In 2007 and 2008 I was a sales rep for 3M automotive and marine, and for the first time, learned how to sell. It also gave me a lot of great opportunities: Like working with the 3M APAC Sales Training Manager to design a unique training curriculum for the 250 new reps 3M hired and trained across China. This five week outline (with two weeks back in their new territories), probably doesn't mean much to someone outside the automotive division of 3M, but represents a sea change from the two month long programs that 3M USA continues to use today--using daily quizzes and debriefs to trigger recall and retention, putting a focus on organizational knowledge transfer and support via daily 1:1's with collegues across the matrix, and following an intuitive format moving from large panel collision repair all the way through the process to the appearance and detailing lines.