How Do You Know if Your Sales Strategy is Broken? By Frank Hurtte Many distributors struggle when asked to explain their sales strategy. With  a great deal of hand waving and stuttering , the conversation quickly turns vague and squishy. Sales leaders talk about relationships, service, responsiveness, and “taking care of the customer.” All important, of course. No customer enjoys working with an unresponsive supplier or a company that creates problems instead of solving them. But those statements rarely explain why customers actually buy. Listen closely, and you’ll hear familiar catchphrases: “Our strength is our relationships.” “Our people care more than the other guys.” “We give great service.” (What does that even mean?) “We go above and beyond supplier expectations.” True? Possibly. Strategic? Not even close.  You can bet your bottom dollar that every competitor can make the same claim There’s a simpler way to test the strength of a sales strategy. Instea...

Why Relationships Alone Are Not a Growth Strategy Stop Waiting for Competitors to Retire By Frank Hurtte Relationships matter. If everything else is equal, the salesperson with the relationship usually wins the order. But if your only competitive advantage is that customers like you, you’re setting yourself up for trouble. Your competitor has a relationship, too. And if your growth plan depends on waiting for that competitor to retire, transfer, or die, that’s not a strategy. That’s wishful thinking. I’ve watched salespeople play this waiting game for decades. Their “growth plan” often sounds like this: “I’ll keep showing up. I’ll answer the phone at night. I’ll jump when there’s a problem. I’ll build trust. And when the competitor eventually slips up, I’ll move up the food chain.” Relationships can open doors. The keyword is "eventually." Eventually might mean a year. It might mean five. I’ve seen reps wait a decade for a competitor to “finally mess up.” Meanwhile, the accou...

Turning Cost into Cash: A Podcast with Frank Hurtte Hire Slow, Fire Fast might sound harsh, but Frank Hurtte isn’t pulling punches when it comes to sales success. In this latest IEDA podcast episode, Frank dives into why your dealership’s sales team should be more than just “expense-report addicts in logo shirts” and how strong leadership, coaching, and accountability can turn new hires into revenue drivers. Whether you’re behind the wheel, on a jog, or grabbing a coffee, this is the kind of straight-talk sales wisdom you don’t want to miss. Listen on the Independent Equipment Dealers Association Group page OR...  Want to listen during your drive time? Click for Spotify and Apple Podcasts . About the Author Frank Hurtte has nearly 50 years of industrial sales experience and is the founder of River Heights Consulting. He’s the author of The New Sales Guy Project and several other books, a sought-after speaker, and a regular magazine columnist. Frank is known for telling ...

SMART Goals: Your Mid-Year Reality Check By Desiree Grace You don’t need to be Einstein or Stephen Hawking to succeed in sales. What you do need is planning, discipline, and a little vigilance. Is this some scientific breakthrough? A new AI tool? Nope, it’s as basic as 1+1=2. Creating SMART goals and tracking your progress is the tried-and-true formula for breakthrough results. As we hit the mid-point of the year, it’s time for a little self-inventory. Are your goals still on track? Is your team performing as expected? Let’s start with the foundation, the goals themselves. They must be SMART: Specific Measurable Attainable Relevant Time-Bound If your goals are missing any of these five elements, it’s time for a rewrite. Consider this example: Vague goal: “Increase cross-selling.” Not bad, but not necessarily  SMART .   SMART goal: “Increase product categories sold by at least two categories with your top 10 customers by the end of fiscal year 2025. Each new...

Leave Them Alone and Let Them Sell? Are You Out of Your Mind? An angry man's rant By Frank Hurtte Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve masochistically subjected myself (voluntarily, mind you) to a greasy, day-old buffet of podcasts, think-pieces, and smug online lectures from sales "experts" who believe the solution to all of life’s problems is to just leave salespeople alone. “Let them do what feels best,” they coo, or maybe spew, like back-alley dope pushers. If it feels good, do it. “No need to manage them. Don’t you dare ask what they’re doing. And for the love of God, don’t mention CRM.” It’s an exhaustingly long-winded sermon of anti-accountability. And like the Jonestown cult, the Kool-Aid line is long. Looking back, I wish I’d made a list of those slobbering all over themselves in the amen corner of the comment section. Note to self: deprogram them before even reading their resume, much less hiring them. Rather than yelling at my screen or punching drywa...

We know most New Year’s Resolutions lapse, collapse, and gather dust.  They would fail my grandmother’s white glove test for thoroughness. What if you could be different? Part of the failure behind most resolutions is that they lack a plan to hold yourself or your team accountable. Meeting goals, such as increasing sales, requires consistent monitoring. You need to watch both leading and lagging indicators and correct the course as needed. If you don’t consistently monitor your progress, a lag or lapse becomes the new normal like the dust bunnies behind the couch. So, what is an aspiring sales manager to do? True confession: I am NOT a fan of the old saw “Beatings will continue until morale improves.” You cannot achieve long-term results or employee longevity with that approach. However, a completely hands-off method will also guarantee that you miss your goals. People need to know you are cheering for them, removing obstacles, adding needed support, and, most importantly, inspect...

“In playing ball, and in life, a person occasionally gets the opportunity to do something great. When that time comes, only two things matter: being prepared to seize the moment and having the courage to take your best swing.” – Hank Aaron “Batter up!” Baseball is in full swing and so is succession planning. Are you building your bench strength?  If not, START.  Easy to say, but where do you begin? One key element is learning and development for your current team. Employees STAY when they feel an organization is invested and investing in them. LinkedIn’s 2018 Workforce Learning Report  LinkedIn’s 2018 Workforce Learning Report found that 93% of respondents would remain at a company longer if it invested in their career. LinkedIn Learning’s 2021 Workplace Learning Report  LinkedIn Learning’s 2021 Workplace Learning Report confirms that this trend still holds true. Gen Z employees especially place a high value on learning in the workplace, and the associated career ...

Check out Frank’s latest column in Industrial Supply Magazine Frank has questions and so should salespeople.  In his recent book, "The New Sales Guy Project," he dedicates significant time to the questions salespeople should be able to answer.  His most recent column talks about developing foolproof questions so no one is left asking the "dumb" ones! Read the article HERE. .

How many calls does it take? Some of you might remember the decades-old famous Tootsie Pop commercial featuring a boy asking a wise owl, "How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?"  The owl takes two licks and one large bite and announces "THREE" as his definitive answer.  You could tell the owl took great pride in being correct. This commercial, while a fun walk down memory lane, has given me pause as I hear a similar question from new salespeople when they try to set appointments, "How many calls does it take to get the appointment?" I'll dive into the answer, just keep in mind that Frank here is like that wise old owl and loves to be right!   For the last three years, I have been conducting research for a new book.  Part of the research has been a series of one-on-one coaching sessions (we have done this with well over 100 “new” salespeople) with folks who have found themselves charged with sales responsibilities, yet have n...