3

Implementing
the Plan

Let’s now move on to the next major step—implementing the plan. As field sales manager you perform this part of the job when:

1.You have the right salespeople to do the job.

2.You supervise these reps to make sure they are reaching their agreed-upon objectives.

In short, what we have is a plan of action for each sales rep working under the field sales manager. These individual plans also include specific steps for achieving the company’s overall objectives. In our hypothetical case, each sales rep has a specific plan for increasing the sales of product line B as well as for attaining additional objectives agreed upon for his or her individual growth and development. The field sales manager’s own plan of action is to help each sales rep achieve objectives.

This job is done largely in the field. Ordinarily, those field sales managers with ten reps under them find it necessary to spend from 60 to 80 percent of their time in the field with their reps. To do this, they must keep office work to a minimum and learn how to handle it with maximum efficiency. Figure 3-1 is an example of a typical sales manager’s time allocation sheet.

Basically, your job as manager is to improve the thinking of your people because they usually perform alone. It is a rare occasion when you are with them on their calls. It is therefore essential to get them to perform well in your absence. To do so, your salespeople must be thinking along the same lines. Implied in the achievement of this goal is a recognition that as a manager you will never get anywhere until you make your reps want to change their habits and improve their thinking.

Figure 3–1. Field coaching: time allocation sheet.

Reprinted with permission from the 3M Corporation, St. Paul, Minnesota.

Another important concept is that field contacts between you and your sales force must have continuity. Each must be related to the previous one and to the one that will inevitably follow. The field contacts must be a series of efforts on your part that build toward specific goals and objectives which are known, agreed upon, and in writing. Each field contact builds upon the previous one. All too often field sales managers conduct “flying contacts” with their people, rushing to see them without any specific plan, spending their time on visits to important accounts and calls to help close some big business deal for the sales rep or to straighten out complaints of important customers. The individual rep is often relieved when the visit is over, and the field sales manager is equally happy to return to his desk and the mountain of paperwork he will find on it. Since I wish to change this version of the field contact to the kind of visit described in the opening sentences of this paragraph, I recognize that some careful planning is necessary before making a field contact with a sales rep.

It may be well at this point to clarify exactly what ought to be accomplished in this proposed series of field contacts. In your planning sessions with each of your reps you have mutually agreed on what each is to do to achieve the objectives that have been set. There remains the question: Do they know how to do it? Showing them how to do the job is also the field sales manager’s responsibility.

The field contact has additional goals, which must also be kept in mind. One of these is the reduction of staff turnover. Sales reps who might otherwise become discouraged and leave for another job are stimulated by field contacts to become valuable members of the team. The manager’s field work with the salespeople will improve their performance. As they become more productive sales reps, they feel more secure in the job, take greater satisfaction in their work, and often strive for promotion. Thus the field contact, when properly planned and performed, can do wonders. No report can give so accurate a picture of the performance of sales reps as may be obtained by seeing them in action with a customer. Their strengths and weaknesses become apparent, and the latter can be more easily corrected when they are encouraged with commendation for any progress they have made.

Changing Habits

It may appear that field contacts are being overemphasized in these pages. However, they deserve the attention I have given them. What you are actually attempting to do for them is to change many established habits of your sales reps. You say to them, in effect: “Stop doing it that way and start doing it this way.” Even after your salespeople accept your point of view and want to follow your directions, they are in for a very difficult time. Why? Anyone who has ever tried to stop smoking or follow a diet knows how difficult it is to change fixed habits. Efforts to break habits fail far more frequently than they succeed. We have all heard: “This one cigarette won’t hurt me,” or, “I’ll just taste a little of the apple pie; I’ll be back on my diet in the morning.” These remarks usually signal the defeat of an effort to alter a habit. Well, the same thing happens with salespeople. They start out with every intention of doing what you recommend. Then, after a week or two of working alone in the field, their determination weakens and they revert to their old habitual ways of doing things. Unless they are caught up promptly and made to do things properly, it will become extremely difficult—if not impossible—to start them on the right path again. You have probably used your most powerful ammunition to sell them on making the original commitment to improve their habits. You have little left to inspire them now.

The alert field sales manager expects backsliding and watches for it. When it appears, he immediately goes out into the field to correct the erring sales rep. Consequently, the interval between the rep’s reversion to bad habits widens after each such field contact. Eventually the habit is changed; the field sales manager has accomplished this particular task, and is free to move on to other efforts to improve the rep’s performance. The foregoing discussion should make it clear to you as a field sales manager that your job must be done primarily in the field and cannot possibly be performed from behind a desk, no matter how many reports and statistics you may have at your disposal.

Planning the Field Contact

Detailed planning is vitally important if the field contact is to be a fruitful experience for the field sales manager and the sales rep. The field contact must be planned jointly by both of them. It is important for each to know what the other hopes to accomplish from the meeting; consequently, ample time for planning must be allowed. A minimum of two weeks is suggested unless there is some emergency. Here are some of the important steps to be taken by the field sales manager in crystallizing plans:

1.Review the agreed-upon objectives arrived at during the planning session. Determine which of these you wish to help the sales rep with during the forthcoming contact.

2.Study the sales rep’s past performance to determine where she could use some help, additional training, counseling, or coaching.

3.If you have a file for the sales rep, go over it for any notes or correspondence that might reveal subjects worth discussing or areas where you can assist in developing the rep.

4.Determine whether there are any special situations requiring your help, like closing business deals or strengthening relationships with important accounts.

5.Check with headquarters for any problems or other matters that you can deal with effectively during a field contact. These might include credit difficulties or situations involving the engineering, advertising, or sales research departments.

6.Determine what equipment you will take with you. For instance, you may wish to help the sales rep improve her sales of product line B. Do not depend upon her to have all the necessary sales tools for an effective effort to sell or promote this product line. She may inadvertently leave some of this material at home on the day you are scheduled to meet, or her equipment may be in poor condition. Bring all this equipment with you in case it is needed to demonstrate the value of this product line.

7.From all of the foregoing you can judge the probable length of the field contact.

8.Now are you ready to write your sales rep a letter setting forth the date and estimated length of the contact. You should also state the time you will arrive, the time and place of the projected meeting, and specifically what you would like to accomplish. This letter will tell her what she must do to prepare for the contact. For instance, you may ask her to plan at least two calls on accounts which, she has agreed, are prospects for product line B and on two accounts where she has had difficulty in getting a hearing from the decision-making authorities.

