Our industry adds another new seller to the ranks daily. Over the past year, we have had the opportunity to speak to dozens of them, but compared to the vast number out there this is but a thimble full of water in a sea of people. For the coming year, I am determined to change that percentage. Why? First, the demographics demand it. Every time we speak to a group of distributor sales types, it’s hard not to notice the number of folks who are pushing up against retirement. A few weeks ago, I took a quick poll and over 40 percent of my audience qualified for AARP membership (50 plus). There is nothing wrong with being an experience salesperson. As a matter of fact, it is probably a good thing. But, our industry will need to fill the ranks. Second, I am convinced our industry must change and one of the big changes comes in how we find new people. The days of doing nothing till you need someone, then going out to “steal” an experienced person from the competition is ge...

source: Linkedin In our  last post , we discussed people; hiring the right people, building a solid distributor-centric onboarding process and the advantages of retaining experienced workers. Today, let’s turn the tables a bit and look at coaching and managing the very life blood of distributors – the people. Front-line managers make a difference According to work done by the Gallup organization first detailed in First, Break all the Rules , employees join companies but quit because of bad managers. Realizing the management structure of many distributors appears flat on paper with everyone reporting to just a few people, many of these front-line managers may not even have a m anagerial title. We might call them something like warehouse lead, inside sales supervisor, senior buyer, or perhaps they carry no real title but direct the work of others. To a lot of your workers, they are the “go to” person and reflect the day-to-day voice of the company. Oftentimes, they have n...