Saying NO to Recycling

Recycling down in the Purchasing Department

Say no to recycling old ideas.

Recycle, reuse, save the planet. I hate to see anything good or reusable tossed into the garbage heap. What’s more, everybody seems to be embracing the recycle concept. I love it. But, lately there seems to be a different kind of recycling coming out of the Purchasing Departments of major companies.

It seems as though they believe the time is right for recycling an old plan to drive our prices downwards. First rolled out back in the early 1990s, this plan starts off with a nicely worded statement, “You are a fabulous partner and we value the relationship our companies have built over the years. Because we both invested so heavily in making all this work, we want to help you grow your business with us.” Sounds pretty good so far, but then things take a nasty turn.

The purchasing guy is likely to word it something like this. “We are asking all of our good partners to help us be more competitive in the market. And to do this we need for you to accommodate us by helping to drive down our costs.”

If you are a knowledge-based distributor, you’ve already spent countless hours and company money driving down their costs. But the purchasing guy seated across the five thousand dollar conference table from you isn’t thinking about cost. He’s thinking about price. And, since you’ve most likely not done a great job of cataloging all the assistance you have provided over the years (90% of the distributors I talk to don’t), you struggle to come up with an answer.





You can begin to back-pedal or you can stop, stand your ground and offer to showcase the value your organization has provided over the years. Knowledge-based distributors leave a wake of real customer value wherever they go. It’s imperative you are prepared with some real examples.

Real is the key word. Here is a quick list of stuff that won’t work.

Knowledgeable Salespeople
Do you think any company really sends someone out who says "Hi, I don't know anything?"
Credit
Who doesn't offer credit of some kind, or at least take Credit Cards?
Inside Support
Another one that's hard to measure. Nobody says, "We pick up our inside people down at the wino bar."

Now let’s talk about some of the good stuff; stuff you can sink your teeth into. All of these are areas an MRO purchasing manager would be foolish to ignore. All produce measurable dollars. Most of these are things you normally do, or could do with little or no extra cost to you.

Maximize Warranties
Each year our customers buy thousands of dollars of products that are covered by warranty, or could be covered by warranties. How does this happen? Busy maintenance people throw questionable parts and products away. The customer hasn’t studied the warranty policy. Or, the customer doesn't know how to determine the warranty. Here are some examples:
• Hand tools -- Many of these have a lifetime warranty
• Proximity switches – Lifetime warranties are the norm
• Electrical products -- 18 months (12 months in customer / 6 months grace period)
• Electronic lighting ballasts -- often covered under warranty

Each time a warranty is used a savings is generated. Compile a warranty list and use it to record the values of product replaced or repaired for under warranty. To begin the process, I suggest that you create a spreadsheet with companies and their respective warranty time for your personal reference.

Repair vs. Replace
Many items are routinely replaced that could just as easily be repaired. Electronic devices come to mind, but the list can include some other products where a skilled person could easily make an evaluation and determine the proper action.
• Extension cords -- are they repairable? (Also see above warranty info)
• Electronic cords of all kinds
• Solenoid valves -- moving parts can be replaced
• Electrical motor starters – contacts and coils are easily replaced

Position yourself to serve as the watchdog for repairable items. Log the value. How much can you eliminate from the “waste stream”? Each of these items represents not only a measurable savings in the repair vs. replace equation but often represent savings in landfill charges. Printed circuit boards and other electronic devices often require special handling in their handling and disposal.


Proper Inventory Levels
Is the plant keeping excess inventory in their crib? This is true in many instances. For example, does the plant have a stock of twenty 30 Amp Fuses? If so, in the case of an emergency how long would it take for an emergency delivery to be made? In many cases the plant is only minutes away from a large supply kept on your own shelf.

When evaluating inventory it is important to note multiple types of savings. I have listed some of these for you to discuss with your customer. Be sure to take credit for all of these savings.

• Cost of inventory - this is the product
• Cost of carrying the inventory - this is the interest charge
• Cost of shrinkage, inventory control, etc. - this is real stuff and can't be left out
• Cost of insurance - what happens if there's a fire?
• Cost of shelving/material handling - these cost money
• Cost of floor space in the plant - especially if the plant is running out of space

Again logging the total savings is the key to claiming this activity as a “real live and completely legit” savings.

