The New Salesman: Square Peg, Round Hole

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 pegs for round holes. Allow me to share a war story.  Join me as we hop into Mr. Peabody’s WayBack Time Machine.  We’ll set the dials to the 1980s. 

One of my friends was working for an automation company.  The company had just launched a brand-new product – but it was a dog.  The technology was too little and too late for the market.  Nearly everyone-- customers, competition and salespeople, recognized the issues.  But the upper management of the company insisted the product could be sold.  When it didn’t sell, they instituted a large ($1,000 back when this was a lot of money) bonus for anyone making a sale.

My friend leveraged all the trust one of his customers put in him to force the product into their operation.  He collected the bonus check, and prepared to live happily ever after.   But problems soon showed their ugly face.    

The product didn’t work in the application.  The customer (and my friend) worked weeks trying to get some level of suitable operation.  But again, it was the wrong product.  And, even though networking wasn’t the same back then as it is today (no internet, no users groups, no on-line forums), the customer soon came to realize others knew about the problem well before their purchase.

They felt burned, ripped off and abused.  And, my friend was caught in a terrible position.  He had sacrificed the customer’s trust for a hand full of bucks.  He sold a square peg for a round hole.  Branded: My friend was permanently branded as a guy not to be trusted. 

Here are three rules to follow in avoiding the label

Rule One - If your company doesn’t provide the right solution to the customer’s problem, don’t try to force fit a product into the wrong application.

If your product doesn’t work well in a hot environment, explain to the customer why you think this time you need to NOT make the sale.  Doing this demonstrates your integrity and adds to your reputation as a trusted adviser. 

If you know a competitor has the right product, offer to assist the customer in selecting the correct solution.  If multiple competitors offer an appropriate solution, I recommend directing the customer to the competitor with the lowest overall competitive threat.  Online sellers fit this bill, because they rarely push for other business.  Mostly, they simply process the order.  Some sellers have even offered to purchase the product

and pass it along to their customer at cost.  Either way, you send a strong message to your customer – you are a guy who can be trusted.

Many of you have fiscal year end approaching!

Rule Two – If no real solution exists, explain the risks of using your product.

Sometimes, no real solution exists.  Every now and then we run across an application where no real solution exists.  This is a rare occurrence but it does happen. 

Your solution may work, but may not last very long.  The product in your catalog may need to be modified to work.  There are probably risks.  Make certain the customer understand what might happen and that you are only making the suggestion because you can think of no other solutions.  The customer wins and you might still make a sale.

Rule Three – Your solution doesn’t have to be the best on the planet, if it works for the customer.

This whole “square peg -- round hole” issue confuses many new sellers.  They wonder if their products and solutions must be the absolute best on the planet.  The answer is no.  If your product works for the customer and solves their problem, it works. 

There may be other products that run faster, cost a little less, and have a sexier connection, but solving problems is your stock in trade.  The competitor’s product may run for a million operations, but if the application calls for 10,000 cycles and yours will work.  You have done the job.

A final word…

There are a few sales managers out there who are looking for salespeople to “force fit” their company’s offering everywhere.  Most times, it comes as a lapse in judgment.  On rare occasions, it’s a deeply seated case of machismo taken to extreme.

My friend’s management team tried to slam products.  They offered outrageous rewards.  My friend bought into the program.  He got his bonus but lost a more valuable thing – customer trust.

When your manager insists you sell the wrong product, get clarification.  Are you missing something?  Is your manager missing something?  If it’s the macho “I can sell anything to anybody” issue, we need to talk.  Give us a call.

Are you a believer in the advantages of having Distributor Specialists?  See why your bottom line should be a big believer at Amazon.com.

InTech Magazine: People are the Right Stuff

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 doing business?

·         Do you offer one-on-one training for our engineers, technicians, and electricians?

·         How will my support calls be handled? What are the hours of operation?

I went on to say…

The “distribution” of product has not been prominently mentioned anywhere. In today’s world, we have plenty of really good products, quality is a given, and logistics channels move them from one corner of the continent to another in hours. Today, people are the right stuff. If distributors are not actively involved in enabling your people, they are not doing their job.

The whole article is posted here:

The New Salesman and the Shiny New Catalog

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 before 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 using comfortable old methods while making buying decisions.

