Making a sales advisor: the limits of training ‘instrumental empathy’

Abstract

The use of participant observation is relatively rare in qualitative studies of vocational education and training. However, such an approach provides a detailed picture of training content and how what is taught contributes to or impedes learning. Based on participant observation, this paper examines the training of sales advisors in a large chain of private fitness clubs. It shows that although the training course taught trainees how to control and enchant customers, once back on ‘home’ territory trainees approached customers with far less instrumental empathy than they had been taught. This contrast is explained by reference to the past dispositions of sales workers and the local conditions in which the selling process takes place.

Keywords:

• training
• instrumental empathy
• sales
• participant observation

Acknowledgements

This research forms part of a larger project investigating the links between workplace learning, the organisation of work and performance in a range of economic sectors. It is funded under the Economic and Social Research Council’s Teaching and Learning Research Programme (RES‐139‐25‐0110A).