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In order to keep pace with the ever-changing fields of production, management, operations and technology, companies must continually update their employees' training. Personnel who handle these areas are essential, and function as the back-end of a company. Sales personnel, however, are at least as important, as they make up the front-end of the organization.

Employees are encouraged to take part in management training in order to groom them for leadership roles, for a switch in their career path or for further promotions. It is not uncommon to find the majority of participants in such training come from office and production functions. A few sales managers do participate in management training but such instances are not the norm in many organizations.

However, such training programs frequently do not include sales personnel. It is not that sales personnel do not get any training from their employers. They do get training sessions and courses on customer relations, interpersonal relationships, selling with integrity, sales management and other such allied subjects considered useful to their sales careers.

Sales are ential for an organization's existence and sales force are its backbone. An organization can therefore be unwilling to send this vital resource away on a lengthy training period, especially if there is no adequate backup. It is hard to find suitable personnel to act in place of those sales persons who know their customers in their geographical areas by their visits, meetings and interactions. By this way, the plus points of a capable sales person sometimes become a stumbling block to his taking part in management training.

Many options are available to tackle this problem. The entire training programme can be structured in such a manner as to enable the sales personnel to access the training modules in a phased manner instead of at one long stretch. The organisation can think of using its senior managers as coaches or mentors. An interaction between sales managers and the personnel from other fields who are also undergoing the same training, should be encouraged in order to facilitate the bonding of values ethos and culture of the organization

Modern technology has created convenient methods such as interactive web-based lessons and training modules, online tutorials and distance learning. These platforms can be utilized to provide training to sales personnel. Chapters of a management book can be sent via email or the sales force can select and read any book of their choice from an online library.

Sales personnel are very accustomed to thinking quickly and are very fast on their feet. A sales personnel knows the customer and develops a very good interpersonal relationship, such strengths are valuable and need to be kept isolated in sales functions. Sales personnel also know the product, many organizations need to be more aware of this fact and promote their sales personnel to managerial functions.