This month’s article is the seventh in a serialization of the author’s life and career as an independent manufacturers’ representative.
Reprinted with permission from The Reputable Rep, Success in Sales and Life, by Sig Schmalhofer.
The Human Element
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The Well-Liked Rep
Reps that are well-liked are not necessarily effective reps. I’ve known many reps who are very well-liked, but for a number of reasons are not able to leverage their popularity into concrete business. Well-liked reps say the right things and are agreeable. They find it impossible to say no! What gets them into trouble is saying yes when the real answer is no. Then, when the rubber meets the road and the customer finds out, usually by accident, that the answer is no, a lack of respect for Mr. Yes occurs. Because he is such a nice guy, customers don’t confront Mr. Yes. They just quietly take their business elsewhere. Mr. Yes is very popular at all industry functions and never misses a golf tournament.
He goes out of his way to shake every hand and say nice things about everyone. He is the Will Rogers protégé who never met a man he didn’t like. However, because substance, respect and honesty are critical in life and the business world, Mr. Yes does not deliver much business.
Story Time: Good-Time Charlie
My lifelong friend and mentor, Carmen, was an engineer before making the move into the rep business. Shortly after the career change, his partner had a massive heart attack, leaving Carmen to run a business he knew little about. He scrambled and restructured. He was determined to keep the business afloat until, hopefully, his partner, recovered. He focused on getting his arms around the business. Carmen’s plan would include firing an unproductive salesman I’ll call Good-Time Charlie. Since he would be making sales calls on Charlie’s accounts, Carmen prepared sales reports for every customer he had inherited. He walked into Charlie’s favorite account and introduced himself. The customer went far beyond the call of duty to talk about what a great guy Charlie was, how reliable he was, what a ray of sunshine he was, and how much he would be missed.
Carmen, ever the realist, pulled out his sales report and commented, “Mr. Customer, let me get this straight, you really like Charlie?”
“Absolutely! Charlie was our favorite rep! We love Charlie!”
Carmen, as is his style, got to the heart of the matter. “I’m looking at sales reports for every one of our lines. You didn’t buy anything from Charlie. Please do me a big favor, like me less and start buying more!”
The Games People Play
| “In my younger sales days, tearing up the San Diego market for Hamilton Supply, my competitor, Jerry Grosslight from Familian, offered me a job. Not to work for them, but to simply stay home!” — Louie Armstrong, Ferguson Enterprises |
Before Ferguson’s arrival to the West Coast, Familian was regarded as the wholesale leader in Southern California. Uncle Jerry Grosslight was “the man.” The buyer was “King Bob.”
On the top right of this page is a note from Gary Grosslight about his Uncle Jerry, who worked hard to offset the mind games of “King Bob” even though Jerry Grosslight was “the man.”
| “It was pitiful how ‘King Bob,’ Familian’s buyer, treated factory people and reps alike. The vendors would sometimes arrive for an early morning appointment and still be in the waiting room well into the afternoon. “On the other hand, Uncle Jerry always made time for reps and factory people. He understood the value of these relationships. Uncle Jerry taught us the importance of encouraging teamwork with our vendor partners, particularly manufacturers’ reps who live and die in the local market.” — Gary Grosslight, Ferguson Enterprises |
Life on the Road
I’m certain that everyone reading this article has a hair-raising story about life on the road in the challenging world of industrial sales. This one, from my friend Tom Schoendorf, is a classic:
“I was in the air the morning of September 11, 2001, flying from New York City to Memphis, Tennessee. When I got off the plane and started walking through the terminal, I failed to notice that everything was being shut down: stores, restaurants, etc. Once I got to curbside, I hooked up with my rep who was astonished to see me. ‘I can’t believe you made it!’ I was surprised, ‘Why? My flight is on time.’
“The rep continued, ‘Terrorists are hijacking planes and crashing them into buildings. All the airports are being shut-down!’ I turned on my cell phone. I had 10 voicemails. My wife Chris was worried sick about me and so were my colleagues and friends. As the day moved on we began to realize the incredible toll it was taking on our great country. After our meeting at FedEx Corporate, in Memphis, I rented a car and started the 36-hour drive home to Long Island. There were no planes in the sky, but the roads were packed with travelers like me, trying to get home. As I approached the George Washington Bridge from New Jersey to New York late at night, I remember looking at the New York City skyline and thinking that without the Twin Towers, it would forever look different. I’ve saved my plane ticket and still have it in my desk.” — Tom Schoendorf, Highland Tank
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