Communications to the Editor—Note on the Problem of Lump-Sum Losses in Sales Training

Companies that organize large scale training programs for technical salesmen often find that a certain proportion of these salesmen do not complete the program. Thus, at the completion of the program the company finds itself short of the required number of trained salesmen, unless it has originally hired more technical salesmen than it requires. This note discuses a decision-theoretic approach to this problem of overhiring; that is, how many trainees should be hired in order to have the right number of trained salesmen at completion of the training program and still minimize variable training costs.