Energy Related
The whole world has been struggling with the rapidly rising cost of energy. There are a number of things that you can do to make sure that the proper savings are realized. Here is a short list.
• Energy Efficient Lighting Walk-through
• Energy Efficient Motor Survey
• Energy saving fans re-circulates the heat
• Automatic Door Closers

With gas now pushing four dollars a gallon everyone is thinking energy. Provide recommendations, and more importantly, keep records of how much energy was saved, the cost of kilo-watt hour and the cost of any steam, diesel, or heavy oil saved.

Standardization
Is the customer using the right product? Or, are they using a "Cadillac Line" when a "Chevy" will do? Can we show the customer where there is little if any difference between two manufacturer's products? Another aspect of standardization is the trilateral negotiations we can guide the plant through to gain price or other concessions. Some ideas:
• NEMA vs. IEC designed electrical devices
• Fiberglass vs. Stainless Steel Enclosures
• Sensors

Most companies calculate annual savings. To do this, you need the annual number of parts used each year and the saving in per item. Log the difference.

What were you doing on January 23rd, 2013?
Log the savings you provide! You provide the greatest service in the universe. You have a team of savings specialists who comb the land looking for ways to save your customers money. You even understand the importance of measuring your service in most universal metric of human endeavor, money. But I ask again – what were you doing on January 23, 2013? If you don’t keep a detailed journal, chances are you don’t know. By the same token, if you don’t keep a detailed log of savings provided, you won’t remember. The log can be simple and easy. A MS Excel worksheet with a single spreadsheet for each customer will work. A full feature software package is available from several companies to assist in measuring and logging your value.

In Closing
Provide service. Measure the benefits of your service in dollars. Record value-add events for later reference. And, next time you hear the statement “I am being told by our corporate people that I have to cut costs by 5%.” You’ll be ready to Sell!

A note from Frank…
Much of this information came from work we did with an Electrical Distributor selling into the MRO world. Trust me; there are similar values created in your own organization. If you are struggling to identify your own, shoot me an email. I will help you get started.



_________________________________________________________________________________
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The List Price Question

The List Price Question - You might want to charge more than list price.

What is List Price?
Many salespeople believe list price is that artificially high number which is used as a marker for future discounts. In their minds, it is an unnatural sin to sell anything to anybody for “list.”

Part of this attitude and philosophy comes from daily life. For instance, “Nobody pays sticker price for their new Ford and no real customer pays list for their supplies in our industry.” can be heard echoing through sales bullpens.

But this story doesn’t really hold up well. For example, car dealerships have regularly charged more than sticker for hard to find or a limited production vehicles. Toyota dealers still stick to the manufacturer’s sticker price on most of their line-up.

But we’re not in the car business. Our question becomes should distributors selling things like plumbing, electrical, HVAC and industrial items ever sell at list price or maybe even beyond?

Distribution’s foremost expert on pricing matters, David Bauders of Strategic Pricing Associates, regularly encourages clients to ignore list prices on some products. Salespeople (who are commonly paid on gross margin) squirm when presented with this option. They believe customers will take the list-plus pricing as a personal affront. I have heard the arguments on both sides of the equation to ad nauseam and I find myself coming down on the side of Mr. Bauders.

OK, but… when should I charge more than list you ask? Let me give you three Jeff Foxworthy-like answers:

• If a product line is not one of your major supply partners and instead provided just as a customer convenience. You might consider charging more than list.
  
• If purchases are very small and the gross margin generated is too small to pay for your transaction costs. You might want to charge more than list.
  
• If the customer is leaning on you to provide a million value-adds that are hard for your competition to replicate. You might want to charge more than list.
  

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Come on, it's cheaper than list price!  

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The Death of a Distributor - The Wrong Kind of Culture

A typical Iowa summer storm-2013

Recently, I had an opportunity to visit with some old friends. We’ve known each other for a very long time and I felt as though I really knew their company. Back when I knew them, they were innovative, entrepreneurial and aggressively nimble in their approach to opportunities.

Lately, the supplier grapevine is rife with reports of their slow-down. Instead of the glowing stories of the past, comments like “can’t make a decision to save their soul” and “everything is a committee” flowed through the market. Even competitors had chimed in with tales of grabbing business opportunities away from their company. None of the stories seemed right or reasonable, based on my previous experiences. But things change…

My conversations with these old friends were telling. As we talked about business and all that was going on in their lives, I recognized something. Somewhere over time, this company had changed from an organization that learned from mistakes to a place where mistakes were to be avoided at all costs. The message was out; mistakes will be remembered and punished.