9.Finally, bring her into the planning of the field contact by asking her whether there are any specific calls she wishes to make with you or any specific matters she wishes to discuss with you so that you can be prepared to handle these matters effectively when you are with her. It is important for the sales rep to understand that you are giving her an opportunity to prepare for your contact with her and that she owes you the same consideration—that is, an opportunity to prepare to discuss matters that concern her and that she wants to resolve while you are there. It is suggested that you refuse to discuss any matters of which she has failed to give you advance notice. She must realize that it is unfair to “hit you cold” with gripes when you are with her. By giving you prior notice of such matters, she gives you an opportunity to obtain information from the home office or otherwise prepare to resolve the problem.

10.When her reply arrives, you can then fit her requests into the schedule for the field contact and write a final letter setting forth the completed plans so that she can make the necessary arrangements in advance to ensure a profitable experience for both of you. Now everything is set for the field contact.

Figure 3-2, a reprint of a 3M brochure on presession analysis and planning, gives further insight into how to go about planning.

The Field Contact

The first step is to “clear the decks.” By this I mean that you first dispose of those matters that are worrying the sales rep. A rep cannot be expected to absorb the developmental training you have planned while emotionally or mentally disturbed about some situation. If the contact is to be effective, the rep must be ready to learn.

A sales rep may carry some gripe in his breast for hours until the field sales manager finally gives him an opportunity to talk it out. Often this is at the end of the day, just before the manager dashes away to the airport. The field sales manager in such a situation may not recognize that he has wasted the entire day simply because the sales rep was preoccupied with his gripe and hence unable to absorb the valuable help provided by the manager. Yet the day probably was a total loss. It was a very costly one, too, because the instruction was lost, the time of the manager and of the sales rep was lost, the dollar cost of the day was lost, and, above all, an important opportunity to build a sounder relationship between the rep and the field sales manager was missed.

Figure 3–2. Example of a presession analysis and planning reminder.

1. Pre-Session Analysis and Planning

A. Setting Up the Coaching Session

Determine the objective—Consult your coaching folder. Consider readiness level for each task and appropriate leadership style. Review results of previous coaching sessions. Consider needs, past and present performance. Motivational profile.

Example

Distributor Business Review—Owner—Mgt.

Cold Calls—Specific product—Promotion

Key Account Calls—Top Level Presentation

Distributor Sales Meeting

Nite Demo

Difficult Account—Situation—Be the “Fall Guy”

Account Just Sold—Case study for other reps

Account Card Review

No Objective—Field Work—Leave it up to the rep

Ask them beforehand how you can be of most value

Key Account Review

Team effort to close a sale

½ Day—Telephone Appointments—Qualifying

Review their time & territory plans for the next quarter—30 days

Provide time, date, location. How much advance notice? Meet early in the field—not the office.

The rep may have many things to discuss with you. Prioritize. Don’t let these things overshadow your coaching objectives, based on the needs of the rep.

B. Meeting the Rep

Set the tone. mood, pace for the coaching session—high expectations —self-fulfilling prophecy.

Establish objectives for the day(s). Compliment on past performance. A person must feel good about themselves before change can take place. Emphasize self-improvement, self-development. Let them know how they are getting along, where they stand. what’s expected.

Prepare for the field coaching session as you would for a call on a “Key Account.” Consider their feelings. put yourself in their shoes, consider the rejection they face.

How you set up the field coaching session will, to a large degree determine the rep’s receptivity to your coaching and attitude to his/her self improvement and future behavior after the coaching session.

Confidence, respect for one another, trust are the foundations for leadership.

C. Preparing the Rep Before the Call

Build up his/her self respect—confidence, pride, remind them of another similar important sale they have recently made.

Have them use the pre-call planning sheet on important calls. For new reps, help them to fill it out and rehearse before the call. Help them anticipate objections before the call & overcome them before they are raised.

Encourage them to look and ask for applications for other 3M products & services and turn over leads, cooperation for growth.

Help make them feel they belong to a team.

Urge them to come out of their “comfort zone” to take some risks to grow and achieve greater accomplishments.

Ask how you can help—or gain support from head office staff—literature spec’s, etc.

Encourage innovation, initiative, creativity in the call.

Review ground rules as to what involvement you will take in the call, if any.

Pick up the bag. make some cold calls yourself—let the rep analyze your calls.

Observe what the rep does in his/her waiting time.

Reprinted with permission from the 3M Corporation, St. Paul, Minnesota.

Is it not better to sit down with the sales rep first and resolve any matters that concern him? Regardless of whether this is done at the airport, in the hotel, or in the sales rep’s car, it is an important first step in any field contact. It is important to bring incipient troubles to the surface before they become crises or serious problems. This is best done when you are with the salesperson. Try to develop an open discussion of “how things are going.” The rep may open up and tell you of some matter that does not seem important to him, but that you recognize at once deserves immediate attention. It is your greater experience that enables you to recognize when some situation is potentially explosive. The trick is to detect that there is a problem, to ferret it out, and to deal with it right away. Never allow it to fester.

Another factor may operate to destroy the effectiveness of the field contact. The sales rep may want you to scratch all your carefully made plans and rush with him to an important account to close a large pending order or to resolve some serious complaint. Should you comply? Under some circumstances you may decide that you should scrap your plans and do what the sales rep urges. On the other hand, you must recognize that this contact is one of a series in the development of the rep and that scrapping the plans will break the continuity of the development work, with possibly harmful results. Often field contacts are made infrequently; and when they are made, it is important to do those things which do the most to advance the sales rep’s growth and help to achieve company objectives.

There is another aspect of this problem, and it concerns the sales rep’s estimate of his own capabilities. Does he feel unprepared to close big sales or to deal with serious customer dissatisfaction? Isn’t the performance of these functions part of his job? Would you prefer that important accounts look to you rather than to your sales rep when they have a large order to place or a complaint to adjust? If your job is to develop your sales force—and that is exactly what it is—then shouldn’t you require the sales rep to think through the problem with your help until he feels that he can handle it adequately himself?

Given this problem, how are you to solve it? The best procedure is to take the time to sit down with the sales rep and talk it over thoroughly. If there is a large order to be closed, ask him why he feels unable to close it himself. What obstacles, real or imagined, are limiting him? As he talks about the account and the business to be closed, help him with the answers to those questions that bother him. Provide him with the know-how to handle the account and close the business, thus building his self-confidence. When this has been done as thoroughly as possible, finish up with a statement along these lines:

Jo, I want you to know that the company and I want that business just as badly as you do. At the same time, you should know that I have implicit confidence in you and in your ability to get this business on your own. I am willing to risk the business by placing it in your hands because I believe it will be a minimal risk and that, with all the facts in hand, you can do as well as I can. If, on the other hand, you lack the confidence in yourself that I have in you, then I will go with you. I hope, however, that you will decide to go by yourself.

