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How do you create Self-Managed Sales Professionals?

I have worked with rep firms for many years. Recently, it has become very apparent that one of the biggest problems the rep managers have is getting real productivity from the rep salespeople. This article and future articles will address this situation and make suggestions for improving individual rep firm results.

Selling for an independent rep firm is different than other sales jobs. Measuring a salesperson working for a rep firm is done by a different standard — commission income generated by the salesperson. That is the only measure that counts.

If salespeople work for a rep firm, what is the best way for them to organize their work and for management to supervise their work?

Many sales reps believe that making calls is their job and that orders and commissions will automatically follow. The salesperson that thinks this way is not going to prosper.

Salespeople have to develop very specific plans for their work. Most rep firm salespeople have a territory — a geographic area that they work exclusively for their firm.

Handling the Geography — Time and Territory Management

If a salesperson has a geographic territory, he or she should have an organized approach to the area covered. The first thing that has to be organized is time. Time means time to work with customers. How does a salesperson organize the time available to call on customers? Each salesperson has to figure out the most logical and practical approach to the geography. Covering the territory should emphasize the potential commission generated from sales to each customer.

Potential Is the Name of the Game

Real knowledge of the customer is key to the salesperson’s future revenue generation. The salesperson has to be close enough to the customer to have a complete understanding of their business.

How does a rep salesperson get this knowledge? The best way to get inside the workings of the key customers is to spend time with as many people as possible at that customer and to keep meticulous records of the information.

Talking and riding with salespeople for the customer to visit their customers is vital. The rep salesperson should not be too aggressive about getting information in these visits, but people like to talk. Rep salespeople have to be very good listeners. Asking questions usually pays off. Finding out from the customer’s customer what they think is happening in their market and with their better customers is a great way to develop the type of knowledge that allows the rep salesperson to understand future business with that customer and how to develop more business.

Planning Is a 24/7 Job

The rep salesperson is the eyes and ears of the company he works for. The rep salesperson can be a powerful tool to help their agency stand out with key manufacturers. Orders are the name of the game, but information runs a close second.

Build the Information Pipeline

The rep firms that work with a manufacturer are vital to the manufacturer’s success in more than just writing business. The rep firms should be organized to pass vital information on to the manufacturer as often and as completely as possible.

Information is a vital part of the backselling process. By constantly getting good information and passing it on, the rep firm makes itself continually more valuable to the manufacturers it represents. This requires a conscious effort by the rep salespeople in the field, the customer service people on the phone with the rep firm’s customers, and other members of the rep firm who are in contact with people in the marketplace.

Developing the “Master Plan”

Each sales rep needs to develop a “Master Plan” for each core customer.

What makes a “core customer”?

Customers have to be judged and rated by their potential for each of the lines the sales rep sells to them. When the commission income derived from one of the lines they buy is 10-25 percent or more of the total commissions earned by the salesperson, he should consider it “core.”

Planning for Success

It seems obvious, but most of the time salespeople are not organized to plan their approach to every customer for every line the rep firm sells. Being “too busy” creates real problems. The rep salesperson’s job is too important to allow the salesperson to operate on “automatic pilot” or “remote control.” Every step of the way the rep salesperson has to be planning, organizing, analyzing and directing the progress of his or her territory. This amount of discipline leads to assured success for the rep salesperson.

Getting into this level of minutia for the rep salesperson may seem a bit extreme; but, recently I have seen that rep agencies are lacking the discipline and organization to manage their salespeople proactively.

Good luck and good selling.

MANA welcomes your comments on this article. Write to us at [email protected].