In the past, when an employee recognized a window of opportunity, they felt comfortable pulling out all the stops to capture the business. Mangers who noticed a new or innovative approach to solving a problem thought about it for a moment then put the full force of their authority behind fast and immediate action. Decisions were made, actions came immediately and the results often caught competitors napping. Were mistakes made? Absolutely, mistakes happen. Were the mistakes sometimes costly? The answer again is yes, but looking back costly mistakes occurred on just a few very rare occasions. On the other hand, the number of positive outcomes was huge.

Somehow the culture of the company had shifted.

Davenport, IA during the
Great Mississippi Flood of 1993

When presented with opportunities, the company’s managers create committees to discuss, rehash, and dissect the course of action. The committees, knowing full well mistakes are punished, avoid making bold moves. Very often, by the time a decision is made, it is diluted to the point of not providing a substantial competitive difference. In many instances, decisions are made after the opportunity has expired.

The net result has been slow growth and employee stagnation. Entrepreneurially spirited employees have moved on. The whole place moves forward like a bunch of bureaucrats positioning for the next election.

Deluded to the point of dumbness, this previously high flying distributor’s leadership team congratulates themselves on employee involvement. Committees, task forces, ad-hoc groups abound. Lots of talk, massive study and lots of smoke with very little fire replace action.

I went away from my meeting feeling spent and tired. What a shame to see something like this happen. I generally stay away from the whole “culture thing” but after seeing the negative impact, I had to vent. Here are five valuable thoughts framed by the words of great leaders from business, politics and big-time sports:

“A good plan violently executed today is better than a perfect plan executed sometime next week.” General George Patton
In distribution, timing can be everything. If involving others slows down your decision process, you lose some of the advantage. Innovative new product lines are scooped up by competitive distributors. Customers find new alternatives elsewhere. Highly qualified prospective employees get a job down the street. Carefully review your ability to pull the trigger quickly.

Quad Cities Ice Storm, Davenport, IA-2013

“If you see a snake just kill it… don’t appoint a committee on snakes…” Ross Perot
Decide early on who is qualified to make decisions. Committees are a useful tool, but somebody should hold the decision making power inside the committee. Beware of managers who take everything to committee and use the committee as their excuse for underperforming.

“If you're not making mistakes, then you're not doing anything. I'm positive that a doer makes mistakes.” John Wooden
Mistakes are valuable learning tools. I would never recommend ignoring mistakes. Quite the contrary, I recommend analyzing mistakes. By better understanding the circumstances, why the mistake happened and how your team could have responded differently, a distributor can train their people in a real world setting. It’s only when the similar mistakes are repeated over time that disciplinary actions should be considered.

“The more people you make responsible for something, the less chance there is for it to get done.” Jason Fried – 37Signals
Involve a committee if you must. But activities are completed when one person is responsible for making things happen. Group decisions along with shared responsibility set the wheels a spinning.

“The buck stops here…” President Harry Truman
If you occupy a leadership position in a distributorship, albeit Owner, President, VP, Sales Manage or something else, you are responsible for the decisions of the team. When things go wrong, absorb the heat. That’s your job.

A parting thought….
I find the quotations of those great leaders of the past inspiring. Across from my desk hangs a portrait of President Andrew Jackson. His men called him “Old Hickory” because he was tough and aggressive. He made some tough decisions and at least a couple of time, he made poor decisions. He played an instrumental role in pushing our young nation to greatness.

He also said, “I was born for the storm. The calm does not suit me.”

I say create your own storm.

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The New Salesman: Personal Marketing

Marketing is not just a department down the hall

Here’s a story. A couple of weeks ago I was working in Eugene, Oregon. It was lunch time and rather than eat at the hotel, I decided to let “Yelp” (a great free app for your iPhone) do the deciding. I plugged in restaurants and took off for a hole in the wall joint with great gyros.

The directions took me to a “locals only” joint with a walk up counter and a few seats out on the sidewalk. I placed my order and started taking in the ambiance. One side was plastered with pictures of Chicago, an Albanian flag and dozens of grease drenched documents produced by local patrons who had consumed mass quantities of the lamb specialty. The opposite wall displayed posters announcing local festivals, concerts and Independence Day events. A table in the corner held a collection of business cards; everything from termite terminators to tae kwon do masters – and one very special card.

Photo: www.NathanWallner.com

The card carried this message: KnuckleSandwich Distribution.