This is an important step for you to take; it is critical to your own development and growth as a sales manager, as well as to the sales rep’s growth. Experience indicates that in the large majority of cases where this procedure is followed, the sales rep does decide to go by himself and actually closes the sale. The rep gains appreciably in self-confidence, which affects his future performance favorably. His customer comes to rely upon him personally. And you as sales manager have shown yourself capable of performing one of the most important functions of a manager—a willingness to take risks by delegating responsibility, thus developing those under you while increasing their motivation and capabilities.

You should review with the sales rep the order in which you have planned the performance of the various steps to be taken during the contact. Agreement must be reached on this so that the sales rep understands the relative importance of the various things to be done and the priorities that must therefore be assigned. In addition, you should make clear that two sorts of interviews will be conducted during the day: first, interviews for the purpose of making a sale or advancing the procurement of an order; and, second, interviews for the purpose of developing the sales rep and helping him toward the attainment of his agreed-upon objectives. In the former, both you and the sales rep will actively participate in the interview, whereas in the latter the sales rep will carry the ball while you merely function as an observer. Before each call, you should inform the rep as to which type of interview it will be so that he will understand your probable degree of involvement in the conduct of the interview.

It is the second kind of interview that deserves more attention. This is the interview that permits you to observe the rep in action. It is here that you will learn most about your sales rep and discover what you must do to help him. No reports or remarks by the sales rep concerning his problems can compare in value to what you can learn from observing such an interview. You will never know how well or how poorly your sales rep closes an order unless you permit him to conduct an interview through to the point of closing in your presence. This is not easy for a field sales manager who is champing at the bit, longing to get into the interview to “save it.” Nevertheless, you must remain silent and observe. In this sort of interview, development of the sales rep is paramount and obtaining an order is of only secondary importance. The sales rep does not learn half so much by observing you in action as he learns by doing the job himself. One of the great benefits from this procedure is that the rep will become aware of his errors and weaknesses without having to have them pointed out to him. Thus it spares him the embarrassment of hearing from his boss about his weaknesses.

In one instance a sales rep turned to his field sales manager after three unsatisfactory interviews and said: “Boss, I should be kicked around the block for doing such a poor job in planning those interviews.” The boss simply replied: “I’m glad you know it. Now let’s see if I can help you do a better job of planning.” The field sales manager, in short, will do far better when his salespeople recognize and acknowledge their own weaknesses. You will note my emphasis on the planning of the interview. Too often this aspect of a salesperson’s work is not developed sufficiently. The sales manager spends most of his time with the rep in making calls. But it is the planning of those calls that is most important. The field sales manager in working with his people should give the highest priority to perfecting the planning of the interview. If this is done well, then the interview itself will be greatly improved and more effective. Don’t be in a hurry to make the call when with a sales rep. Spend all the time necessary to satisfy yourself that there is a good plan.

Let’s do some hypothetical observing.

As sales manager, you accompany a sales rep on the first call she has planned. This is an interview for the purpose of helping the rep with one of her agreed-upon objectives, selling product line B. You are about to drive with her to the account.

Although the chief purpose of the call is clearly understood, there is no reason why you can’t learn a great deal more about the sales rep than her ability to sell product line B. The call will also provide an opportunity to improve her skill in conducting an interview; in fact, each call made by the sales rep with her manager may be of value to her overall development if you are alert to all the opportunities.

For example, while driving with her, you talk informally about the upcoming call. You ask her to bring you up to date on the account, what business the company has done with it, and the prospects for obtaining additional business. You inquire into the obstacles the company faces in trying to supply a greater share of the customer’s total requirements than it does now. You want to know whether the sales rep personally knows the key decision-making people in the firm and why she feels that they should purchase product line B. You question her as to the advantages that will accrue to them through using it and how she proposes to introduce the product. You ask what sales tools she will use and in what manner.

This informal discussion will reveal the kind of planning the sales rep has done for this call. If her planning is repeatedly poor, as field sales manager you must help her improve it.

After such a discussion, which incidentally must not be an inquisition, the sales rep, upon arriving at the prospect’s place of business, frequently says to her manager: “Boss, since talking with you on the way out here, I can see that I’m not really properly prepared to make this call effectively. Do you mind if we pass it up and go on to the next one?” The answer should be:

Certainly, pass up the call. It’s better not to make it at all than to do it poorly and with insufficient preparation. Let’s move along. Whom do we call on next? Give me a rundown on this next account.

The process is repeated until the sales rep realizes that she has not been planning properly, and admits it. This conveniently sets the stage for you to spend time teaching her how to plan a call properly. This may be called the discussion method for helping the sales rep to improve interview planning.

Now let’s suppose that you and the sales rep actually enter the prospect’s place of business. You have told the sales rep to introduce you not by your title but simply as a man from the factory. You have also instructed her to pay no further attention to you but to proceed with the interview just as she would in your absence. You should then find a position that keeps you out of the limelight of the interview but that permits you to hear everything that is said.

The field sales manager knows that 75 percent of the success of an interview will depend on the nature and thoroughness of the planning done, and that the remaining 25 percent is determined by how well the sales rep executes these plans. Once the premises have been entered, the field sales manager must be alert to every situation, beginning with the approach to the receptionist.

Why the receptionist? Because many sales reps never get past the receptionist or, if they do, their approach leads to their being sent to some person who has no authority to act. For example, if the sales rep simply tells the receptionist his name and company and adds that he sells product line B, he may end up talking to an assistant purchasing agent instead of to the engineering staff or laboratory and production people who can requisition the product for test or purchase. The field sales manager can instruct the sales rep in the proper approach to the receptionist and even suggest key words to guide the receptionist’s thinking and handling of the request for an interview. There is a great difference, for instance, between asking a receptionist: “Who is the person who buys products like product line B?” and inquiring: “Who is the individual responsible for the replacement of shaping and forming machinery?” Each question may easily result in the sales rep’s being sent to a different person. Should the salesperson find that the receptionist is being made an intermediary to relay the buyer’s questions, he can ask to talk directly with the buyer on the telephone. Here is an example. The salesperson picks up the phone and says:

Mr. Smith, we saved Ajax Manufacturing a nice bit of money in their plating department, which I believe is similar to yours. I brought with me some material that will enable me to show you what we did faster than I can tell you about it over the phone. May I come up to your office so that you can see it and determine whether it is applicable to your operations?

As we have seen, the field sales manager starts his work with the salesperson long before the call is actually made. But what can he do once the actual interview has begun? Consider a situation where you and the sales rep have agreed that the rep is to conduct the interview under your observation. If you must avoid taking the interview out of the sales rep’s hands, even though failure is imminent, what is your part in the interview? Seated some distance from the prospect and the sales rep, you listen to everything they say. Since the purpose of the call is to help the sales rep improve his skills in selling product line B, you have in your bag all the various sales tools provided by the company for presenting product line B favorably. In such a situation you may properly inject yourself into the interview at critical moments and then withdraw, letting the sales rep continue. You do this by directing your remarks to the sales rep and not to the prospect.

