The response from a few of the sales reps from Marlow Technologies toward the new sales training topic was not encouraging. Geoff Marlow, vice president of sales, was dismayed at what he perceived to be a total lack of social graces on the part of the 15-person sales force. To rectify this situation, he retained a consulting firm that specializes in etiquette training to provide a day-long session on the subject. Frank Casey, one of Marlow’s sales trainees, was not pleased and said, “What’s this? Now we have to go to charm school too! Next thing you know, they’ll want to teach us how to dress.”

Are such topics as etiquette and dress appropriate for sales training? How would you evaluate the effectiveness of this kind of training?