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.
Videos provided by Zhu showed employees frenetically dancing and clapping as per the instructor’s guidance.
The so-called star instructor told employees: “The world is yours if you’re shameless,” according to Zhu.
“In that environment, we genuinely felt the impact. They claimed that if the employees adhered strictly to their instructions, performance could increase five-fold, six-fold, or even by 10 or 20 times,” Zhu said.
However, she soon realised that the promised sales boost and improvment in services fell short of expectations, so she demanded a refund from Juhai.
To back the claim, Zhu said the contract stipulated that the star instructor should conduct three strategic seminars and one investment fair at the company in the first year, but he only showed up once.
In response to Zhu’s request, a representative from Juhai, surname Luo, countered that Zhu had not fulfilled her payment obligations, which had led to incomplete service delivery.
The contract required a total payment of two million yuan (US$280,000) over a year of service, of which only about half was paid.
Luo also noted that the one million yuan paid was discounted, with 100,000 yuan returned to the company.
Now, Zhu is seeking a 660,000-yuan refund based on the actual services provided, while Juhai’s headquarters has agreed to give back 162,000 yuan.
The story has attracted ridicule on mainland social media.
“Giving this money to employees would have been far more effective than any brainwashing,” one said.
“Imagine, spending 100,000 yuan each month for a year on extra money incentives for your staff. They would be so grateful and the team spirit would be incredible. Isn’t that much better than this brainwashing scheme?” said another.
“It’s clear that it was the boss herself who got brainwashed by the company and spent 900,000 yuan,” said a third.
“How did you even start a company with this kind of mentality? You might have better spent that amount of money on hair and beauty treatments – at least you’d have something to show for it,” another person remarked.