For instance, you may note that the interview is drooping because the salesperson is not making clear a key point that could be illustrated by a company-supplied mock-up. You take the mock-up from your bag and say to the sales rep:

Jim, pardon me for sticking my nose into your conversation with Mr. Smith, but I could not help hearing what has been said and I wonder if Mr. Smith would be interested in seeing this mock-up. It should help answer some of the questions he is raising.

You hand the mock-up to the sales rep and then back off and resume your position at a distance. The sales rep takes the mock-up and uses it immediately.

This method of “entering and withdrawing” has been found to be extremely helpful for training purposes. Note that the sales rep is using the ideas, samples, or engineering data that the manager has handed him. He is finding out that his interviews are more effective when he uses such aids. After the interview, the manager can point out to the sales rep the value of the ideas and devices he has caused to be injected into the interview. A sales rep is ordinarily quite receptive to ideas introduced in this way and does not forget them.

The question has often been raised as to how this method can be employed when the customer knows the field sales manager well and directs his questions to him rather than to the sales rep. The answer is that the field sales manager can handle such a situation by simply referring the questions to the salesperson. For example, assume that you are greeted enthusiastically by the customer as an old friend: “Hi, Bill. How are you? I haven’t seen you since you got into the big time with your company as a field sales manager. Come in and sit down.” After a reasonable amount of “horsing around,” you say to the customer:

Jim has just told me about some ideas that I think may be helpful to you. Jim, tell Mr. Smith what you had in mind.

The sales rep takes over the interview and proceeds. But the customer turns to you and asks, “Bill, what is the price of this?” You then fumble through your pocket and answer:

I guess I’ve gotten a little careless since I stopped doing direct selling. I don’t recall the price, but Jim here has the figures.

In short, you toss the ball right back to the sales rep every time a question is asked you by the customer. In this way, the sales rep is built up in the mind of the account, and the interview proceeds with the rep in charge and you just observing.

There is one other way for improving the quality of the interview. Have you ever noticed that when you are about to conduct an important interview, whether with your customer, boss, or some other person, you subconsciously prepare for it by subjecting yourself to a battery of questions that you force yourself to answer? Scores of questions pass through your mind, and you try to find convincing answers to them. After this exercise, you enter your meeting well prepared to meet almost any contingency. Because such a self-examination, which may occur while eating, dressing, or driving, is valuable preparation for an interview, why not use it deliberately as a formal part of the planning for the meeting?

With this in mind, I suggest that you prepare a list of pertinent questions to be used by salespeople in planning their interviews. This list will vary with each type of sales job. Figure 3-3 contains a typical list, and the planning and analysis sheets used by the 3M Corporation show how questions are applied in practice. The sales reps make themselves answer these questions in preparing for important interviews. With continued use, this sort of self-questioning becomes so habitual that the reps no longer require a written list.

One of your more important functions as a field sales manager is to show your salespeople the importance of relating each interview with an account to the previous and succeeding interview. In the development of an account there must be a continuity to the interviews. Each should build on the previous one, improving the position of the sales rep and of the company with the account. How can you teach this concept most effectively to the sales rep? Here is one time-tested method.

Figure 3–3. Questions intended to improve a sales rep’s preparedness when planning an interview.

Reprinted with permission from the 3M Corporation, St. Paul, Minnesota.

The best time to plan for the next interview is at the moment the sales rep leaves the premises of the customer. At that moment he vividly recalls every detail of the interview. He remembers his achievements and failings and knows what he must do next to further develop the account and advance the position of his company and himself. He also knows when the next call should be made. He can enter this date in his diary so that it will not be forgotten. He can take a moment to make notes on his customer sheet or card indicating the next step to be taken. Doing this after each interview is in reality performance of vital steps 3 and 4 of the cycle of management (in Figure 1-1). The best way for you to teach this procedure is to make sure that the sales rep follows it after every call on which you have accompanied him. You can also look over the records of each sales rep to see whether they are making similar notations after solo calls.

There are a number of other skills you may find it necessary to teach your salespeople while you are with them in the field. One of these involves the method of concluding a field contact. The field contact, when conducted in the manner I have just described, will disclose certain strengths and weaknesses of the sales rep. It is important that there be agreement between you and each sales rep with respect to both qualities. A discussion of these strengths and weaknesses should be the basis on which you plan your next field contact with the sales rep, suggesting guidelines for areas where performance should be improved by the time you return for another field contact. These objectives for the development of the rep should be clearly determined before you leave and should be promptly confirmed in writing. When the next field contact is planned, these objectives will be the principal basis for such planning. Thus continuity of the program for the development of the sales rep is achieved.

Among the many aspects of the sales rep’s performance in the field that you should observe and, where necessary, correct are the following:

The extent to which the sales rep employs the telephone to save time, increase effectiveness, and improve performance

How the sales rep covers the territory in order to be where the business is when it is going to be placed

The amount of time the sales rep spends on keeping various records

The way the rep handles customers’ complaints

The attitude of the salesperson toward headquarters and its policies

The rep’s general attitude toward work and life

As manager, you must always be alert to the sales rep in relation to these factors and be prepared to step in and correct any weaknesses as they become apparent. It is during field contact that you can deal with these problems most successfully. They are not likely to be remedied by letters or even telephone calls to the sales rep from the branch office. Let’s therefore consider some of the methods that have worked best in dealing with them.

The most successful salespeople are those who make the maximum use of the telephone. One field sales manager has said that when he arrives at an airport to visit his star salesman he always knows where to find him—in a telephone booth. Even at noon, when the two go to lunch, he will tell the manager what to order for him and then make a phone call while waiting to be served. There is nothing unusual about such conduct. There are sales reps who understand the value of their time and are unwilling to waste any of it. Their success is generally predictable.

One trap in the path of sales reps who try to use their time to best advantage is the emergency message telling them to drop everything and run to a customer who demands to see them at once. It they listen to this siren song, all their good planning goes out the window. Top-notch salespeople have an excellent way of handling these SOSs and can usually take care of the needs of their customers without disrupting their own plans. How do they do it? With the telephone. When sales reps who use their time expertly return to their office or home at the end of a day’s work, they usually find a list of phone calls requiring attention. If their territory is out of town, they may phone in every evening for such messages. Upon receipt of the messages they immediately classify them as follows:

Those from customers they can call back the same night and perhaps catch at home

Those from customers they can call very early the next morning

Those customers they will call while making their rounds the next day

Thus all get attention without interfering with the rep’s planned program.

