Sherwin-Williams Company

Company: Sherwin-Williams Company, Cleveland, OH
Company Description: With annual revenues of nearly $8 billion, The Sherwin-Williams Company is a world leader in the manufacture, development and sales of coatings and related products. The Paint Stores Group represents 62% of the company's sales. The Paint Stores Group sells Sherwin-Williams® branded products exclusively through 3,226 company-owned and operated stores and by 1900, of our 3100, total sales reps.
Nomination Category: Sales Achievement Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Sales Training or Coaching Program of the Year

Nomination Title: Sales Excellence Training Program

1. Tell the story about your organization's sales training and/or coaching program since the beginning of July last year (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

In an economic environment where many organizations are reducing their training
and development budgets, Sherwin Williams recognizes that a well-trained, world
class sales force is the best way to maintain and grow our revenues in a
challenging environment, and continues to invest in this pursuit.

This is evidenced by the addition of four Division Managers of Sales Excellence
(DMSE's) to our team. The role of these former highly successful district
managers is to support training, and coaching on organizational systems,
processes and tools for our field employees and management aimed at improving
sales performance, market share growth and overall employee effectiveness.

With the Division Mangers in place, we are engaged in a three-pronged approach
to improve results: accelerating the development of our sales force, improving
the coaching capabilities of our district management, and increasing the
engagement of senior management.

Below are the outcomes of our efforts.

- Sales Reps- Our 1,900 reps completed over 41,000 hours of training, an
average of 22 hours per rep. Topics include time and territory management,
opportunity account development, specific sales process step training, etc.
This is an increase of 35% over the previous period. Data regarding industry
norms was not available.

- District Management- Our 130 district managers averaged 24 hours of
coaching and employee development training, an increase of 30% over the
previous period. Data regarding industry norms was not available.

- District management utilizes a resource, SherCoach, which is designed
to support their ability to formally coach their reps regarding our Sales
Process. More than 8,700 SherCoach reports have been created, an average of 4.6
coaching opportunities per rep. This represents an increase of more than 60%
over the previous period.

- Senior Management- Engagement increased through a more active role in
district training and the increased communication with the DMSE's. This
communication took the form of one on one meetings, phone conversations and
monthly status updates. All designed to provide a more informed perspective
regarding Sales Excellence successes and areas of further development.

- Opportunity Account development has been a primary focus for sales reps
for several years. These customers, defined as, "Accounts that have the ability
to move sales needle and hurt the competition if landed" are critical to our
long-term success. Specific action plans are developed during the Business
Planning process each year for the top twenty opportunities in each territory.
These plans are reviewed with district and senior management in early January.
Through October 2008, sales to Opportunity Accounts have increased by over $207
million, representing an 88% gain over the previous period.

- In January 2008, we launched a new lead generation program aimed at the
commercial construction market. 1200 reps have access to this web based program
and training is conducted through webinars and in-person sessions. The results
of this initiative are impressive as sales to our largest customer segment
(commercial painters) are up .7% while the overall commercial construction
market is down 18%*.

2. List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:

*McGraw Hill US Summary Construction Report September 2008

3. Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of the nominated sales organization:

Steve Oberfeld is the President and General Manager of the Sherwin-Williams
Paint Stores Group. During his tenure as President, he has led the Company's
growth in many of its largest architectural, industrial and marine markets.
During his twenty three years with the company, Steve has held several
positions of increasing responsibility in sales and marketing as well as being
the President & General Manager of the Southwestern Division of the Paint
Stores Group. Steve earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business from the
University of Minnesota.