Cannon sales training: What to do when instructors can't be copied - Brief Article

T+D, June, 2002 by Darin E. Hartley

Mitch Bardwell, director of the sales training division in the Imaging Systems Group of Canon USA, faced a conundrum. He had 41 employees in the training division but needed to train even more than the usual 5000 to 6000 sales staff per year. He couldn't seem to scale the learning fast enough to meet Canon's growth. Bardwell knew that throwing more bodies at the problem wasn't going to meet the voracious training demand; he needed to gain efficiencies at a level that adding more instructors couldn't address effectively.

Over the past five years, training demand at Canon has changed dramatically since its products took a radical evolution. For years, Canon copiers were stand-alone systems, which required less formal training for the salespeople to support. With the advent of digital networked systems, Canon's product line became immediately and exponentially more complex.

Says Bardwell, "We went from selling tennis shoes to space shuttles." At one point, the training organization trained more than 6250 salespeople in a year, across more than 14 sales training channels and further complicating the company's learning need.

Bardwell's team is responsible for directing all sales training efforts for the Imaging Systems Group, including individual product divisions and dealer channels, to provide the sales and marketing techniques needed to keep salespeople competitive and competent in the marketplace. He monitors the division and supervises operational and business matters, with each department manager reporting to him. Bardwell also authorizes the development, release, distribution, and delivery of all Canon ISG sales training courseware. The five departments he oversees follow.

Administration is responsible for records to satisfy fiscal and operational requirements. The primary functions are budget and procurement, learning management systems, and national and international scheduling and logistics.

Strategic planning is responsible for long-term planning, performance improvement, and industry business intelligence. The primary functions are knowledge management, courseware marketing, and industry affiliations.

Project development is responsible for creating and developing Canon ISG sales training-instructor-facilitated and self-study courseware. The primary functions are project planning, courseware asset management, and courseware master production.

Distribution is responsible for taking all ISG sales training courseware from development to delivery. The primary functions are discipline management and courseware licensing, distribution, and authorization. As the interface between courseware development and delivery, this department handles self-study courseware distribution, as well as the preparation of instructors who facilitate the courseware. This department monitors for quality assurance in new courseware and plans for maintenance of courseware in delivery.

Delivery is responsible for ISG sales training field operations throughout Canon Americas. The primary functions are field marketing, field scheduling and logistics, and instructor development. As the primary delivery channel, this department schedules events and brings all of the required resources together to provide a high-quality learning experience. Delivery promotes and markets the programs, develops expert facilitators, and makes all of the necessary arrangements for facilities and equipment, while keeping critical records of events and performance.

The current sales training division has been around for about 15 years. The primary focus of learning when the division was founded was sales skills for the dealer sales-force. At that time, Canon invested in the trademarked SPIN (Situation, Problem, Implication, Need) selling, which was also adopted by other large Fortune 100 companies. Most overseas competitors in that market space didn't train their sales-forces in SPIN-based programs, which Canon believes gave it a competitive advantage. Dealer managers also received training in the SPIN programs, which were used holistically inside Canon's dealer channel. That is, there was ongoing support, practice, and reinforcement of the skills and knowledge gained in the classroom sessions. The sales training division grew from seven to 40 people over three years.

As valuable as the sales training program was, there were some issues and limitations. The biggest issue: the long waiting list for classes for salespeople in the field. It could be several months before participants could attend the courses they needed. Because of that delay, it was difficult to achieve reinforcement and learning support. In addition, Canon was footing the bill to train its entire dealer network. This investment in learning set Canon apart from other manufacturers, and the company decided to continue to expand the training division with additional human capital.

Checking out e-solutions

Bardwell was in a different situation than many of his training peers: Demand was evident, and the business need was proven. So, it wasn't hard to identify new and improved ways to satiate the learning demand. In fact, Canon's leaders wanted to leverage technology across the company in as many ways as possible. Consequently, Bardwell had plenty of management support as he started research on viable learning technologies and systems.