Our sales reps keep giving up. Help!

Dear Aunty B

My husband and I run an importing/distributing business where the industry is based on sales reps servicing retail stores to sell the products. The trouble is I am fed up with sales reps telling us how great they will be at the job, doing well for the first couple of months and then when things get tough and they actually have to employ their selling skills to achieve sales budgets, they give up and leave.

We are sick of accommodating for sales reps’ needs with little effort in return. We try to instil ideas into them, give them responsibilities, help in every way possible for them to do their job as sales reps, but they don’t rise to the challenge and we end up having to repeat ourselves every week about getting their sales reports in every week, returning credits, getting company car serviced regularly… blah, blah, blah.

As business people, when the going gets tough we work harder. But how can business improve when it’s so hard to employ good sales staff, particularly for a small-sized business?

Regards,
Frustrated

Dear Frustrated,

Hang on. Have you got a sales manager? Surely you and your husband are not running the sales team. That is a disaster. Business owners have the focus of gnats. They have to be across a lot of big picture stuff to develop strategy, put out fires, fire and hire, make sure key performance indicators are being met at the leadership team level, that the product or service they provide is of the highest standard and ensure the head of sales is meeting budget. You cannot do that and run a sales team. It takes huge skill to run a sales team. And it takes daily – no hourly – scrutiny and focus.

Sales staff are like no other staff. They think completely differently to the rest of us. And it takes one to know and manage one.

Restructure immediately. Prepare to pay a big salary and good commissions to get the right person in to run the sales reps. Be very clear about the challenges you have had. Tell her or him that their job is not just to run the team, but measure performance, nursemaid the sales team, develop skills and most of all, meet budget.

What you will also find is that the head of sales will feed back excellent information from the marketplace, assisting you in strategy development.

Be smart,
Your Aunty B

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