SALES FORCE TRAINING AT

PRESENTED BY:
RIDA WAQAS
HASNAIN AKBAR
ZORAIN
Asif
 BACKGROUND
Arrow Electronics was a distributor of electronic components that began as a
radio-equipment retailer in 1935. In the 1950s and 1960s, Arrow began selling an
increasing array of electronic components to small and mid-sized manufacturers of
electronic equipment.
By 1977 Arrow was the fourth-largest electronic parts distributor in the US.
Arrow’s shares were listed on the NYSE in 1979.
Throughout the 1970s, the industry grew by about 12% annually, and Arrow grew
from a regional northeastern company to the second largest distributor in the US by
1980. In 1993, Arrow had the highest sales in the industry with $2.5 billion in
North America.
Steve Kaufman joined Arrow as executive vice-president in 1982, and became
president in 1984. He became Arrow’s COO in 1985, and assumed the role of CEO
in 1986.
During his tenure, Arrow became the largest distributor of electronic components
and computer products in the world achieving sales of $5.9 billion in 1995. That
same year, Arrow’s stock closed the year at $21.50, up from $2.00 at the beginning
of 1990.
CUSTOMERS:
 Arrow ordered products from suppliers.
 Sell components to
i. Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs)
ii. Smaller companies
iii. Start-up companies

SALES FORCE STRUCTURE:

 Sales divided into 4 distinct operating groups based on product
types:
i. Commercial Semiconductors
ii. Military and aerospace semiconductors
iii. Passive and connector products
iv. Computer systems, peripherals, and software
BRANCH OFFICE STRUCTURE:
Sales force divided into geographic divisions,
each of which had a Branch Sales Office.

Branch General Managers

Marketing Manager Inside Sales Manager Area Sales Manager

Admin Admin
Personnel Manager Sales & Marketing Reps Field Sales Reps
P ro du c t M a n a g e rs
SALES FORCE JOB DESCRIPTION:
 General Manager (GM)
 Field Sales Representatives (FSRs)
 Sales and Marketing Representatives (SMRs)
 Product Managers (PMs)

TYPICAL SALES FORCE:

 Include both gender men and women
 Their ages normally around 30 and 40
 They were high-energy, highly aggressive salespeople
with a strong monetary motivation.
 They are mainly high school graduates.
PROBLEMS WITH SALES STRATEGY:
At Arrow, they have no world class manufacturing facilities, no
proprietary products or patents, no cutting edge research labs. What they have is,
essentially, a very large sales force, marketing team, and purchasing group.
Therefore, their only asset is people and their skills.
 Relationship based selling
i. Sales strongly tied to individual FSR’s relationship with suppliers, and
theirs no formal training in the sales force of 300 people.
ii. Sales force used a lot of travel and entertainment.
 Many sales people left Arrow to work with competitors, there's lack of
company loyalty.
 Departing Arrow sales people took their clients with them.
 Sales force challenging to retrain.
 The sales force across the industry was much the same, much to Kaufman’s
frustration: “We wanted them to sell the way we thought was more
appropriate. At that time, we had a sales force of 300 people with no standard
training, so everyone did their own thing. It was really hard to inject new
ideas and perspectives and methods.”
SPROUT TRAINING PROGRAM
BACKGROUND:
1. Arrow needed more sales person to increase their company’s sales
and they decided to hire kids from college and they were hoping that
some of these will move to the management after several years, even
to the executive level.
2. “Upgrading the professionalism of the sales force,” Kaufman
remembered, “was a main reason for implementing the Sprout
program. Our idea was to bring in fresh kids, and train them the way
we thought modern salespeople in this industry should sell.” Kaufman
wanted the sales force “to move away from selling based only on
relationships, simply calling the customer and asking, ‘What do you
need today?’ to selling based on what the customer needs now and will
need in the future.
FIRST YEAR OF SPROUT TRAINING
PROGRAM:
1. In its first year, the Sprout program was relatively experimental, since Arrow was
the first company in the industry to systematically recruit from college. As the
program got off the ground, one of the first things Hallam had to do was train Arrow
managers how to interview college students. He did this by conducting mock
interviews will college students in training sessions for managers.
2. He and Kaufman had determined that “we didn’t want engineers, but mostly
business majors. And we weren’t looking for top GPAs, because we didn’t want to
compete with the companies that were trying to recruit more intellectual types. We
wanted self-starters, goal-oriented people with leadership and people skills.”
Ultimately, they developed “a very tight interview program, with specific questions
focused on getting very specific answers. We knew the attributes we wanted, and the
questions were designed to screen for those attributes.”
3. In the early months of 1984, Arrow sent executives from corporate headquarters
to college campuses to interview students. After the first round, some students were
selected to interview with GMs at local branch offices. In March, Arrow extended
offers to the students who made the final cut.
Training Gets Tough:
1. Formal Training Program:
• As reports came back from the field as the first class of Sprouts
were being trained, Hallam realized that a more formal training
program was needed.
• The program emphasized classroom learning and group
assignments.
• The training covered everything from basic electronics to sales
techniques to Arrow’s internal computer systems.
• There was lots of homework, pop quizzes, exams.
 
2. 13 Weeks Of On The Job Training:
• The Duration of the training program is 13 Week.
• The more Training the more you will be trained.
Sprouts Compensation:
3. New Recruits:
• The new trainer was paid $18500
• First year Sprouts $24000
• Second Year Sprouts 27000
4. Competitors:
• The new Trainer was paid 30 to 60 percent more of them
• First year Sprouts $30,000
• Second Year Sprouts $40000 to 45000
 
Business Problems:
• Higher Turnover Rates
• No Employees Loyalty
• Sales Were tired
• Employees Lead to losing customer
What is the way forward for Pathways?
 Two tier integrated program:
1. Recruitment
2. Training
Recruitment
 College on-campus recruitment.
 Inter-industry recruitment to break-free from the
clutter of the industry.
 Scout for potential employees from within the
industry.
 Procedure for efficient recruitment:
•Hiring profile
•Application scrutiny
•Interview
•Psychological testing
•Reference check
•Physical examination
•Job Offer
 Training

 Expand the scope of Pathways into a

professional training program for employees in
other ranks of the organization.

 Recreational activities throughout the program

for heightened bonding and relaxation in a stress
induced environment.
 CONCLUSION
 The company was striving hard to achieve its sales target due
to the poor management of its sales team and its placement.
 The heavy expenditure and investment done to train its sales
force was going all in vain because of the failure of the
company’s higher authorities in retaining its employees.
 To overcome the above issues, company’s top management
decided to enhance its sales force towards more enthusiasm
and more creativity by the introduction of growth in Sprouts
program.
 This would lead to the fulfillment of the need of employing
around 300 more salespeople in the team, which will be
leading the major changes in the infrastructure of the company.