How do you liven up a sluggish sales rep?

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Permalink Reply by Scott Devereux on November 11, 2009 at 4:51pm

Hi Wesley,

I have had a bit of experience with sales people in the course of my career and I imagine that your sales rep is on a commission structure and is probably working on lower margins due to your non profit status. Unfortunately this often has a detrimental effect on a salesman's performance (although its no excuse for shoddy customer service) as he is prioritizing (poorly) clients with higher margins so he can exceed his targets for the month and make commission.

My advice to you would be to have a chat with your sales rep about it first. I would ask him what the two of you can do to make sure that your quote requests are answered in a timely manner and if there is anybody else who you should CC on your requests in case he is unable to get to them. I am sure you brining it up will motivate him.

If that doesn't bring more value to your relationship, I would suggest cold calling and asking to speak with the sales manager about it.

Hope this helps.

Scott

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Permalink Reply by Wesley "Nonapeptide" on November 11, 2009 at 5:18pm

Thanks for the reply Scott,

"I imagine that your sales rep is on a commission structure and is probably working on lower margins due to your non profit status. Unfortunately this often has a detrimental effect on a salesman's performance (although its no excuse for shoddy customer service) as he is prioritizing (poorly) clients with higher margins so he can exceed his targets for the month and make commission."

I'm sure that's it, although I do suspect some personal laziness even though I really can't prove it. He seems to be a laid back guy -- not exactly a "Go Getter". The strange thing is, this reseller is almost 100% marketed to non-profits, so it's not like I'm some oddball account for him. Even so, they do retail selling as well so I wonder if he has some major retail accounts that are taking precedence.


"My advice to you would be to have a chat with your sales rep about it first. I would ask him what the two of you can do to make sure that your quote requests are answered in a timely manner and if there is anybody else who you should CC on your requests in case he is unable to get to them. I am sure you brining it up will motivate him."

That's a good idea about asking who I could CC in case he can't get to it. My plan is thus: I'll call him and ask if he even got my emails since I can't assume that they were even delivered. If he says "yes" I am almost certain that he'll say that he was just so busy, etc. At that point I'll ask if he wants to give the account over to a new sales rep because I don't want him to be overworked, etc. I like to think of the other person's wellbeing in the process of solving problems like this. Maybe I'm too soft hearted. =)


"If that doesn't bring more value to your relationship, I would suggest cold calling and asking to speak with the sales manager about it."

I think I know the number of the manager of the sales department. One thing I don't want to do is load a charge of napalm and go into things like Duke Nukem. I don't want to sternly ask to talk to anyone's manager yet, I don't want to lodge a formal complaint and I'm not interested in finger pointing at anyone (Okay, my baser side wants to finger point but I try to resist it). I just want timely quotes and the ability to get broad questions answered like "I'm looking for a NAS box with [x] capacity for [y] budget... got anything like that?"

Thanks for the advice! I'll report back with the results.

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Permalink Reply by Isaac on November 11, 2009 at 4:52pm

So if I understand you then the issue isn’t with the reseller, who seems to be well suited for your needs, but rather with this particular salesperson? If that’s the case then the sequence is 1 then 2 then 3 depending on how successful each step goes.

The thing to remember is that the salesperson is not your friend and is kept around as long as he is useful. Also the salesperson is looking to make a profit and isn’t doing this out of the goodness of his heart. I’m not saying that the relationship is hostile or anything like that but that there’s a difference between friendly and being friends if that makes sense. I know this isn’t some startling revelation but sometimes people (including myself at times) have forgotten that at times.

I’ve had situations were things went sour with a reseller or a particular salesperson and I just try to layout what the issue is and what needs to be resolved as factually and calmly as I can. Same if someone else is offering better pricing. It’s just business. It’s not being a jerk to tell your business partners something they would rather not hear if its true. In fact it’s better to tell them what’s wrong so they can fix it then to drop them without giving them that chance. Assuming you don’t going to go on some profanity laden rant. ;)

So I’d start by talking to this sales person and saying something to the effect of; “Your company is really well positioned for dealing with our needs and I’d like to keep doing business with you but unfortunately we’ve run into an issue with responsiveness. For instance … list of problems …. Can we resolve these so we can keep doing business?” Just short, simple and to the point. If you don’t feel like talking to the salesperson is going to do anything you could just skip to step 2 and say pretty much the same thing; I like your company but for this list of reasons we’ll need someone different if we’re going to keep working together.

If it doesn’t work out then you can always look around for someone else. Especially in this economy resellers would like new clients.

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Permalink Reply by Isaac on November 11, 2009 at 5:19pm

Also I just wanted to point out that explaining MS and Adobe licensing isn’t all that impressive as that’s pretty core to his job. I’m sure he did a fine job of it but that’s not really going above and beyond.

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Permalink Reply by Wesley "Nonapeptide" on November 11, 2009 at 5:34pm

Yeah, I think I'm too easily impressed. You see, most of the work I've done has been completely on my own in just about every way, so when someone does much of anything for me I stop and think "Wow... I would have just spent all day Googling to figure that licensing scheme out but you just explained it in 15 minutes. If you were a girl I'd kiss you."

