China company ridiculed for spending US$126,000 to ‘brainwash’ employees with ‘shameless’ sales training skills that failed
- Training firm promises dramatic increases in sales, boost to staff morale
- Training company’s methods include shady tactics, clapping and dancing
A cosmetics company that spent 900,000 yuan (US$126,000) hiring a firm to “brainwash” its staff to boost sales, sought a refund after the initiative failed.
The company in Hangzhou, in the eastern province of Zhejiang, enlisted the services of Juhai Enterprise Management Consulting for sales training in 2020 because it was struggling.
A shareholder in the firm, surnamed Zhu, said she was promised a significant boost in performance and employee motivation through a “brainwashing” technique which would revive sales.
“Our company was facing a bottleneck in management at that time. They told us to come and learn, saying that for a certain amount of money, they could guarantee our sales performance would double or more, motivating employees with a kind of brainwashing,” Zhu told Zhejiang Media Group.
After Zhu’s company signed a “Strategic Cooperation Agreement” with Juhai on January 6, 2020, and transferred the money, a “star” instructor was dispatched to train her staff.
The training methods were unconventional and included encouraging sales staff to adopt “shameless” tactics in their approach and encouraging them to clap and dance as motivation for their sales work.
