My assistant came back to the office today with a distinct look of disgust.  Apparently she did some last  minute dress shopping over lunch.  She went on to explain how infuriating it is when a salesperson tries to cram a “hideous mess of a dress” on to anyone willing to buy.  She further explained how she had met this salesperson before and was given a song and dance about how great an outfit looked, when clearly it was just meant for a mannequin.  This trip, she tried to avoid this salesperson and with good reason.  While I laughed at her fitting room trials, I couldn’t help but think about how it’s not just mall employees who push their way in for a buck. Tips for the New Guy – Don’t sell a square peg for a round hole Want to ruin your career?  Just establish a reputation as a guy who “force fits” the wrong product into customer applications. Customers will never forget or forgive you for it.  I call the practice selling square peg...

This month the fine folks at InTech Magazine were kind enough to ask me to write an editorial on the automation market.  My guess is they really wanted someone who was “long in the tooth” to comment on the cavalcade of changes in product technology – "a back in my day the PLCs ran on kerosene" sort of piece.   Being a distribution guy, I penned “ Selecting an Automation Distributor?  It’s about finding the right stuff ”.  In the automation world, over 89% of the customers buy from distributors.  Yet many are tossing dimes down the drain because they aren’t tapping into the right distributor services.  Catch us on Lulu.com In the article I charged customers with asking their distributors these questions: ·          What can your organization do to improve the uptime of my facility? ·          Do you have a plan to help us drive down our cost of doin...

In the age of Star Wars for Distributor Sales, it’s still the Sticker Wars Don't let this be the last impression you left on your customer As strange as it may seem, in the age of the internet, iPads, smartphones, and   digital catalogs, best practices in distributor sales still rely on some very “old school” selling methods.   Those of you who have been with us a while may find this contrary to our article on Technology Killing the Dinosaurs , so b efore you write me off as suffering from premature dementia, let me explain.   In sales, it’s not about the seller.   You can be tech savvy and proud of it, but customer comfort is king.   For new salespeople, this is perplexing.   You maneuver through the e-catalogs of at Amazon.com.   You carry your life on a tablet – calendar, catalogs, contacts, kid’s pictures the whole shooting match.   Regardless of your electronic life, you have to understand many of our customers are still...

Poorly Planned Direct Sales Policies First let me start off with a statement:   I’m not a negative guy.   Just the opposite, I typically walk around with a smile on my face and fill the silent void with sonic sweetness – whistling my own renditions of rock classics.   I am a distributor guy with a special spot in my heart for manufacturers who recognize the power of a well-developed channel.   You can call me Mr. Nice. The problem is my cerebral serenity is torn, stapled and otherwise mutilated by irate calls from distributors looking to load their emotional baggage on to the consultant guy from Iowa.   Here’s the scoop.   In the Saturday afternoon matinee Westerns of my misspent youth, the hero took a shot of whisky, put a bullet between their teeth and growled “yank it on out”.      In this case the flaming arrow is lodged in the muscular torso of our hero Trust and his faithful companion Cooperation.    The P...

Distributor Policies – Worst Practice Mistakes Revisited In the past couple of weeks I have been bombarded with horror stories of distributor policies gone wrong.   I have to wonder how and why so many manufacturers fall into the same traps.   Perhaps they don’t have a vehicle for benchmarking distributor practices.   Manufacturers with strong distribution channels typically participate in Distributor Associations and one can surmise networking takes place to some extent or another.   If not directly with other manufacturers, then information may be exchanged by way of distributors sharing best practices.   The others, well some days it’s tough to imagine where they get their input.   Management teams from Europe and Asia often don’t truly understand how the channel works in North America.   The whole concept of distribution sounds as goofy as buying hot dogs at a barber shop to their native sensibilities.   I mean, if you don’t re...

Being Prepared-   The Salesperson’s Trunk, a Modern Version of an Old Vaudeville Act Adolph Proper (stage name A. Robins) aka "The Banana Man" worked the Vaudeville circuit for over 40 years.   His clown act, unfortunately, lives on.   But instead of showing at ram shackled playhouses at the edge of downtown, it has moved to the front line of distributor sales. Adolph’s act went something like this: dressed in a loosely fitting clown outfit, the Banana Man would walk on stage and ask the audience to call out random items.   He would sing a little song and dance around a bit while ceremoniously reaching in to his coat pocket.   Eureka!   Out came the item mentioned.   He produced guitars, violins, giant magnets, eggs, can openers, shovels—you name it.   The crowning touch typically came when the audience asked for a banana.   Instead of producing a single yellow fruit, Mr. Proper produced giant bunch after bunch, enough to fill an e...

The Joint Call – A powerful tool for the Sales Repertoire  Don't underestimate the power of a Joint Call There are few things in the world of distributor sales that pack the explosively powerful impact of a joint call.   These come in several flavors: calls with Specialists, Sales Managers, fellow salespeople, and with a person from a key manufacturer.   We’ll address joint calls with the distributor’s internal folks later.   But for now, let hit on calls with a manufacturer. Strangely, this powerful tool has been undocumented, improperly benchmarked and ignored by many sales managers.   Whether they take it for granted or simply assume everyone knows how to drive the process forward, there is precious little outlining the best way to make one of these things happen.   While the old saying reads, “S… happens”, we don’t believe good stuff happens by miraculous accident. It’s gigantic mistake to leave joint calls to happenstance because the joint ca...