Aggressive salespeople use the phone while they are waiting to see a customer, while traveling between interviews, while waiting to be served in restaurants, and while waiting for their cars to be serviced. They do not waste time at home or in the office returning the previous day’s phone calls; they do this from the field. They never make a visit as a result of a phone call before first returning that phone call. Frequently, a phone call is merely a request for information that can be given as easily over the phone as through a personal visit. Phone calls are also used to make certain that the prospect is available and will receive the sales rep. When returning phone calls, salespeople should have their diaries in front of them so that they can make a definite appointment to see the customer if this appears necessary. Very often the customer will not insist that the sales rep “drop everything” and come right over but will be satisfied to make an appointment at a time that will not disrupt the rep’s plans. The sales rep should not hesitate to ask for a convenient appointment while also indicating a willingness to “drop everything” if necessary.

The telephone is also useful in making sure that customers located out of the city are at their place of business when the sales rep proposes to call. Where it is desirable for the sales rep to meet with more than one person at the customer’s office or plant, this kind of meeting can be arranged in advance through the use of the telephone. Telephone calls cost much less than personal calls. Wherever a telephone call can substitute for a personal call, it is more economical and usually just as effective. The telephone frees salespeople to put their time to the best use so that they can be where the business is when it is going to be placed.

An important use of the telephone is to set up an appointment with an account on short notice. Occasionally, the sales rep finds himself in the neighborhood of an account that he had not planned to call upon that day. Unexpectedly finding that he has time to make the call, he telephones from the place of his last call to find out whether this customer will see him. By making the phone call here, the sales rep is saving time. If the customer is unavailable, then the sales rep can perhaps phone still another account and thus get in an additional call during the day.

Such phone calls must be as carefully planned as an interview. They are actually interviews conducted over the telephone in preparation for a more lengthy, personal interview. It is easy for the customer or prospect at the other end of the line to be curt or to refuse to see the sales rep. Experience indicates that the best psychological approach under such circumstances is for sales reps to identify themselves with some important account or person in the industry, remarking, for example:

Hello, Mr. Smith. I am just leaving the office of Mr. Weatherby, chief engineer at General Electric, and am about fifteen minutes away from your office. If you’ll be in for the next fifteen minutes, I’ll be right over. Will you be there? O.K. I’m starting now. Goodbye.

The sales rep has asked a direct question; as soon as he receives an affirmative reply, he hangs up and is on his way.

In another situation the sales rep is asking for an interview over the phone but does not have a close relationship with the person to whom he is talking. He again plans an approach likely to interest the customer:

Hello, Mr. Smith. This is Bill Jones of Acme Manufacturing. We have just completed some work at General Electric that resulted in considerable savings in their plant operations in a situation very similar to what you probably have in your widget division. I’m at Smith Company now and have the data with me, and if you’ll be there for fifteen minutes, I can come right over to see you. Will you be there? O.K. I’ll be there.

He hangs up and gets going.

The preceding examples illustrate the kind of telephone interviews that can be effective. A major problem in this kind of interview arises when the customer asks the sales rep, in effect, to give the entire interview over the telephone. Experience indicates that the sales rep should refuse with some such statement as:

I can show you more quickly than I can tell you. If you’ll be there for fifteen minutes, I’ll bring in some material that will quickly give you the information you want. O.K.?

Many an interview is lost because the sales rep is required to talk to the customer from the lobby by telephone. This possibility should be anticipated by the sales rep, and the sales presentation for such a situation should be carefully planned. Few receptionists are prepared for sales reps who have carefully thought through the “interview with the receptionist.” Most reps, however, never realize the importance of getting through the receptionist to the decision-making authority. If you were to sit in the lobby of a large concern you would observe that sales reps in general follow the same routine. They enter, place their cards before the receptionist, wait to be guided to anyone this person feels is proper, and are prepared to sit around for a considerable time until this happens.

Top-performing salespeople, on the other hand, show some interesting variations from this procedure. They usually know the best time to call on an account and, if it is necessary to make the call very early in the morning in order to be first in line, they plan their day accordingly. In some cases they may even arrive before the receptionist reports for work in the morning.

Upon presenting herself, the top sales rep rarely uses her business card. She provides information as it is requested of her—but no more than requested. If the receptionist asks for her card, she replies that she has none. When asked her name, she answers: “Brown.” When asked the name of her company, she answers “Acme.” When asked exactly what it is she wants to talk about, she requests the receptionist’s permission to use the phone so that she can speak directly with the prospect. If this is given, the sales rep states concisely what she wants to talk about, what kind of problems she can solve for the customer, and where she has helped to solve similar problems. She asks leave to show what she has brought with her, saying that she can demonstrate faster than she can explain and suggesting that the customer either come down to the lobby or invite her to his office. Such a well-planned phone interview very often leads to a profitable face-to-face interview with the customer. The telephone has proved an effective tool because its use has been carefully planned.

Field observation by the sales manager of the manner in which salespeople use or misuse the telephone can determine the amount and kind of instruction to be given each sales rep in this connection.

Another important area to be observed by the field sales manager on a field trip is the kind and quality of territorial coverage given by the sales rep. Territorial coverage means being where the business is when it is going to be placed. It varies greatly with the particular field of selling. For instance, in calling upon consumers it may be preferable for the sales rep to follow a regular route. In the soft-goods business, by contrast, salespeople must be quite selective as to how they will cover the territory. When sales reps go on the road with a new line, they usually want to call upon all the larger accounts as quickly as possible before the competition can get to them. They cannot afford the time to call on most of the smaller accounts but must reach them on a follow-up trip after their first swing through the territory. Even where the company provides a list of accounts to be called on weekly, sales reps may at their own discretion depart from this list when they feel justified in doing so. In the case of industrial sales reps, the decision as to when to make a call is left largely with the individual.

In my discussion of the planning session, I suggested that the manager ask the sales rep to determine when he proposed to put his account-development strategy into effect, and then to enter the name of the account in his or her (the rep’s) diary under the date decided on. In this way every important account is listed in the diary under a date that indicates when the first call is to be made to carry out the strategy or plan for the development of that account during the year ahead. The sales rep must keep the name of that account dated ahead in his diary for his next call.

This diary notation, as I have mentioned, is best made immediately after each call. In selecting the date, the sales rep will consider the approximate date when the account should be seen again and the date nearest to that time when his diary calls for him to be in the same zone. In this way the name of the account comes up automatically for call on the optimum date for making that call. In many cases the sales rep carries his diary with him, and at the conclusion of the call says to the customer:

I’ll bring the proposal in to you as soon as the engineering department completes the drawing. This will be in about three weeks. Suppose I get back here with it about the 25th of the month. How does that strike you? Is 10 A.M. on the 25th convenient for you? Well, then, will you please note it on your calendar? I’ll put it in my diary.

