Eagle participants are selected by division managers to attend the 12-month program to train them in sales, product and industry-specific knowledge.

The Motion Institute has grown from two instructors teaching two courses 15 years ago to a growing staff led by Waters and three training managers, plus about 20 part-time contract instructors with subject matter expertise.

“Our instructors are all former salespeople, engineers, maintenance managers and other people that have dealt with maintenance throughout their entire career. They know how to relate the material at a level people taking the class can understand,” says Lawley. 

In 2002, the Institute trained more than 2,000 students. About half of the participants were customers who paid up to $1,350 to attend a five-day course. 

A professional quality, four-color, 28-page catalog details the course offerings.

Part of Lawley’s job is to sell in-plant training to customers. Companies can either choose from the existing course offerings or ask Motion to customize a class to fit their plant’s equipment needs. If a customer can’t fill a 12-person class, they can team with other local companies or participate in a regional program.

“That’s a nice option for the customer that may not be large enough to fill a class by itself, but may not want to go to the expense of having an employee go to Birmingham for a week,” says Wigginton. “It’s an economical way to bring the school to the customer.”

The Motion Institute also has partnership programs with several colleges and universities to provide education for colleges with schools of industrial distribution and to provide technical training programs for local industry.

An investment in the future
Although the fee-based training helps Motion offset some of its training expenses, the Institute is revenue neutral, Waters says.

“We’re really looking to recover the percentage of expenses that represents the customer use of the Institute,” he says.

Despite the cost to maintain a fully equipped lab, classroom facilities and staff of trainers, the company believes education is a wise use of corporate resources.

“Our people are our greatest asset,” says Buntyn. “Keeping those people informed and armed in the 

marketplace requires a training investment. At Motion, training is more than an expense, it’s an investment.”

“Since we started the Motion Institute in 1988, our company has grown fourfold,” Waters says. “We certainly don’t have four times as many employees today as we did in 1988, so that tells us that each employee is making a more efficient contribution to the organization. We couldn’t have grown that rapidly and still maintained our quality and reputation in the marketplace without providing the training.”

This article originally appeared in the January 2003 issue of Progressive Distributor. Copyright 2003.

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