Sales Blog with Sales Tips

Even if our employer pays our fuel bills and we’re not concerned about recent gas prices, the CFO has noticed the price increases and is working on ways to control this cost. If we are currently paying our own fuel bills we directly feel the pain. Here’s a sales tip to keep in mind; we’ll see many companies in the upcoming months change how they handle fuel expenses. Many will stop paying fuel costs altogether.

The great news is that by necessity we are being forced to better manage our accounts in ways that will help us in the long haul…in ways that represent solid basic sales skills.

“…by necessity we are being forced to better manage our accounts…”

• We need to determine who our best customers are (and by that I mean most profitable) knowing that fuel costs are justified for this class of customer.

• Identifying outside customers that are marginally profitable is a valuable exercise. We can handle these customers through another channel (e.g., inside sales, website, etc.) or fire them with a dull pencil. Firing a marginally profitable customer with a dull pencil simply means we raise their prices until they either become profitable or they quit buying from us. This was one of the most important sales tips I got when I first started in sales.

• Our sales manager is constantly preaching to us to sell more products and services to existing customers. He or she is giving us good sales advice. Now is an excellent time to get more out of our existing customer contacts instead of adding small customers at additional locations.

• We must take control of our calendars. Instead of jumping all over town, we need to plan our customer appointments so that they tend to cluster in the same area on the same day. Our customers understand that it is costly for us to drive to their location and will provide sales help in our scheduling.

We have to manage around the reality of $4+ gas. The things we do to help us control those costs will actually make us better sales representatives by improving our revenue within accounts and sharpening our territory management skills.

©2010 Scott R. Sheaffer

I’ve observed something important over time about sales managers. I’ve seen that a sales manager is in a unique position to help us if we have a good relationship with them. The ways they can help us are frequently not readily apparent. Their position allows them to improve our sales skills and assist us in how to sell for our company.

“The ways they can help us are frequently not readily apparent.”

It doesn’t matter whether we think our sales manager is the best thing since cell phones or if we dislike them more than filling out call reports. They can provide real sales help if we’ve built a relationship with them. Here are some of the benefits this relationship provides:

• Territories are always being changed and/or being reassigned (once a year in many companies). The sales manager is the person who decides who gets assigned to specific territories. We all know that all territories are not created equal.

• Sales rep’s leave companies and frequently they’ll have some cherry accounts that need to be reassigned. Who do you think makes those assignments?

• They have the combination to the safe that holds the best sales leads. Do you think they give them out fairly? Of course not. They give them out to sales rep’s they like and think will best handle them.

• Who do you think is the primary influencer of budgets or quotas? There is nothing more loosey-goosey then setting sales budgets. They are very subjective. A good relationship with your sales manager will only help you here.

Sales managers are in a position to help us in many behind-the-scenes ways. The password to this sales help is relationship.

©2010 Scott R. Sheaffer

There have been many studies researching the main reason that some sales reps are extremely successful and some are less so. Virtually all of the research comes to the same conclusion and it is surprising in its simplicity.

Sales managers want to know this predictor because it can help them hire the right people and provide focused sales tips in order to teach them how to sell. Sales reps want to know in order to improve their sales skills in an area that will have the biggest impact. This quest for the magic pill is one of the reasons that there’s a new sales blog around every corner.

“This predictor of success is not one that you have any control over…but in a way you do.”

What is it? Time in territory. That’s right, the longer a sales rep is in his or her territory the more likely he or she is to be successful. In the math world they call this a positive correlation. As the length of time increases, so does sales volume.

I think the implications for this are significant:

• If you’re a sales rep and thinking about changing jobs, remember that you’ll have to start the clock over again. Be careful about throwing away the time in territory that you’ve already earned with your current employer.
• Sales managers, do you have a long term sales rep that is not performing like you think they could? Then get out there and encourage and nurture them. You don’t want to lose his or her time in territory.
• Changing jobs frequently can hurt a sales rep’s career and a high sales rep turnover in a company can hurt an employer.

The bottom line sales tip is that hanging in there with our sales job or, if you’re a sales manager, hanging in there with a struggling long term sales rep might be the best thing you can do for your sales volume.

©2010 Scott R. Sheaffer