Thus the sales rep sets up an appointment for his return call and saves considerable time. If he feels any uncertainty about the customer’s keeping the appointment, he may phone or write a few days in advance to confirm the appointment or, if necessary, change it to a more convenient time for the customer. If the appointment is rescheduled, the sales rep notes it in his diary.

The number of calls made on an account will vary greatly with the activity of the account, the time of year, and other circumstances. The important factor is that these calls not be made mechanically in accordance with some preconceived formula but instead take place on dates based on the sales rep’s appraisal of the need to revisit the account. This method develops the sales rep because it makes him responsible for servicing the account. He feels that he is really in charge of his territory and responsible for the development of the accounts in it.

The degree to which a sales rep performs this function lends itself readily to supervision. As manager, you can observe it during a field contact, and can instruct or correct as you think necessary. At the same time you can notice whether the sales rep’s time is being spent advantageously in other respects. For example, when the sales rep leaves an important account at three in the afternoon, has she planned to use the remaining time calling upon two or three smaller accounts in the vicinity? Does the sales rep spend too much time with small accounts to the neglect of some of the more important ones? Does the sales rep use her time well in the interview? If there are a number of individuals to be seen at a single account, does she try to see as many as possible on the same call? Does she present her story so thoroughly and competently that a single call accomplishes as much as two or three calls made by a poorer sales person? Does she drive long distances out of her way to see people from whom she can expect little of value? Does she pass up valuable business because she habitually fails to call on certain inconveniently located accounts? Does she waste valuable time by unnecessarily retracing her steps while working her territory? Although these questions may seem obvious, they should be asked. One field sales manager, working with a rep in a town where a bridge over a river marked the central area, noted that the sales rep crossed that bridge seven times during the day.

It is an important function of sales management to improve the sales rep’s use of time. This can be done most effectively in the field. As field sales manager you have an opportunity to observe the attitudes of sales reps toward their job, their company, their customers, and the instruction you are giving them. If you are skilled in maintaining a relaxed, informal manner, the sales reps are likely to “let down their hair” with respect to their feelings and attitudes. Their handling of a customer complaint or other problem, their reaction to some company policy or procedure, their acceptance of instruction, their remarks about family and living conditions will all indicate either that you have a very promising, sound sales rep to develop—or that there are dangerous undercurrents that may affect a particular sales rep’s growth, performance, or even tenure with the company. As manager you can tactfully bring such matters to the surface and deal with them through counseling with the sales rep.

For example, the sales rep may complain about the amount of time he must spend making out reports and doing other paperwork. He may say, “I spend about three hours every night at my desk. When do I have a chance to be with my wife and kids, to take in a movie, or to be with friends?” You may then spend the evening with the sales rep, showing him how to do his paperwork more quickly; or, as in one case, you can demonstrate how to get most of it done during the day as the rep makes his calls. With the cause of his dissatisfaction gone, the attitude of the sales rep should improve greatly. And only in the field can a manager take such action.

The question is often raised as to the extent to which a field sales manager should become involved in dealing with the personal habits or problems of the sales force: whether they drink to excess, whether their home lives are happy, whether they are unfaithful to their spouses, or whether they have financial problems. In general, you should be guided by the extent to which these problems or habits affect the image of the company or the sales rep’s effectiveness and productivity. You are not a social worker and should not attempt to reform your sales staff. It need be no concern of yours if the sales rep has faults of a personal nature or personal problems so long as they do not adversely affect the sales rep’s performance as a company employee. When a habit or problem does impair the image of the company and the relationship of the company with its prospects and customers, or when it stands in the way of the sales rep’s ability to absorb training and to develop, then you must promptly take steps to correct the situation.

On occasion, a sales rep may voluntarily bring some personal problem to you and ask your help in solving it. In such a situation you should welcome the opportunity to be helpful to the sales rep and thus cement your relationship. A highly motivated, top-notch sales rep may be overextended financially or may be having some problem with a family member—for example, a daughter’s dissatisfaction with the city in which they are living. Your advice and help as manager may be an important factor in resolving the problem.

The field sales manager is management, and the field contact is best calculated to get this idea across to the sales force. The manager is not a member of the sales rep’s group but is the direct representative of the top executives of the company, the interpreter of their thinking and their policies. It is through the manager that salespeople and their families receive their impression of the company. Just how can the field sales manager promote the acceptance of this concept? Certainly not by proclaiming that he or she is the boss or by arbitrarily laying down the law and demanding strict compliance with such dictates. The business world has no place for the person who attempts to whip people into obedience and conformity.

As field sales manager you will win the confidence and respect of your salespeople only after you have made them realize that you want to help them and that you actually have helped them to grow and develop. It has been said that the most accurate appraisal of the effectiveness of a field sales manager is one that he never hears. It is made by the sales rep after they have parted at the end of a field contact. The sales rep either says, “Thank God he is gone and I can get back to doing my job,” or, “I wish he would come down here more often. I really learned a great deal today. That guy sure is helpful.”

A good manager must be willing to take the risks involved in giving salespeople the greatest responsibility compatible with what they can discharge effectively. Instead of breathing down their necks and supervising every step each sales rep takes, you must give them a chance to perform on their own with little or no supervision and see how well they do. You should delegate responsibility but not lose control of the reps, giving them specific jobs to do, objectives to be achieved. You must make sure they do the job, but in their own way without interference. After assessing how well a rep is doing, you may help that individual to do the job better. The sales rep’s response will be amazing in most instances. People given responsibility usually rise to the occasion. As field sales manager you can do much to win your men and women to your side by letting them know that you have confidence in them and proving it.

Planning is particularly important; you should plan with your reps. Having helped to develop the plans, they will then assume a greater share of the responsibility for carrying them out.

It is important that you understand your people and recognize any obstacles that may be blocking their complete acceptance of your leadership. For example, a veteran sales rep may resent a young field sales manager. You must win him over—to start with, by showing respect for his age and years of service. You may tell him:

I had little to do with my assignment to my present post. But, now that I have the job, I want to do it well. Perhaps you could do the job even better, but that is not what management wanted. My success depends upon how helpful I can be to you and the other reps. I want a chance to work with you, to profit from your great experience, and perhaps to bring you some ideas that will help you to do even better and to derive more satisfaction from your job.

Then, if the older man still will not fall into line, you may have to exercise your authority and be somewhat tougher.

