Reflecting on my own personal work experiences, I can think of two training instances that stand out as effective and ineffective. During my time working for a large payroll company, my manager started “Coffee Club”, an informal space for realistic, non-corporate training for reps that had been with the organization less than a year. On paper, it sounds like a great idea, but it quickly became the least productive and most frustrating part of my week. The “trainings” started at 7:30 AM and required a long commute through traffic just to turn around and have to drive back the other direction for client visits. My manager often came unprepared, asking us what we wanted to talk about, or repeating the same content from prior sessions. Since most of us already had sales experience, the material was not new or applicable to us, and rarely were there any actionable takeaways. In this week’s lectures, we learned that effective training should have clear objectives, planned content, and promote transfer of learning to the job (Swift, 2025). Coffee Club lacked all three of these; there was no structure or connection to our daily work, making it a frustrating waste of field time, which to a sales rep is money.
On the other hand, my sales training at my most recent role (a packaging company that emphasized relationship selling) was concise but powerful. The first day was spent reviewing the sales SOP binder and watching videos, but the rest of the week focused on learning our products, such as the different gauges of stretch film and millimeters of tape, and when to use each or which industry uses which products. My manager then rode along for field calls, modeled cold-calling, and helped me map efficient sales routes before giving me autonomy over my schedule. This approach matched my sales experience level, and built my confidence as well as gave me clear expectations on what my days should look like. Great managers “define the right outcomes and trust employees to find their own path” (Buckingham & Coffman, 2012). This structure and trust turned training into professional growth.
References
Buckingham, M., & Coffman, C. (2012). First, break all the rules: What the world’s greatest managers do differently.
Swift, M. (2025). Lecture 1 -Developing Training Programs. Lecture.