For most organizations, training — if they do it at all — is a task. Do it, check it off, done. After being crammed in a room for three days, salespeople start bouncing off the walls. Then the following Monday, the fire drills start, the training manuals go on the shelf, and everything returns to the crisis-driven state it was in before the training. But the training was implemented for a reason — some performance parameter was not measuring up. One week after the training, management looks at the lousy numbers and says, “Hey, the training didn’t work!” Even if

When considering the question concerning what training is best for independent manufacturers’ representatives, the big answer, offered from 10,000 ft., isn’t just specific to reps, but rather applicable to any organization that has salespeople as critical to their primary go‑to‑market initiative.

After any organization puts together their yearly business plans they should:

• Consider the specific skills their sales professionals need in order to meet and exceed those specific plans.

• Then, they should take a careful look at their people resources to determine what skills they already have, need to do better, or need as new.

• Next, … Read the rest

It’s impossible to avoid the impact of technology when taking a look at how reps are trained today vs. in the past. There’s no denying the Internet, webinars, CDs and other remote learning tools have changed how reps keep up to speed with their professions. The fact remains, however, that nothing replaces learning the value of personal relationships when it comes to getting the job done better.

That’s the view of Dave Knapp, president of Interface Incorporated, Fairfax, Virginia. Founded more than 40 years ago, Interface is a multi-person rep firm whose goal is to satisfy the federal government’s demand … Read the rest

When Weinacht & Associates, Collinsville, Illinois, sent out the press release that accompanies this article, they positioned themselves firmly in the crosshairs for the discussion on the impact of change that Agency Sales has been engaged in since the beginning of the year.

The 30-year-old rep firm has not only grown over the years, but it has distinguished itself as a successful and thriving business in its territory.

As he considers how Weinacht & Associates has dealt with the trend of change, specifically in the area of training, Kevin Weinacht, CPMR, notes that discussion really can’t take place unless you … Read the rest

We’re living in incredibly turbulent times. In spite of newspaper headlines proclaiming growing employment and a slowly growing economy, many business people admit to a pervasive feeling of uncertainty and confusion about their businesses.

The well-spring of this uncertainty lies in one of the characteristics of the newly-arrived information age — business people are being buffeted by an increasingly rapid rate of change. Consider this. In 1900, the total amount of knowledge available to mankind was doubling about every 500 years. In 1990, it was doubling about every two years. Today, according to some, the rate of change is doubling … Read the rest

I’ve been a part of many sales teams in my career, and over and over I’ve noticed common afflictions that affect them, each of which reduces morale and sales performance. They can be found to some degree in almost every organization. Smart management teams are aware of these afflictions and work to avoid their potentially destructive impact. Any one occurrence of these problems will not necessarily harm the sales effort, but if allowed to progress to extremes, or if multiple conditions exist at once, they can be extremely harmful.

Wasting Sales Representatives’ Time

One of the prime afflictions of sales … Read the rest

“Your price is too high.”
“Can you match the price your competitor is offering?”
“We need to have that service included in your price.”

How do your salespeople respond when they hear these kinds of statements from customers? Everyone wants to make the sale in this challenging economy, and it’s hard to resist the temptation to cut the margin, reduce the price, or give away “value adds” the customer really should pay for. Of course, everyone is being squeezed. Customers are pressured to control costs and limit spending, and salespeople feel they are forced to compete on price. It seems … Read the rest

If you’ve ever been in business with a family member, you know there are several advantages, but even the most-dedicated, hard-working family member can experience or create tension, stress and conflict in the company. Can you really separate your family history, emotions and knowledge you have of a person at a deeper level and also have a great working relationship?

Families have successfully worked together, but there are reasons why it’s worked. What are the qualities that facilitate successful family working relationships? What are the common issues in practices that exist within companies that employ family? If you are in … Read the rest

Have you ever really considered how price affects your customer with regard to their perceived benefit?  Too often, we use a simplistic approach to determining a price — figure the cost to produce a product or service, tack on some arbitrary percentage, and call it good, right?

Price, though, is consequential in ways we may not initially consider.  The price a person pays for something goes a long way in determining the perceived benefit they expect to get from it.  The perceived benefit cuts two ways. First, the expectation of service goes up the more a person pays for … Read the rest