Similarly, the young field sales manager may have a problem with the sales rep who was his peer just a short time ago. They often commiserated together. Now one is the other’s boss. It has been a hard pill for the sales rep to swallow, and his wife also is unhappy about it. Both suffer from wounded pride. Such a situation requires understanding on the part of the field sales manager. If this is your problem, I suggest that you discuss the matter openly with the sales rep, indicating that management has made the decision, and that as the new manager you are prepared to do everything possible to succeed at your job. You should explain that this means helping the people under you to develop and become promotable. Perhaps the sales rep left behind can be the next selection of top management when another field sales manager is required.

This leads to a final word about the relationship between the manager and his team and how it can be built into something valuable. Some managers feel that their concern for the sales reps should be limited to their work. They have no interest in their domestic or social life or in any other aspect of their personal affairs unless it affects the company. Fortunately, most managers lean toward a warmer relationship with their salespeople. The so-called buddy-buddy relationship is to be abhorred, of course. The manager, in an effort to ingratiate himself with his sales reps should never join in their gripes about the company or promise to “take up” matters with the big bosses when he has no intention of doing so. We have all heard this sort of comment too many times:

You might as well go ahead and do this because the big bosses at the home office insist upon it. I know the idea is no good and a waste of time just as well as you do, but what can we poor guys out here in the field do about it? Those big shots never listen to us.

What is just as bad is for the manager to make promises that he never intends or lacks the courage to keep. He routinely says, “I’ll take it up with the main office.” But he never does. The sales reps soon “get his number” and he loses all effectiveness with them. This much is certain: The field sales manager must be the champion of his company when he is in the field with his team, and the champion of his reps when he is at the head office. This little rule states the function of the field sales manager as a part of management when he is in the field and as a communicator of his reps’ reactions to his supervisors when he meets with them. He may dine with some of the salespeople and their spouses and enjoy a feeling of friendship and warmth with them. Yet he must not fraternize with his reps or allow his social relations with them to affect his performance as sales manager.

Key Accounts

The field sales manager’s responsibility for key accounts varies with the particular company. In general this responsibility is of two kinds:

1.Direct responsibility. The manager is personally charged with selling and developing important accounts within the district or region. No other salesperson is involved.

2.Indirect responsibility. One of the sales reps is directly responsible for the account.

Direct Responsibility

If you are a manager with direct responsibility, you must have a clear understanding with your superiors as to the relative importance of your duty to sell important accounts and your responsibility for developing sales reps. In some companies the manager is in reality a supersales rep with primary responsibility for important accounts. In this case you must devote the bulk of your time to these important accounts, and you will be appraised mostly on your ability to sell and develop these accounts, while at the same time giving some attention to the one or two people you supervise. In other companies you will be judged primarily on your success or failure in developing the salespeople under you, while at the same time you are expected personally to develop a limited number of “house accounts,” “national accounts,” or “key accounts.” In each case it is important that you plan your time so as to accomplish what is expected of you.

Indirect Responsibility

In this case every sales rep under you has been assigned a few important accounts. Top management wants the business from these accounts and would like to establish a strong, durable relationship with them, a relationship that will not be broken if any one sales rep leaves the company, retires, or dies. Management therefore wants the important people in these accounts to know the manager and to have some regular contact with him. This type of manager may also coordinate the work of various sales reps who call on different facilities of the same account or its headquarters. To accomplish this, you should proceed as follows:

1.Identify these accounts.

2.Determine exactly how your sales reps stand with each of these important accounts.

3.In planning field contacts with your salespeople, give some consideration to visiting these accounts so as to ensure that you are performing your special function of strengthening the company’s and the sales rep’s position with the account while simultaneously establishing your own personal relationship. Carefully planned and executed interviews by the sales rep and the manager working as a team often accomplish so much that you need visit the account with the sales rep only two or three times a year.

4.If a territory is vacant, step into the situation and hold the important accounts until a replacement is secured.

5.Use your position to help the sales rep reach the higher echelons within the account. In doing so you carry out a valuable and important function.

Where the sales rep has the primary responsibility for an account, you as manager must be careful not to permit the rep to delegate this responsibility to you. Neither should you take such responsibility away from the sales rep by making sales or settling complaints where the rep is charged with these duties.

Developing the Junior Sales Rep

Some companies have obtained excellent results by assigning new and inexperienced sales reps to work directly under a qualified senior salesperson in the assigned territory or in an adjoining territory. The idea is not always workable and requires evaluation by each company to determine its applicability. The main advantages of this training method are as follows;

1.Since she can delegate the easier tasks to the younger person, the senior sales rep will have more time to devote to matters that require greater skill and experience; consequently, sales volume will be increased.

2.The new, less experienced sales rep will receive closer supervision than would be the case if the entire supervisory job were performed by the field sales manager. This means accelerated growth for the new sales rep and fewer trainee failures. Of course, the manager still has the primary responsibility for the development of the new salesperson. However, assigning the new rep to a qualified senior salesperson makes for a closer working relationship and helps the junior over many obstacles. At the same time, the senior also benefits because she is given an opportunity to learn the art of developing people. In short, her own qualifications for a managerial job can be evaluated.

The senior sales rep is usually prepared for this new responsibility with some special training, perhaps a week or two at headquarters and some close supervision by the field sales manager. The choice should be someone with real interest in helping others, one who accepts company policies and whose performance has been above average. This person should receive increased compensation in recognition of her taking on greater responsibility and contributing her valuable time.

The new sales rep must recognize that this kind of assignment affords a better opportunity for growth than would be the case if he were assigned cold to a new territory of his own without the intensive help of a senior sales rep. He must be made to feel that this assignment will not lessen his opportunities for growth and promotion and that eventually he too is expected to become a senior sales rep. The whole point of the training program is to make him better prepared to take on the full sales job.

This arrangement calls for a carefully studied compensation plan ensuring that both the senior and the new sales rep are fairly compensated. Where the plan contemplates the senior’s defraying the entire cost of the additional sales rep out of her own compensation, the company frequently will reimburse her for the first year. Basically, the senior sales rep must benefit financially from the plan, and the new sales rep must be adequately paid. When sufficient additional business is procured, there will be no problem. But in the interim, while the new sales rep is learning the ropes, compensation may have to be absorbed by management as a training cost rather than as a charge against the actual productivity of the territory in which the rep is training.

Customer Group Meetings

If as field sales manager you can fit a few hundred dollars into your budget for meetings at which your salespeople can talk to groups of customers and prospective customers, increased sales may result. Such meetings are a very inexpensive device for building up both the sales rep’s and the company’s image. They are an excellent way to break into accounts that have been difficult to sell, and they also provide access to the higher, decision-making echelons of a company without offending lower-level personnel. When there is news of some new product, method, or advance in technology and you feel that the information will be of real value to customers and prospects, you may suggest a customer group meeting to acquaint them with it. Naturally, the meeting must be thoroughly planned. The first step is to find out whether headquarters will help or whether the entire burden of setting up the meeting must be borne by the district or branch office. Certainly it would be unwise to place the entire burden on the sales reps; their job is selling, not being facilitators. Therefore, you must resolve the following questions:

1.Who will contact the people to be invited?

