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When contacted to write this editorial from the field, and upon learning the subject, my weird imagination visualized a space-suited rep with briefcase in hand climbing into his winged car to go on the “road” to perform sales calls. After putting that flight of fantasy to rest and seriously thinking about the subject, a more realistic image of the rep of the future emerged.

To be sure, the rep will be affected by future technological developments. Looking at advancements in communication tools over the last 10 years provides us an indication of likely developments in the next decade. The cellular phone completely changed most sales reps’ lives. The next iterations will undoubtedly do likewise — and may not involve a hand-held device.

Meetings via computer are now common. Just think what can occur as more sophisticated hardware and software systems are developed and adopted by customers and principals.

Known and pending changes in transportation methods may challenge even the most intrepid road warrior. As new and ever more restrictive laws affecting automobile transportation are enacted, the car may not be the mode of choice for making sales calls and attending meetings.

Therefore, the opportunity for face-to-face meetings could be severely limited. All of these factors will necessitate significant changes in the way the rep interfaces with principals and customers.

The ‘future’ is exciting to contemplate. It will be fantastic to watch the development. It should be challenging to participate in (most of) the changes that will occur.

However, there are several components of a rep’s business that should not change.

• Integrity in business relationships is a key component of a rep’s success — now and in the future. The rep must exhibit truthfulness and honesty in every interchange, whether it be advocating for the principal or the customer. For those not well grounded in ethical business practices, change can present an opportunity to try to gain advantages. Reps, in particular, must guard against being involved in less-than-straight business practices.

• Building relationships is a difficult component of conducting business today. It is often ignored in today’s business environment. Some customers would rather the rep not have a solid relationship with their employees because the relationships have occasionally been abused. As new systems come into play at our customers, building relationships becomes even more difficult. Employees’ job responsibilities are frequently changed to stifle relationships. Should product issues occur, there is, unfortunately, no solid relationship in place to get to a rapid, effective solution.

Building and maintaining solid relationships with the reps’ principals is a better situation. Most principals recognize that solid relationships with their key employees is the rep’s prime responsibility.

The rep is the link between the principal and the customer. Effective working relationships with both enable the rep to facilitate problem solving.

In the future, building solid workable relationships will be even more difficult. Reps need to develop plans and strategies right now to make the relationship building — and maintenance — work.

• Communication is critical to the rep’s success. All the tools that we use now have eased the methods of communication; but in some ways, the personal component of communication has been sacrificed. The rep of the future must regain that crucial, personal part of daily communication.

An example of an excellent communication tool is the resurgence in the use of a personal, hand-written letter or thank-you note vs. an e-mail, or nothing. The customer (or principal) who receives a personal note of thanks will have an entirely different opinion of the sender. An e-mail with the same message could well be absorbed by the spam sensor — or just deleted by the receiver as inconsequential in the daily business process. But a hand-written note travels a different route and will attract attention. Certainly, communicating in this manner takes more time and effort. But just think how much time is already invested in that customer. Investing several more personal communication minutes may bring huge rewards in the future.

The outlook is bright for the rep of the future — if he pays attention to building relationships, communicates to all constituents and conducts his business with integrity.