These customers have access to the internet.  They may have dozens of electronic brochures loaded on their computers.  However, when purchases are made they return to tried and true ways of getting things done.  And this brings us to the paper catalog.



Every engineering department, maintenance group or contractor on the planet still maintains a library of product catalogs.  Even though a good many turn to the internet for some level of product selection, they ultimately end up with a hard catalog for the final stages of their decision making.  We’ll explore.



I once made the mistake of replacing the beat up and grease covered catalog of a well-respected plant maintenance engineer.  I mean this thing was a health hazard.   It was several years out of date, the pages were dirty.  Many showed the marks of coffee spills and cutting fluid drippings garnered from repeated trips through the plant.  I replaced it with a shiny new version. Later, after receiving a world class butt chewing, I learned the old catalog had notes and references to the machines where the parts where used.  In addition, the engineer had taken the time to mark which parts were kept in stock by my own company.  One other thing, the old catalog had a sticker with our phone number, after hour’s line and the name of his favorite inside person.  Ouch.

Most important to my income was the sticker.  I had neglected to add this because I thought it smacked of crass commercialism.  The truth is customers are likely to look at the catalog as a tool for directing to the local product source. 

Unless your company happens to be one of the very few that invests heavily in internet presence and search engine optimization, there is a very good likelihood a Google search will not direct the customer to you.  Without a sticker identifying your organization the provider of information, solutions and spare parts, you could find yourself out of luck.

We instruct new salespeople to add a company (or maybe even personal sticker resembling a business card) to the front page of all catalogs and brochures handed to customers.  This allows the customer to follow the product back to you. 

Get it now!

A hard copy catalog allows you to customize your presentation by things like marking (in the catalog) which products you keep in stock and which products need additional lead time.  It also gives you an opportunity to demonstrate your devotion to customer service.  Whether you are working with maintenance departments, OEM engineering groups, dealers or anyone else, a catalog with a prominent sticker is appropriate.

Best Practices with Stickers

Every new piece of literature handed to the customer should bear your sticker.  

This does not address catalogs which the customer has had on the shelf for some time.  I believe that it makes sound business sense to offer to review catalogs for the customer on a periodic basis.  This allows you to ensure that your customer has the latest and greatest version of the hard copied catalog.  BTW, don’t make the mistake I did and throw away the customers favorite catalog.

If competitive distributors (those who sell the same product line as you) have dropped off catalogs bearing their stickers, the catalog review allows you to replace their sticker with your own when appropriate.  (Some savvy marketing managers at aggressive distributors have found that oversized stickers allow for easy replacement of the competitors’ sticker.) 

You should put a date on the sticker.  This allows the customer to know the last time you reviewed the catalogs.  If you’re doing your job, this allows you to further outshine the competition.

Before we go:

I know some of you are scratching your heads in disbelief.  In this age of electronic everything, this whole sticker thing seems a bit antiquated and perhaps a bit bizarre.  Let me assure you that even in the 21^st century that paper catalogs and their kissing cousins, the sticker, are alive and well.  Ignore this at your own peril.

More Channel Killing Blunders: Direct Sales Policies

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 Poorly Planned Direct Sales Model

In this case, the manufacturer felt they were losing opportunities in the mid-sized OEM market.  To stimulate activities within their own sales team, they offered a major bonus ($10,000) to reps who signed up OEMs who did over $50,000 a year in business.  The plan sounds good on paper.

Unfortunately, the manufacture didn’t clearly define the rules around OEM selection.  OEMs doing business through the distributor channel weren’t clearly identified.  In this case, the manufacturer didn’t have solid Point of Sale data.  (And in retrospect will probably never get POS data anytime soon based on their newly created reputation as a company willing to steal business from their channel partners.) 

Common sense would dictate that salespeople would be instructed to stay away from distributor accounts.  Without challenging the honesty, professionalism or birthright of the reps in play, the manufacturer’s salespeople couldn’t resist the temptation of fast bucks and big bonuses.  There was a mad rush to convert distributor OEMs to direct OEMs, pass go and collect $10,000. 

