Let’s face it, summer time is filled with distractions.  Our customers are distracted; they have vacations, kids playing Little League, golf leagues, cabins in the woods, lawns to mow and who knows what else.  This distraction is contagious.  Being people too, distributor folks get caught up in all the summer stuff.   Sometime around September 1 st , we snap out of our summer induced behavior and put our noses to the grindstone.  For the next week or so, we are going to talk about a few fall tune-ups for distributors.  Think summer end elixir for a better year end.  If ever you planned to institute a new habit, this is the time.  For the next four minutes, let’s think about selling time.  We’ll ask a few questions:  How much time do our salespeople spend selling?  What distracts them? How might we put the beauty back into the process? How much time do salespeople spend actually selling? Based on observations of hun...

I’m a Salesperson, for crying out loud, why do I need an Annual Plan? Some will do just about anything before planning. It takes more than just adding it to the top of your "do do" list. Let me talk directly to my friends who fill the critically important role of Distributor Sales. First, I consider myself to be a member of your brotherhood.  I know it’s a tough job.  Day after day, you load in to your vehicle, had out to face down angry customers, smart-alecky purchasing guys, and unsavory reps from vendors.  You trudge through rain, sleep, snow and traffic that would wilt the heartiest of letter carriers.  If no one has said it recently, thanks for what you do.  Salespeople are the backbone of the Distribution Industry.  Now don’t you feel better?  But here comes the part where I explain precisely why you’ve got to make time for something many find distasteful.  Bear with me… I promise it will only take a moment. Regardless...

Hey Buddy, you just stole an hour of my life: The Worst Sales Meeting in Years If only the real Bandit came with this shirt. Courtesy of Zazzle.com Hey Buddy, you just stole an hour of my life. It’s not that I don’t have a few to spare, I plan to be around for a few more years, but… they say that time is money and you just called me to throw a handful of twenties down the drain. What’s got me hot? I just sat through the worst sales meeting of my life. Here’s the scoop: I was working with a distributor client and wanted to get a flavor for their company culture. I decided to sit in one of their sales meetings. I like to do this because I’m a product junkie. I enjoy learning about new stuff and the markets served by the product. I especially enjoy hearing how the products are targeted to customer groups/segments. As is typically the case with distributor sales meetings, the day was divided into one-hour segments with new suppliers being given the opportunity t...