I am a distributor guy. I have worked for, consulted with, or known distributors from nearly every one of the National Association of Wholesalers’ 300-plus lines of trade. KnuckleSandwich Distribution was intriguing. It caught my eye and moved me to grab the card. I had to know more.


The guy behind the card is Nathan Wallner he is a veteran, recent graduate from the University of Oregon, a Mixed Martial Arts combatant, and fitness instructor. He understands marketing and is creating a brand around – himself.

There’s a lesson here. I believe it’s time distributor salespeople take a quick look at “marketing themselves”. Here are four things to get you thinking.

What do you want to be known for?
Are you the local expert or the lowdown discount guy? I sincerely hope you are providing your customers with more than a price. Deep discount guys always tell me they are the last of the big time deal makers always looking to save their customers money. While I believe negotiation and aggressive pricing have a place in the distributor sales world, the best customer value comes in other ways. Innovative ideas which increase uptime and personnel productivity provide way more value than cutting 5 points off the buy price. Plans for decreasing rejects, energy consumption and financial risk make your customers thousands. Improvements in the way they do business provide an ongoing steam of revenue. Cutting price saves them a measly handful of dollars. And, it’s a one-time deal.

Don’t confuse your company’s tag line for personal marketing. Distributor organizations with mottos like “our service is the customer’s competitive edge” have salespeople who market themselves as “dirty deals done dirt cheap”. If you want to provide value-creating solutions, talk about value not price.

Who is your target?
Marketing professionals call this the Perfect Prospect Profile (3P). This one is a little tricky because we sales types like to think of the world as our oyster. The truth is, we do better if we invest just a bit of time into determining which customers benefit most from our work. Selfishly, we need to determine who will be willing to pay for our efforts. If you create customer value, the customer must be both willing and able to afford your offering.

This little factoid may rule out accounts which are very small. Customer organizations with overly aggressive procurement groups may not deserve the same attention as those who appreciate your work. Developing a tiny account may make you feel good all over, but the commission check may lead to a life of poverty. We’re investing our most precious commodity – time. Stack the deck in your favor by selecting the best opportunities.

Segmenting: Different Customers - Different Needs
Rookie sales guys make the mistake of thinking of customers as, well, customers. We live in a customer world, but some salespeople still trot around with “product of the week” demo units. Let’s see, it’s the week of January 23rd so every customer gets treated to a product pitch on the double left handed widget; regardless of interest or need.

The customer’s time is valuable. Your time is limited. If you match product needs to specific customers or groups of customers, your presentations will be more successful. And, your customers will put a higher value on the time they spend with you.

Further, segmenting allows for higher margins. One of the first things Pricing Expert David Bauders instructs distributor clients to do is review the pricing offered to tiny and small customers. Typically, the small customer pays more than the gigantic guy down the street. Taking advantage of this market phenomenon allows you to create a better mechanism for getting paid for your work.

The Touch
Marketing professionals call customer contacts a “touch”. For instance, each email sent to a customer is a touch; so too are phone calls, mass mailings, and finally, your sales calls which are the ultimate touch.
Each touch causes the customer to momentarily think of you, your company and your products.

Customer relationships are constructed over a period of time. Each properly executed touch is a building block in that relationship. Think of your personal friendships. Many of our closest friendships involve a period of time where you interacted with your friend on a regular basis.

For example, some of my closest friends are classmates from school. We saw one another on a daily basis for years. The friendship was cemented. Now let’s think about a customer we call on once a month. How long does it take for you to build a friendship? It could be a year, a couple of years, or longer. We can use other touches to accelerate the time required to build the rapport.

Touches can come via phone calls during the period between call. The words might sound like this:
“John, I was driving down Highway 61 and was thinking about you. Did the literature I dropped off last week give you everything you needed?” Even if you just leave a message in the customer’s voicemail, you have left the impression that you’re not just thinking about them during the sales call.

Touches can come via a hand written note on a magazine article. Here’s how this one works. John’s company was talked about in Widget Times. You make a copy of the page and mail it to John with this inscription on a Post-it Note: “John, I saw this and thought you might like to review it.” If

the magazine article covers a personal interest rather than business, it’s even better. Early in my career, I had a customer who shared his love for antique air rifles (BB Guns). A couple of weeks later, I saw a story in the Des Moines Register (my local newspaper) about the surging popularity of BB guns. I tore it out and sent it along with a note. From that day forward, I was treated like royalty in his office. My knowledge of the infamous Daisy Red Rider had nothing to do with business, but the message rang true; I was thinking about John even while not seated across the desk from him.