Any communication with this once valued supplier was shut down immediately.  Any new opportunity was quickly passed to a safer supplier.  Distributor inventories were depleted.  Service levels to customers diminished.  In one instance, the local rep responsible for converting the business was barred from the distributor’s building.

The rest of the story goes like this.  The OEM accounts which had netted the $10,000 bonus were targeted for conversion by the distributor.  In a couple of instances, angry distributor managers paid double commissions to convert the customer to a new brand.  Competitive manufacturers, smelling blood in the water, offered up special pricing and other incentives to assist in the conversions.

In less than two years the manufacturer found themselves staring down a 35% decrease in business.  What’s worse, their distributor channel was in shambles.  Any hope for assistance in fixing the business by way of distributor launches lie in shambles. 

How could this unfortunate situation have been avoided?

First, let’s set the record straight:  regardless of distributor grumbling, there is a place for manufacturer direct business.  However, the rules of engagement must be defined ahead of time.  Any changes to the game plan must be discussed and agreed to well ahead of the plan. 

Best practices in direct business are as follows:

·         There must be some real reason for going direct.  These may be industry dynamics, type of relationship or product mix.

·         If some bit of preexisting business falls outside of the “reason for going direct” there should be a plan for moving the business over to the distributor.

·         If the opportunity grows and/or pricing levels shrink the available margin for compensating the channel, the distributor should be given the opportunity to handle the order at a lower margin level or through a finder’s fee type of commission.

·         The manufacturer’s sales team must be compensated for distributor sales in a way that does not encourage direct business.  This is critically important as best laid plans are often ruined by rogue salespeople working to maximize their commission checks.

A few random thoughts about direct business:

·       Customers have been conditioned to expect lower prices from manufacturers.  Purchasing departments will toss out all kinds of smoke signals about lack of distributor performance, the need for a direct relationship and other bantering about direct relationships.  Once they learn the price is actually more for going direct, these points will disappear.  If you have a performance issue with your distributor deal with it directly, but not by discounting to potential customers.

·        If the vast majority of your business is through distribution, share this information with your channel.  Distributors are impressed if you say, “90% of our business is through authorized distributors.”

·       If you have rogue sales types who has a habit of taking business direct, deal with them quickly.  These people impact the reputation of your company. 

Distribution is a business model not a way of life:

I’m not from the "distribution is a way of life" school of thought.  In spite of tales of mom’s apple pie, the girl next door and all things pure, I don’t believe distributors should be supported for the good of mankind.  Distributors aren’t shady middlemen, hands outstretched, extorting a ransom for doing business in their territory.  Distributors provide a valuable service for their manufacturing partners. 

Wholesale distributors extend credit, build relationships, service existing business and find new applications for their suppliers’ products.  It is cheaper and more effective for manufacturer’s to do business through distributors than to service hundreds of customers. 

Manufacturers cannot assume their sales teams understand these principles.  They need to invest a bit of time and training to assisting their channel facing sales teams in the nuances of the wholesale industry.  It is good for everyone.

Distributor Planning Made Easy. Check out our Distributors Annual Planning Workbook:

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Channel Killing Blunders: The E-Store

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 really understand value proposition of a distribution channel, the set up really does seem like a massive margin giveaway.  This isn’t an excuse, but it is a definite possibility.  Wholesale distribution in North America is generally more professionally developed, provides greater value to their supply partners and customers than channels elsewhere who merely handle paperwork. 

Newly minted MBA’s often only understand wholesale distribution in an abstract way.  After reviewing some of the case studies developed around wholesale distribution for MBA programs, our kind of industrially focused and knowledge-based distribution lacks representation.  Instead, one is likely to see stories of food, beverage and pharmaceutical distributors.  In other words, unless they seek to understand what we do, they can only imagine our model looks just like the local Dr. Pepper Distributor.  

Regardless of the reason, their mistakes cost them plenty… money, marketshare, growth, brand recognition and the good will of the world’s largest industrial selling resource.

I plan to publish a series of channel killing blunders but to get you started here is a good example of a bad strategy:

Case 1: Poorly thought out E-Store Strategies

Everybody needs an e-Store

Manufacturers are playing with the concept of e-stores.  They get bombarded with articles and sales calls expounding the benefits of an e-store presence.  In theory, the ideas make sense.  Provide customers who lack a local distributor relationship an easy outlet for your products.  While in most cases, a list of distributors by zip code would work just as well at a fraction cost.  Based on the view of e-stores only serving customers without a distributor partner, the e-store concept still seems benign.

