As Dave Barry says, "I'm not making this up."

1. It can be taught to the salespeople easily and cheaply by people who don't actually sell anything themselves.
2. It's just like the competition's selling system so the prospects will be comfortable with it.
3. Training people in it is cheap, so management avoids any risk.
4. The delivery model (one or two days of concentrated training that people quickly forget) has no chance of changing anyone's behavior so when it doesn't work management can blame the sales force instead of excepting the blame themselves.
5. It's the way people sold in the sixties, so both the salesperson and the prospect can share a nostalgic moment together before the prospect buys their equipment from the competition and gives the salesperson an order for only the low-margin stuff, if anything.

Further good news is the salesperson had to pay nothing for the training. It sounds like it was worth every penny.

If in my description of the above (true) story you detected a note of sarcasm, then your sarcasm detector is functioning fine. The story would be funny if it wasn't true... and oh, so common. As it is, it's sad.