Reps who attended Keystone 2005 in Louisville, Kentucky, got a sampling of what Bob Nadeau, Industrial Performance Group, has to offer when he made a presentation entitled “Selling Value.”

Now Nadeau has come out with information contained in a study his organization has done that reflects on the challenges that manufacturers face with getting the most out of their sales forces. Inherent in what he has to report is the fact that much of what the sales force faces isn’t always directly related to the face-to-face contact with the customer. Instead, much time and effort is wasted on other efforts that call into question exactly what it is that a salesman should be required to do for the manufacturer.

In a report from the Northbrook, Illinois-based Industrial Performance Group, 2006 could be a challenging year. Many leading economists are projecting a slowing economy. The Federal Reserve continues to raise interest rates as it zealously fights any hint of inflation.

Meanwhile, the world economy won’t wait around for us to pick up the pace. Growing economies around the world are pushing up the price of raw materials and energy. And no one needs to remind you that foreign competition is as strong as ever.

The Good News

If you’re willing to reconsider some old assumptions, you can achieve double-digit growth without adding salespeople or increasing your sales and marketing budget.

The secret lies in your sales force. Think about it — your salespeople are the only asset you have that can go out and generate more revenue. It’s up to you to get the most out of this valuable asset.

Everyone wants their sales force to be more productive. But if your salespeople are already giving 100 percent, how can you expect more?

The truth is that your sales force can do more, and they won’t even have to work longer or harder. The key is to better utilize the salespeople you currently have.

For the past several months, the Industrial Performance Group has been conducting an online survey of salespeople from various industries. The goal of this survey has been to find out what consumes a salesperson’s time.

They’re finding that salespeople work long hours — no surprise there. But a lot of their time is consumed by activities that have nothing to do with sales. In fact, on average, salespeople spend less than half their time selling. They spend most of their time traveling or performing various administrative tasks.

Fixing Problems and Mistakes

The most troubling finding is that salespeople spend an average of 22 percent of their time — nearly one-fourth — dealing with problems and mistakes, looking for information and expediting orders.

This has become an accepted way of life for many salespeople. It’s driven by a philosophy of doing “whatever it takes” to keep the customer happy. But how happy can customers really be when their key contact spends 22 percent of his or her time dealing with problems and mistakes, looking for information and expediting orders?

For far too long, companies have mistaken the heroic efforts of salespeople to make things right when things go horribly wrong as a form of customer service. The problem with this approach is that it focuses on dealing with problems and mistakes after they occur, rather than preventing them from occurring in the first place.

Companies who support this “whatever it takes” philosophy are severely hindered in their ability to grow because a large amount of their salespeople’s time and effort are consumed by non-revenue-generating activities. The question for sales force management is, do you want your salespeople to sell, or fight fires?

The Missing Measurement

At the end of the business year, many manufacturers confront that uncomfortable gap between their sales goals and what was actually accomplished — despite the heroic efforts of their salespeople.

Many are quick to blame the economy, their competition or even their customers for this shortcoming. However, in reality, unrealized sales goals are more than likely the result of how a sales force was utilized during the year. Were they selling or fighting fires?

Because of the way they measure sales performance, most manufacturers and distributors are unaware of why they are not making their numbers.

Most companies judge their sales force in terms of productivity. In other words, how many dollars were brought in per salesperson compared to the cost of supporting that salesperson? But productivity only tells part of the story.

To really find out if salespeople are performing at or near their full potential, management needs to look at sales force utilization.

Companies usually associate utilization with plants, equipment and other tangible assets. It measures what an asset is currently producing compared to what it is capable of producing.

For example, we can compare a plant’s optimal capacity to how much the plant is actually producing. This reveals how well the plant is being utilized. This same thinking can be applied to your salespeople.

The results of our survey clearly indicate that breakthrough sales results are possible, even in a slowing economy. The key is to unlock the full potential of your sales force. For details on the Industrial Performance Group’s sales force survey visit www.indusperfgrp.com.

Differentiating Salespeople From Order Takers

When three manufacturers got together to discuss some of their experiences with outsourced sales professionals, the subject of termination came up before too long. To a person, each manufacturer emphasized that after they had expended the time, energy and effort to team up with a rep, they were reluctant to make a change — however, sometimes that was the only alternative when things didn’t go as well as they had planned.

Indicative of their views on the matter was one manufacturer who maintained, “We’re never in a hurry to terminate. I don’t think we’ve ever been overly quick to hire. Naturally, we’re going to be very slow to fire. And if and when we do, it’s only after we’ve made every effort to correct a situation and make sure that we’ve both tried to operate off the same page.”

Some of the steps the manufacturers outlined when they’ve identified a problem in the field are:

• “We’ll sit down with the rep as many times as necessary — often as far as a year in advance of making any termination decision. When we meet we try to identify any of the areas of dissatisfaction, and if the rep is willing, we’ll map out a mutually agreed-upon plan to address issues.”
• “Our goal has always been to partner with salespeople — not order takers. Anyone can take an order. Occasionally we’ve made mistakes in the selection process. If we find we can’t correct a mistake, we will make a change.”

Enjoying the Switch to New Ownership

One manufacturer that has recently experienced a transfer of ownership with two of his agencies reported that it was not an especially onerous experience “owing mostly to the foresight and planning of the reps involved.”

In both cases he reported that the agencies’ previous ownership kept him in the informational loop from the very beginning of the planning process. “They let me know an approximate time frame when they were planning to leave the business. In addition, they made every effort to introduce me to the new owners and to allow us time to build a relationship before actually pulling the switch. And finally, they both asked my advice and sought my counsel during the process. As a result, we’re still doing business and selling a lot of products with both agencies.”

The Benefits of In-the-Field Training

A manufacturer paid close attention to the members of his rep council when the subject of training came up. In a uniform voice, the five reps that made up his council let him know exactly what kind of training they were looking for. “Their message to me,” he explained, “was we already know how to sell. That’s how we’ve been making a living for years. What we do need is product training, especially for my company’s products, since we’ve achieved a well-earned reputation for putting innovative products out in the field. In addition to requesting a steady dose of product training, however, they wanted the training to be non-intrusive and to not take too much of their time. What we agreed upon was that whenever possible we’d bring the training to them. That way they wouldn’t have to leave their territories. What we did was develop a program to train them, but only when we had something truly new. By delivering on our promise, we’ve found all of our reps are interested in what we have to offer, and they’re anxious to undergo the training. A side benefit is the fact that when we bring the training to them, we’re able to combine our efforts with regular visits that we’d be making in the field anyway.”

He concludes that these training sessions rarely occur more than twice a year. “And since we’ve shown such a willingness to come to them, whenever we’ve requested their presence at our headquarters location, they’ve been more than willing to comply.”