Touches can come from emails too. But beware, many people hate email spam. Bulk email blasts with generic impersonal messages aren’t really a touch. In fact, they often have an opposite effect. If you email someone, make it personal and specific.

The End, but not really
Create a brand, be unique, and understand your customers. Treat customers as individuals with specific needs – this applies to companies, departments and individuals. Ponder their reason for buying from you. Accelerate your relationships by letting customers know you think about them when you’re not making sales calls via alternative touches.

And just in case you're in doubt about the Knucklesandwich card, here is what it looks like.  A bit worn from being a the restaurant, but it sure packed a punch with me.  

Think about being a Knucklesandwich Distributor. Nathan Wallner has it right. He has a message.

Have an interesting card that draws attention?  Send us a picture and you may see it right here some day!

The New Salesman: Solution Seller vs. Problem Finder

Getting There First and Don’t Be a Problem Solver

Special Note:

While this method solves the problem,
it requires little skill or forward thinking.

This story takes 3 minutes to read. If you are in a time crunch, skip the story and jump to the moral of the story.

A few years ago we studied the Mechatronics Industry, which is the marriage of mechanical systems (gears, belts, electric motors and hydraulics) and electronic systems (computers,

PLC’s, sensors and digital screens). Along the way, our work discovered mechanical distributors were almost always the first to learn of customer projects. Why? Customers designed mechanical portions of their system ahead of the electronic portion.

In all but a few situations, the mechanics were engineered 60-90 days ahead of electronic controls.

We believed this gave the person selling both the mechanical components and electronic controls a competitive advantage over a “controls only” seller. Knowing about and working on solutions for the customer 90 days ahead of the competition should allow for better positioning (no pun intended) of products and unique solutions.

We were wrong. After discussions with dozens of sellers, we discovered only a few were able to capitalize on the time advantage.

The vast majority of the sellers were addressing customer problems as they surfaced. It was a serial sequence. Issues solved one at a time over a period of a few weeks. For instance, on day one the customer needed a couple of gears and the salesperson quickly identified the proper catalog number for the application. The next day, the customer needed a timing belt to connect to one of the gears. Again, the salesperson identified the proper belt.

It was as if each situation was a stand-alone event. The customer identified the problem and the salesperson found a solution to the problem. Many even referred to their practice as solution selling. And, in a purely linguistic way, they were correct. But, I think they were missing a point.

The best sellers (and small group were did use the competitive advantage) are more than problem solvers. They are problem finders and forecasters of future issues. Let’s take a look at how this same story works out for salespeople who work the “Problem Finder Beat.”

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Again, we dig into the same situation: Mechatronic applications. The salesperson talking about the mechanics realizes some aspects of the design need special consideration in the electronic controls. They temporarily stop forward momentum and present anticipated problems to the customer.

A conversation might go like this:
“Ms. Customer, if you go in this direction with your mechanical design, you will need to be prepared for an oversized control box. I can look into the deliveries now, because some of them require 12-week lead times.”


The salesperson anticipated a problem (before the customer recognized they had one) and set herself up for future success. The customer feels lucky that an unanticipated issue was avoided. A bullet was dodged. Future risk on this project was averted. And, most importantly, the customer views the seller as a valuable ally in future designs.

And Finally
A question from the author. Did you read the story or skip straight to the moral?

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Let Freedom Ping

Independence, Freedom and Adios Autonomy

It’s Fourth of July Week in the United States.  Independence Day, America Day and the Fourth of July are all names marking American Freedom.  The distant beat of John Philip Souza patriotic melodies mingle with the steel gray smoke of fireworks in the distance.  Folks, kids and cousins gather at the local park, braving the summer heat, grass stains and mosquitoes.

To steal a phrase from my pal, Tom; “That’s the way we roll in America.  We’re celebrating Freedom and if you don’t like it-- tough.”  Under this great backdrop of Freedom, Independence and Liberty, I would like to raise a discussion.   

Electronic Privacy in the Sales Department

The word is out.  The government has accessed the phone records and electronic data of all of us.  Deep within some top-secret vault in a non-descript suburb of Washington DC, they have our text messages, our emails, and other goodies.  They know precisely how much time you spend reading this blog (Pretty scary, huh?).  Along with this information, they have your location coordinates.  If you’re sporting a fancy phone with GPS built in, they know your location to within 15 feet on the vertical and horizontal axis.

