The bigger tire firms restrict the dealers not only to a
narrow profit margin but sell through countless
distributive outlets, including their own stores. This
further depresses both prices and profits. We, however,
gave the independent tire dealer territorial exclusivity.
We made sure the salesmen understood this.
But that still wasn't enough. The retail salesmen had been
selling the well known tires so long, they had forgotten
how to sell. Our client was an unknown name and the
technical advantages of its tires were hard to teach to the
salesmen.
We recognized that we had to conduct more than the usual
product training and indoctrination program, and we had to
do it fast. First, we wrote up some specific tire case
studies that incorporated professional selling skills.
Then, instead of having cumbersome meetings, we did the
unusual. We rented a large van and outfitted it with video
training equipment.
We drove from store to store in our van to do our
motivational training. We found that the salesmen had been
reluctant to commit their reputations to our product
because they were weak on its technical advantages. We
wanted them to have solid selling techniques backed up by
sound product knowledge when they faced prospective
customers. We wanted them to have the reeling of
successful experience even if it was in a role-playing
situation.
We spent more than an hour with each salesman going over
the technical details, going over the sales cases we had
written, and role-playing selling tires to each other and
putting it all on videotape right in the van.
Then the salesman would review his performance and analyze
it. After that, we erased the tape. We did that because
we wanted the salesman to feel secure. Letting his boss
see the tape would have only made the salesman anxious.
And that is something you don't do to your best customer.
All this was long, hard work. We put thousands of miles on
our van, traveling from one end of the country to the
other. Why? Because those salesmen were our best
customers. If we could motivate them, build their
confidence in our tires sell them then they would sell the
product. Essentially, this is what you do with your best
customers. Removing the impediments to the sale is the
first job of a company. And that first impediment is your
salesman's reluctance to sell or his salesmanship
deficiencies.
Further proof
Here's another recent experience of ours that points out
the value in treating your salesmen in the same way as you
would your best customers. Our client was a large
distributor of steel, industrial hardware, electrical
appliances, and plumbing supplies. Each salesman had a
geographic territory and sold all lines. Our research
showed that the salesmen were skimming only the surface of
potential sales. Their sales line was too broad for any
one salesman to be fully versed in all the products.
So, instead of dividing the line by category and then
having different salesmen call on each firm, we did the
opposite. We divided the salesmen according to a specific
kind of account steel mills, coal mines, contractors, and
so on.
Soon we found we were getting deeper penetration in each of
the lines because we were "market targeting." The more a
salesman knows about a specific user/customer, the more he
sells and the happier he is in his job. This approach
enables salesmen to suggest new lines and pare the
customer's inventory of lines he has less use for. Company
profits and salesmen commissions increased markedly.
Moreover, each customer felt that our salesmen were now
experts in his industry. He was confident that our
salesmen had the solutions, not just the catalogs.
What we did was to implement the attitude that our best
customer is our own salesman. By targeting our sales
strategy according to specific markets, and making each
salesman an "expert" in his own area, we gave the salesman
benefits and advantages just as we try to give to
customers. Everybody comes out ahead.
Industry's best customer
There are many reasons why industry isn't terribly happy
about salesmen. They cost money to maintain, they complain
a lot, they sometimes inflate their expense accounts. But
salesmen are the ones who move the products to the buyer,
who make the sales that keep industry solvent. Yet, if
industry wants high profits, then it must motivate its
salesmen to an above-average degree.
One of the best ways of doing that is to treat the salesman
the way he treats a customer. The salesman does not treat
a customer as if he were an employee, and neither within
reasonable limits should industry treat a salesman that
way. He is the vital link between production and profit.
If you do an excellent job of selling the salesman on your
products and on ways to sell them better, he will almost
inevitably do an excellent job of selling to customers.
That's why I say that industry's best "customer" is the
salesman, and he should be treated accordingly. Get him
sold and you can sell the world.
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Thotsaporn is the owner of http://www.financemarket.org
where he provides finance information and resources.
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