Sell the salesman

Sell the salesman
Flagrant errors in managing a sales force are easy to
discern. What may be harder to spot are the subtle
mistakes or oversights that can be just as
counter-productive to profit-making and sales force
motivation.

The profit and motivational value in treating salesmen as
though they were your best customers is illustrated in a
recent experience I had when my firm provided sales and
marketing management consultation services for a new
manufacturer of high-priced radial tires.

The tires are exceptionally good, and the manufacturer knew
that the large United States and European firms were
squeezing the profit margins of the independent tire
dealers. So, the tire producer came up with an obvious
solution. It offered independent tire dealers the best
profit margin in the industry and a completely protected
territory. In order to give the dealers this break, the
firm explained that as a new tire manufacturer it couldn't
afford a gigantic advertising and promotion budget. The
tire firm had to rely on the retail salesman at the point
of sale, and the independent tire dealer, to make the tire
a success.

Sounds good? Well, it was good. The tire dealers,
battered from their continuing profit erosion battle with
the large tire producers, were wildly enthusiastic. They
ordered the tires and waited for the expected consumer
demand.

But that demand never came. The manufacturer and I had
made a crucial mistake we failed to realize that we must
sell the salesman before we can get him to sell the
customer. Fortunately, we discovered our mistake in time.
We saw that we could not expect customers to buy tires
unless our dealers' salesmen were sold on them first unless
those salesmen were fully aware of the product's benefits.
In other words, we found we must sell the salesman as if he
were our customer, our best customer.

We had no difficulty selling the dealer. He knew he was
being profit squeezed and needed a way out. But he assumed
that because he made an excellent decision to buy our tires
his salesmen would jump on the band wagon, too. That was a
fallacy. Napoleon was once asked who ruled France. "Ten
thousand file clerks," he replied. The same with
selling. The bosses at the dealerships ruled in their
domains, and were 100% for us. But until their store
managers and salesmen were educated and enthusiastic. We
had sold the boss, but the real test was whether our client
could get reorders, and that depends on the dealers'
salesmen.

So, here's what we did. First, we went back to the dealers
and explained to their salesmen what was happening in the
tire industry regarding the profit squeeze. Their bosses
never wanted Co bother them with that information. We
explained Chat their salary, their year-end bonus, and
their livelihood depended on the margin that their sales
generated. Because the big tire manufacturers reach the
consumer directly via huge television advertising budgets,
they can force a cut in the dealers' profit margin. That's
great for those tire producers but terrible for the
independent tire dealers.

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Thotsaporn is the owner of http://www.linefinance.org where
he provides finance information and resources.