Philip Morris Shares Secrets of Sales Training Success

Philip Morris Shares Secrets of Sales Training Success

Richmond, Va.-based tobacco manufacturer Philip Morris USA may be the most well-known cigarette company in the country, but that doesn’t mean there’s not room for improvement in its sales leadership training program, says Andy Lupo, director of national sales training. Over the past 18 months, the company has invested nearly $10 million revamping the system, and has established an annual $8 million budget for it. Its new get-on-board program, Foundations, designed for workers at every level at the company, exemplifies the new approach.

Naturally, Morris, an industry stalwart, had a system in place already; the problem was it didn’t reach out to the whole organization equally. While the previous system, Lupo explains, focused mainly on the 10 percent of employees who are new hires, “the whole premise behind the [new] system is everyone within the organization, regardless of tenure with the company, your promotable status—whether you’re high potential or well placed—you’re going to get continuous, consistent and connected, ongoing development in our system.”

With Foundations, each group of new or newly promoted employees has a program designed solely for its needs. For the entry-level position of territory sales manager, employees during their first week on the job receive training on leadership, skill development and the company’s corporate values, Lupo says. “It’s all about the fundamental, key skills they’re going to need to hit the ground running.” Participants are armed with the basics on sales skills, such as best practices in pitching to retailers.

The Foundations program, in a tinkered form, also exists for new unit managers as well as new senior account managers. “The unit managers’ Foundations program is all about people because these folks for the first time in their career are going to be leading five to six territory sales managers,” Lupo says. With that in mind, these employees are taught such skills as how to connect and engage their workers, how to identify behaviors and link them to development plans, how to set up an effective training day with employees, how to provide an effective written and oral feedback and how to build effective development plans “so when you’re not with them, they can focus on changing a behavior to improve a skill and drive a result,” Lupo points out.

For senior account managers, or those who are taking on accounts as big as, say, a Wal-Mart, Foundations provides a program steeped in training on issues such as strategic thinking, two-way business planning, or “game planning,” and financial acumen, including lessons on analyzing income statements, balance sheets and cash-flow information, Lupo says, namely “all of the high-level financial stuff they need to be able to understand when dealing with large customers,” he notes.