Issue arises.  Nobody actually uses the e-store.  Careers are on the line.  Somebody has to do something.  After all, the manufacturer laid out big bucks to have it programmed, produced and populated.  Why not call on marketing to attract business?

Distributors discouraged

Advertising your e-store irritates your channel.  Distributors hate direct business because it has a long checkered history of abuse.  Distributors value sales leads.  Most do a pretty good job of following up on the leads.  Progressive distributors see leads as door openers for not only one product but for their whole line card.  Some turn into immediate sales opportunities, others bloom over time (after weeks, months, and years of nurturing calls).  But when an e-store is in place, it becomes the recipient of any new leads.  If the advertising works, the e-store gets traffic.  But since most customers want someone to provide intelligent assistance along the way, e-store purchases don’t happen.

Still no customers down at the e-store
The e-store manager contemplates business levels (or lack thereof), they assume published list prices are the culprit.  Cutting prices on the e-store should attract customers who are “on the fence” or comparing brands.  Unfortunately, discounting published prices impacts distributor margins.  When the distributor’s customer says, “I can buy the product cheaper on the internet.”  The distributor salesperson usually gets the sale, but at a lower than normal margin.  If they hear the “cheaper on the internet” story more than a couple of times, most distributors will switch their strategy.  Distributors who once actively sold the manufacturers product by finding new applications and converting competitive business invest their time in more profitable products (in selling time is money).

If the online price gets low enough and the distributor feels they no longer make sufficient gross margin to turn a profit, the distributor will begin to actively target the e-store owners product for conversion to another line.

A word of warning to the guy with an e-store
If you are congratulating yourself on not yet seeing distributors switch your products at the customer, you’re not out of danger.  Product conversions take time.  By the time you notice the effort, it will be too late.

Shipping is part of the price

If the customer gets better shipping terms than the manufacturer’s authorized distributor, it will affect your distributor channel too.  Why provide free freight to online customers, but charge distributors a freight fee?  A combination of low prices and free freight will “whip up” your channel’s blood pressure just as quickly as dirty deeds done dirt cheap pricing.  

Sometimes, the e-store doesn’t even belong to you
Every manufacturer should have a published distributor policy for advertised prices.  Without even committing a single of the e-store sins described above, a handful of distributors adopted strategies for using the internet (and very low pricing) as a tool for expanding their business. 

These wholesalers have taken on a new business model for business.   They see themselves inserting technology in place of a sales force.  Working the internet model to expand their business to the world is their credo.  I appreciate their entrepreneurial bent.   However, I also see the poaching effect of their very low prices on the distributors who actively sell.  They provide deep discounts and do absolutely nothing to promote their manufacturers’ brand, discover new applications or grow the marketshare.

I am not an attorney

I’m not passing myself off as an attorney, but here is my understanding. 

It is illegal to dictate price levels.  If the on-line guy wants to give the product away, that’s their right.  However, you can dictate lowest advertised price.  The customer can still call and negotiate, but that’s another step and it’s the banner add with a super low price that hurts your distributor efforts.

Finally…

We’ve all benefited from best practices.  Perhaps some can benefit from a list of worst practices.  If you see a manufacturer who is going down this path, shoot them a link to this post. 

Better yet, if you have a favorite worst practice to share, send to me.  We’ll add it to our list (without naming names or companies).

Distributor Planning Made Easy. Check out our Distributors Annual Planning Workbook:

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The New Salesman: Junk in the Trunk

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 entire shopping cart.

How does this amazing anecdote apply to salespeople?

Today many salespeople confuse a well-stocked trunk with being proactive.  They carry reams of product literature, samples, demos and tons of support materials as ballast in the back of their company car.  Being prepared is a good thing, but I suspect it is a practice ripe for abuse.

