In the midst of management reorganization, some labor unrest, and a potential sale of the company, Hershey Foods Corp. went ahead and invested not only funds, but also two days of its salespeople's time to attend training. It was a conscious effort to connect the content and delivery of training to a specific, mission-critical business initiative called Blue Chip. Blue Chip strategy is based on two simple ideas, simplify the trade funding process and pay for performance. The two day learning initiative, called Situational Sales Negotiation, had a clear goal. The goal was to help Hershey sales professionals develop skills, plans, and confidence necessary to implement Blue Chip strategy with their North American customers.