2.Who will send them invitations and follow up to find out how many will actually attend?

3.Who will select and prepare the props—the mock-ups, slides, or films? Who will make sure that a projector and screen will be on hand?

4.Who will arrange for the meeting place and the luncheon or supper? Who will prepare and set up the room for the meeting?

Suffice it to say that as manager you must plan the details of this kind of program before you can suggest it to your sales force.

Once the stage has been set, the sales rep can be offered an opportunity to conduct customer group meetings. Experience indicates that a good meeting can be held with as few as fifteen customers and prospects, or as many as 200. The audience for industrial sales meetings of this kind usually ranges from twenty-five to fifty people. It is not my purpose to go into detail concerning procedures since these will vary from one company to another. I merely suggest such meetings as an excellent way to reach certain people who are important to you in a given territory and to enlist their interest in what you can do for them. When good, regular customers are mixed with others who have never been sold, the results are almost universally beneficial. The good customers “sell” the others.

The best meetings are carefully timed. Usually they are held at noon with a luncheon provided. The plan that has worked out best is to allow about one hour for the lunch itself, a half-hour for a formal presentation by the sales rep, and a half-hour for discussion and questions.

Some companies send factory personnel to speak at such meetings, and in some instances the field sales manager conducts them. The most lasting results, however, are obtained when the sales rep—the man or woman the account sees throughout the year—is the person to stand up in front of the audience and make the presentation. It has also been found that citing local uses of company products or services is very effective, especially when accompanied by photos, slides, or motion pictures.

The Top-Notch Sales Rep

The greatest asset of a sales organization is the consistently topnotch sales rep who is now or shortly will be promotable. Yet salespeople of this caliber are often neglected by their managers, who feel that since they are doing so well, they require little attention. The purpose of this discussion is to point up two important facts in this connection.

First, the top-notch sales rep must have objectives just as any other salesperson has. No sales rep ever develops the territory to its full potential. One excellent sales rep, on being complimented by his supervisor, said: “I’ve just scratched the surface of my territory.” In fact, in order to hold very good sales reps the manager must often find ways of helping them to do even better. The story is told of a sales rep who, having led his organization for several successive years, responded to his supervisor’s praise as follows: “Whatever I have achieved is due to the excellent training you have given me. I want you to know that I am not satisfied with my own performance and must do better. You tell me what I must do, and I will follow your guidance.” Thus the manager and the sales rep should set objectives for the latter’s further growth and development. The work of the sales rep should be properly supervised through field contacts, and the results should be reviewed periodically. The next steps to be taken should be agreed upon and fed back into improved planning.

Second, the manager must recognize that some of the very best sales ideas come from the field. Seldom does the manager “dream up” wonderful sales techniques and ideas while sitting at a desk. Observing the top-notch sales rep in action is one of the most important functions of the field sales manager, provided that he or she is alert to superior methods and techniques that can be transmitted to other salespeople. Performance manuals easily become obsolete unless they are freshened with new methods that are successfully meeting current needs. The methods that worked well for sales reps four or five years ago may not be the best methods to use today. To find the methods that are currently the most successful, the manager should observe the operations and performance of the sales reps who are consistently getting top results. Some field contacts with top people may be made solely for the purpose of observing them and nothing else.

There was once an organization whose sales were falling except in the case of three or maybe four top sales reps. The sales manager decided that it was finally time to do something. He took it upon himself to write to each rep individually, saying in essence that he wanted the chance to observe them on a most personal basis. Here is what he wrote:

I would like to spend a couple of days with you simply observing everything you do from the time you get up in the morning until the time you go to bed at night. Plan these two days just as you would if I were not going to be with you. I want to be an observer because I may be able to learn something from you.

The manager observed the planning of each of these reps, the way they covered the territory, their method of handling the sales interview, the way in which they handled phone calls, the time they spent after working hours in preparing for the next day’s work—in short, every phase of each sales rep’s operation. Each night, after returning to his hotel, he wrote down the salient impressions he had formed as a result of the day’s observations. And, after this close study of his four leading sales reps, he found that there were several things that each was doing. The manager particularly noted these “common” methods that were being employed and decided that, although they departed from the methods then being taught, they were more effective than those given in “the book.” He then taught these new ideas to his other reps, and an immediate improvement in their sales resulted.

Sales Reps’ Expenses

In some organizations the total expenses of the field sales manager are budgeted, and he has full responsibility for how this money is spent. In others the manager merely supervises or audits the expenditures of his office and his salespeople and assumes responsibility for keeping expenses in line. In still other instances sales reps, who may be paid on a commission basis, bear their expenses; any report to the company is only for tax purposes. Is there one rule that applies to all these situations? Yes. It is that field sales managers have the responsibility for teaching their staffs how to perform their functions at the lowest possible cost commensurate with effective operations. It is a matter not of who pays but rather of how efficiently the salesperson operates. The manager is primarily interested in performance, and good performance by a sales rep seldom goes hand in hand with high expenses. Where a sales rep’s expenses appear excessive, the manager must determine the reason and then get that rep to agree to a course of action that will reduce them. The same rule applies to office expenses.

The story is told of the young sales rep who was about to go on the road for the first time. He went to his father, an old-time star salesman, and asked for his advice on expenses. The father replied, “If your expenses are five cents a week and you fail to sell anything, they are too high.”

In some cases effective sales management is weakened because the manager places too much emphasis on every expense item the sales rep reports. Rather, managers should be concerned with helping their salespeople achieve their agreed-upon objectives, and they should obtain their participation and cooperation in the achievement of this goal. But excessive expenses over an extended period are an indication that a sales rep is not working as efficiently as he or she should, is not performing at full capacity, or is immature and using very poor judgment. In the latter instance, one might further suspect that poor judgment is also affecting other areas of the sales rep’s work. In any event it is the manager’s function to get at the root of the matter and correct it.

On the other hand, expenses beyond the norm may be incurred for very good reasons. A sales rep who covers a very large geographical area is apt to incur much greater expenses than others with more compact territories. In some instances companies have provided extra compensation for such salespeople to place them on an equal footing with sales reps in territories of normal size. There are also many instances where companies, recognizing that entertainment is a part of the sales job in their particular business, provide all or part of the necessary funds. These special examples show how important it is for the field sales manager to sit down with his reps and analyze their sales expenses in a constructive way.

The essential thing is for the manager and each sales rep to agree upon the amount of expense that can be considered proper and, therefore, justified.