Many salespeople substitute this trunk full of stuff for call planning.  Over the course of my career, I have been on dozens of calls where the sales guy opened his truck and said, “now, what should I bring on this call?”  Really…  Standing and staring down a semi-organized stack of stuff was their version of planning the sales call.  Within minutes, they would be standing face to face with the customer and the extent of their plan entailed pulling two or three samples and handful of literature from a shopworn liquor box nestled in their trunk.  What’s worse; they did nothing to customize the literature for the call or ensure that the sample was in good working order.

This is a bad habit.  And, we must steer new sellers away from the practice.  Let’s face the fact a good many veterans see this trunk full of junk as a point of pride.  They may even “sell” the idea to our new sales guys as a fool proof plan for working a territory.  In reality, many use it as a crutch for not taking the time to engineer a call plan.  Proactive planning is a fragile thing.

Aside from substituting immediate for planning, other issues abound.  The literature and samples become outdated.  The literature bares the mark of riding (for months or years) in the trunk of the car.  As golf clubs and camping gear from the previous weekend are tossed on top, sales materials get beat up.  Sometimes, samples are damaged by heat, moisture and dust.  Some may brush aside these seemingly minor points.  But bear in mind that today’s typical sales call comes with a $400 price tag.  When tossing around this type of money, why not maximize chances of success.

Nothing beats a call plan.  Sales managers need to ask their new salespeople (if not the entire team) to provide them with a list of sales calls planned for the coming week.  This encourages thought on topics begging to be discussed and provides the salesperson a few days to subconsciously tune their approach at the call.  On top of all that, the practice encourages appointment making skills, territory and calendar management, as well as greater efficiency.

In our industry, sales calls are not stand alone events.  Instead, the sales process is a series of activities intended to move the customer forward with the solutions we provide.  Call planning, when properly done, allows the salespersons to see previous events as integral to the needs off the current sales call and as a potential piece of future interactions.  Thinking this way improves other processes – like targeting.

I believe in targeting and hope you do too.  Targeting matches customer needs to (product-based) solutions we provide.  Simply stated, we look for ways to help our customer by introducing them to technologies delivering a payback.  This isn’t done while standing over an open trunk lid contemplating available literature on a snowy day in Iowa or a burning hot day in Arizona. 

As a salesperson lays out their call plan for a coming week, they think of products with the best payback for their customer.   Investing a short blast of brain bounce improves not only the quality of their choices for products shown to a customer, but also improves the customer’s response.  They can tell you were thinking about them.  It is nearly impossible to say “I selected this product form the thousands available in my catalog,” especially for you, without at least developing a couple of good reasons for making that statement.

Let’s return for a moment to The Banana Man.  There is a place for a well-organized traveling stash of literature.  Many times sales calls provide instant and unexpected opportunities and success does in fact, favor the prepared mind.  With this in mind, here are a few pointers for that roving round house for selling stuff:

1.      Be sure the literature is fresh and well protected.  We have found that hard plastic cases which protect against dirt, dust, and moisture work most effectively.

2.      Make plans for regularly reviewing what you carry.  New literature must be inventoried and replenished as used.  Without a plan for handling that specific task, it’s easy for you to miss opportunities.

3.      In the world of electronics, storing information on your hard drive or tablet can be handy and most likely allow for easier sharing of data.  However, this data must also be occasionally reviewed and refreshed.

4.      Think about a plan- if the selling opportunity is not urgent- to turn it into a two-step process.  Volunteering to return soon with a better prepared answer to the customer needs often brings more results than an immediate and impromptu handoff of literature.

For you sales managers, I encourage you to ask your sales team to provide you with a proposed call plan.  Routinely ask them to show you their trunk.  What are they carrying besides the remnants of their last camping trip?  Are they prepared?  And finally, never confuse a full trunk with a well-planned sales call.

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The New Salesman: The Joint Call

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 call fills two very important needs in the distributor-manufacturer selling relationship. 

First, a well done joint call serves as a training platform for advanced solution selling (and everybody wants to be a solution provider these days).  Instead of devising a nebulous conference room discussion, the joint call allows the manufacturer’s expert salesperson to demonstrate how problems are discovered and solutions are proposed - firsthand.  When several joint calls are conducted on the same day, it provides the manufacturer sales rep to literally “hand off” portions of the presentation as the day progresses.  This practice builds confidence and creates numerous coaching opportunities. 