Simply stated, some analyst at the National Security Agency in Washington, DC knows if you are making sales calls or hacking the ball around the back nine. 

Nope, I’m not spouting the latest conspiracy theory.  For the record, I haven’t seen any jet-black helicopters hovering over the River Heights cottage.  I believe the hummingbird I saw yesterday was real and not an NSA drone learning about channel issues. 

I do believe we are entering a new world of data combinations.  And the Fourth of July, a day marking freedom and independence is an especially good time to broach the subject.

How much freedom does a salesperson deserve?

A few days ago, A Midwestern Distributor asked me to be part of a sales force evaluation process.  As we worked our way around the conference table, it appeared each sales manage had a couple of sellers with questionable numbers.  What’s worse, the reporting tools available (call reports and opportunity/funnel reports) made their managers wonder just how hard the salespeople in question were working.

The conversation took a turn.  The Vice President of Sales quacked, “We should put a GPS on their cars.  I’d bet you J.R. (name changed to protect the guilty) doesn’t make four calls a week.  One of my friends lives in his neighborhood and sees him playing tennis every morning at 9:00.”

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One of the younger managers commented cell phones have tracking capability built in… just in case anyone was serious about using it.  I think the group was ready to pounce on the idea.  Fortunately for “J.R”, they decided some of the sellers owned their own phones and turning on tracking required settings on the phone.  And, maybe they needed to think about a policy before they ran down that particular path. 

A few facts on GPS tracking

According to at least one supplier of GPS trackers for corporate fleets, the average fleet client sees a 20% improvement in gas mileage when monitors are added to vehicles.  They chalk this up to better driving and less idling time.  Vehicle maintenance goes down.  And accidents see a similar decrease. 

From a purely theoretical standpoint, the GPS system would give managers some interesting data.

1)      Managers can set a GPS Monitoring System to automatically generate an email when a salesperson’s vehicle/phone or other device leaves a “normal territory”.  This is pretty handy for monitoring those summertime trips to the beach during selling hours.

2)      Managers can set the system to receive a report of places the car/phone or other device stops along the day.  This might be translated into sales calls, activity reports or stops at the local golf club. 

3)      Data on start time and office time is very easy to follow.

With an increasing number untested salespeople working from home offices, sales managers are asking themselves the question, “The clock is striking 3:00.  Do you know where your salespeople are?”

Spy in the Sky

To many the GPS/electronic tracking stuff smacks of an Orwellian Big Brother.  This runs counter to the sales stereotype of the “Lone Ranger’ salesperson.

Stoic, independent, and free the Lone Ranger roams his/her territory fighting for truth justice and the American way.  In this group’s mind, any management ends at the edge of the parking lot.  They follow their own process, doing exactly as they please and justifying their actions on myths of the past.

Putting an electronic monitor on the sales team sounds a lot like ripping the mask off the Lone Ranger.

Reason, Common Sense and Civil Discourse

Quite honestly, I can convince myself to go either way on this topic.  For the last several days, I’ve felt like I had an angel on one shoulder, and the devil on the other.  Here’s what they’ve been whispering in my ear.

Angel	Assume positive intent Frank, most sales guys are hard-working, honest and loyal to their companies.  How would they feel if suddenly their managers decided to spy on them?
Devil	Frank, don’t be a sap.  If the salesperson isn’t doing anything wrong, why would they care if the boss knew precisely where they were at any given time?
Angel	Being a salesperson requires lots of flexibility: sometimes sellers start late, sometimes they work into the wee hours of the night.  Most put in long hours in a super stressful environment.  Do they need the stress of explaining every second of every day?
Devil	Frank, you’ve got to be kidding me.  The hard working guys work hard constantly.  Every move they make is to generate business.  The slackers talk big stories but you know they’re goofing off.
Angel	This whole thing raises massive questions about work place privacy.  What is a salesperson has to stop during the day for personal reasons?  Should they be required to explain deeply private matters with their boss just because he knows they stopped off during the day?
Devil	Now I know you’re joking!  Everybody else in the office has to ask for personal time and those “prima donnas” in the outside sales group can just buzz around town like they own the company.  What makes them so special?

Ok you get the idea.  This could be controversial.  I am still making my mind up on the potential of electronic monitoring.  What say you?


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