This article focuses on the training of employees at Hewlett-Packard Co., based in Palo Alto, California. To meet customer demand, the company needed a sales team that specialized in a very competitive product for the company, high-performance servers, and storage supporting critical company operations, such as accounting, databases, and payroll. Management realized the fastest way to build this specialized salesforce was to utilize engineers who develop the product line. It set out to develop a program that would transform engineers into sales representatives. The result was the Basic Essential Selling Skills Training program, which focused on retraining engineers into sales professionals. Of the 60 volunteers that were extensively evaluated, 16 were selected to participate in the program, which had been code-named Extreme Makeover, because it would result in a major career shift for the engineers.