Secondly, and also of great importance, joint calls cement the relationship between the distributor and supplier.  Instead of working in adversarial (“cross purpose”) relationship, the two salespeople work together to address central customer issues.  A message is sent to the customer enhancing the value of the distributor and reinforcing the distributor’s role in assisting the customer in applying the manufacturer’s product.  Simply stated-it’s a win-win for everyone.

When joint calls are improperly handled, they create a chasm between the distributor and supply partners.  What’s worse poorly planned and terribly executed joint calls send a terrible message to the customer.  Let’s explore a few of the trouble spots.

Distributor salespeople create issues with their supply partners doing a poor job of scheduling joint calls.  When the costly sales resources of two companies come together, a well-defined set of appointments is a must.  Failure to use appointments wastes time, costs money and reflects poorly on the distributor organization.  Unfortunately, many times joint calls turn in to “ride-a-rounds” where the only connection is the use of a common car.  In the old days, the salespeople got to know one another.  These days, one guy drives while the other does email on their I-pad.   Joint calls should be/must be based on solid appointments and defined plans.

On the topic of planning, a plan should exist for the sample/demos used, the proper product literature carried, and other collateral required.  Furthermore, the call plan call should have an objective, which includes customer needs, the contact approached and the customer reaction.  It makes no sense to lay down a plan without a joint understanding of the customer’s environment and operating conditions.

Laying out a clear objective of the call is a must.  For example, if the objective is to move the distributor’s position forward a small notch, it should be spelled out.  If the objective is to convince the customer to add you and your product to their specification list, that should be defined, too. 

Sometimes, the objective might be to simply show the customer you are the authorized distributor for a specific product.  If this is the case, careful communications with the supply partner’s salesperson must be made ahead of time.  This is sometimes identified as a problem spot because manufacturers often have multiple distributors.  It does them no good to make a call with you if they already enjoy the business through your competitor.   

This this way: If the call has no real benefit for the manufacturer’s guy, the story won’t have a happy ending.  Whether you are a nice guy or not, both sales teams are charged with growing their business and making money – it has to be win-win.  Or everyone loses. 

But, wait there’s more.  My favorite line from late, great, TV pitchman Billy May. If you take a vendor salesperson on a joint call, you have just reduced the chances of them visiting the account with that competitive sales guy down the street.  When properly framed, you now own exclusive rights to the account (at least for a while).

Sorry for the interruption, now back to the message already in progress….  

Rules of engagement are important.  Ask who does the talking, how are introductions made and what logistical details may be important?  If a quotation is to be made customer based on the sales call, a timeframe should be set.  Commitments to the customer must be well documented and understood by both sellers.  For example, if the manufacturer’s salesperson makes a commitment for returning some technical information to the customer in the next week, that timeframe reflects on distributor and manufacturer alike.  Discuss these points before and after the sales call.

Trust is one of the unspoken issues with manufacturer’s sales agency reps.  I am not reflecting on any one company, just summing up the anecdotal stories from the past three decades. 

Sometimes the rep agency has product lines outside the offerings of the distributor.  When this situation exists, create a “gentleman’s agreement” well ahead of the sales call.

For manufacturer’s reps, returning to the customer a few days after the sales call with an offering competitive to the distributor is a good way of blackballing yourself from future distributor customer activities.  (Mr. Rep Salesman, if you have been accidental offender, apologize soon. If you are a habitual offender, be glad dueling is outlawed in all 50 states.  Otherwise some distributor would have already thrown down the gantlet of honor.)  Manufactures be sensitive to this issue and deliver a solid message to your rep as to the consequences of breaking this type of trust spill over to you as well.

So how do we fix these areas of concern?  I believe forward communication does much for establishing solid and high quality joint calls.  I recommend distributors establish a joint call policy for their supply partners.  Conversely, distributors must hold their sales teams accountable for making a measurable quantity of joint calls with prescribed supply partners each month.  In addition, the quality of those calls should be measured and tested – with both the distributor and manufacturer’s seller.   

A final word for sales managers

Returning to our very first though, joint calls are dynamite; applied properly they move mountains.  But, if mishandled, they can blow up in your face.  Sales people aren’t born, they are created.  They must be taught to make the right kind of joint calls.

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