An American Folk Tale with a New Twist We’ve been thinking about the new salesperson, actually gathering feedback from a number of good folks out there in distributor-land, plus tracking distributor trends.   The combination of all this information and a hearty blast of spicy food sent me to bed with my head spinning – leading to some tremulous dreams. Dreams can be mighty strange, but I thought I would share this one. Remember the American Folklore tale of John Henry?   OK, maybe not – let me refresh you.   Here’s the scoop from Wikipedia: John Henry is an American folk hero.   He worked as a "steel-driver"—a man tasked with hammering a steel drill into rock to make holes for explosives to blast the rock away. He died during the construction of a tunnel for a railroad. In the legend, John Henry's prowess as a steel-driver was measured in a race against a steam powered hammer, which he won, only to die in victory with his hammer in his hand. M...

Whichever method you choose to do so, making time to manage your calendar is important. Calendar Management Equals Territory Management Braving the risk of conjuring up some unpleasant memories from your grammar school days, let’s start our discussion with a pop quiz.    Ready… here goes.   True or False?   Everybody knows how to use a calendar.   My own experience is this; everyone recognizes a calendar when they see one.   Outlook has a calendar built in to the software.   Most smart phones have a built in calendar as well as over 14,000 calendar apps available (yes, we checked.)      Google has a calendar that can be utilized by both desk top and mobile users.   But still, very few people know how to use a calendar. A sales manager who assumes their new people know how to use a calendar is in for a life of disappointment and frustration.     A few months ago, we did a cross compiled survey of distributor sal...

Knowing the ins and outs of key Supply Partner relationships can jump start the New Salesman's selling efforts.  Know your friends – Relationships with Critical Supply Partners   They say no man is an island. I believe no salesperson is an island. The only time the Lone Ranger is a constantly successful hero comes in the pulp-fiction westerns on TV. In reality, sustainable success only comes as the result of building a number of alliances. We have talked about product knowledge, building relationships with customers and setting expectations. Let’s shift our time toward building profitable alliances with the strategically important vendors – we call them Supply Partners.   Nearly every distributor has special relationships with a handful of critical Supply Partners. Oftentimes, our business is so closely tied with these suppliers, that they receive special attention from our organization. Over the course of time, there are countless stories of sal...

In our first article in this series, we said product knowledge was the bedrock of selling. From this sound foundation flows the ability to present solutions, grow enthusiasm, and drive sales. Like a fresh spring in the desert wilderness, product knowledge pushes to the surface. And, just like the spring water, the most productive flows are channeled to the place where they do the most good. In sales, a well-developed process serves to direct product knowledge to the most productive utilization. Think of this, unless the product knowledge is presented to the right customers, with a specific set of corresponding needs and an appreciation for the value provided by the seller, resources are wasted. Miss the mark with any of these and the sales growth is compromised.   Build accelerating factors into the stream of salesperson activities and the sales number grows faster. Insert habits which improve the probability of closing a higher percentage of orders result. ...

Accelerating Territory Growth One Individual at a Time   One first impression,one client at a time. Building a territory is like building a network of friends.   Let’s think for a moment about the friendships we have nurtured over the years.   If you’re like me, you didn’t just wake up to discover a pile of friends under the Christmas tree.   Instead, they grew based on shared experiences, time together and commonality of background.   Amongst your best friends are classmates, coworkers, neighbors and people met through some service group.   You met them, you spent time together, or you went through some joint activity.   Maybe you shared the mutual burden of an overly demanding professor.   Or you worked together on a difficult fund raiser at your church.   The point is you intermingled in a series of joint activities.   Let’s drill deeper.   Your timeline for establishing a relationship may have looked like th...

Product Knowledge – The foundation of selling In preparation for this discussion, I asked a number of successful distributor salespeople to stop, step back and relive their first days in their territory.   For many of these folks, this was quite a task in and of itself.   Each had a number of things on their minds for the first days of selling.   But, as we pealed back the years; they all said the same thing.   Early on, I had a heck of time deciding exactly what I needed to know.   Even for those who launched their careers based on Engineering (or some other technical) Degrees, being conversant on a whole range of products was daunting. My next set of conversations took place with a group of highly motivated young sales people who were making great progress but could still be easily referred to as “newbies” in the selling game. One by one, they shared the overwhelming feeling of doubt faced around understanding the tens of thousands of products in th...