But you can't deny that the packing peanuts that he puts in my shipments are only the finest and they're all the same color! Respect.

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Permalink Reply by Wesley "Nonapeptide" on November 11, 2009 at 5:28pm

Thanks for the reply, Isaac!

"The thing to remember is that the salesperson is not your friend and is kept around as long as he is useful."

That, Isaac, is my downfall. I'm way too friendly and soft hearted. I'm also not the most experienced person in dealing with salespeople, so I haven't developed callouses yet. I'm actually apologetic when I have to choose one reseller over another because of better prices. Yeah, I know.

"Also the salesperson is looking to make a profit and isn’t doing this out of the goodness of his heart. I’m not saying that the relationship is hostile or anything like that but that there’s a difference between friendly and being friends if that makes sense."

That makes perfect sense and is something I should remind myself of frequently. In fact, I might write that little saying down and tape it to my wall. It'll hold a place right next to the one that says "Your backups are only as good as your backups."


"Same if someone else is offering better pricing. It’s just business."

Oh, to ingrain this into my mind. I keep seeing visions of the salesperson's son, Tiny Tim, hobbling to a Thanksgiving table with only a dish of Flav-R-Pack brand frozen peas and Melba Toast on his plate. "If only I had bought that SAN from his dad..." Okay, that's an exaggeration but you get the idea. =)


If it doesn’t work out then you can always look around for someone else. Especially in this economy resellers would like new clients.

I know, that puzzles me more than anything. I'm simultaneously one of his better accounts and also largely ignored. That's what makes me wonder what's going on within the organization. Maybe there's a lot of mismanagement or something that's causing his priorities to be jumbled. But, that will be one of my questions for him. I think I'll kick the conversation off asking how things are going, if things are okay for the reseller in this economy, if he's overworked, etc. and then ask if he wants to move me to another sales rep for convenience. He should get the hint since I've asked him before if he received my emails or not.

More news as events warrant.

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Permalink Reply by Isaac on November 11, 2009 at 8:36pm

That, Isaac, is my downfall. I'm way too friendly and soft hearted. I'm also not the most experienced person in dealing with salespeople, so I haven't developed callouses yet. I'm actually apologetic when I have to choose one reseller over another because of better prices. Yeah, I know.

I understand that. It’s not so much developing callousness as recognizing how the relationship works. They aren’t doing you a favor; your giving them money for their services/products and if you’re not happy you’re not obliged to continue to spend money. If they aren’t happy with the amount of money you’re spending then again they’re not obliged to continue dealing with you. It’s pretty cut and dry and ultimately you are in control of the dialog and they are not. This is why I drop vendors that are excessively pushy, excessively control the information flow in the dialog, or try to “guilt” me into buying something.

In cases where one vendor is cheaper then another I’ve always simply picked the other vendor without comment or sometimes said something like “Your product looks good to me but another vendor is comparable and coming in cheaper. If you’d like you can submit another quote otherwise I thank you for your time”. Sometimes they rebid and sometimes not. It’s just a routine unemotional thing.

It’s pretty important to keep professional and remember the only thing that matters is the merits of the product/services and price being offered. Whether a salesperson seems nice or not is irrelevant. I have a particular salesman I do the majority of my purchasing with and he’s seems like a nice guy. He has taken me out to lunch and dinner a few times and I’ve also gotten some swag; including a nice bottle of scotch and they send me this pack of smoked meats and cheeses around the holidays. Now that’s real nice and all and I appreciate it but if another vendor comes along that meets my needs better then I will drop them if they can’t compete. I’ve been very frank about this from my first meeting with this salesman.

This is somewhat off topic but the idea of “friendly but not friends” is an important part of how I deal with people at work. I feel that it’s vital to keep my work life separate from my personal life. Once you let those two mingle it starts getting messy. I try to be pleasant to everyone and I’ll make small talk with people but that’s about it. When I throw a party do you know who I invite? No one from work. Know who talk with when I have problems? Not anyone I work with. Before I was married do you know who I dated? Not any girl from work; regardless of how compatible we seemed.

Let me give you an example of why. We had a tech that I got along with and shared interests with and we could have been friends but of course I didn’t let that happen. Later we had performance issues with this person and had to let him go. Do you want to tell a close friend that they are fired? I don’t.

Oh, to ingrain this into my mind. I keep seeing visions of the salesperson's son, Tiny Tim, hobbling to a Thanksgiving table with only a dish of Flav-R-Pack brand frozen peas and Melba Toast on his plate. "If only I had bought that SAN from his dad..." Okay, that's an exaggeration but you get the idea. =)

I understand this and have felt the same way in the past but it’s really not the customers concern. I assume that if they don’t make a sale from with me they make one from someone else. If the commission from one customer is the only thing stopping destitution for the company or salesperson then something is wrong behind the scenes and you can’t be expected to do anything about it.

think I'll kick the conversation off asking how things are going, if things are okay for the reseller in this economy, if he's overworked, etc. and then ask if he wants to move me to another sales rep for convenience. He should get the hint since I've asked him before if he received my emails or not.


Well this is your deal and you know the situation better then I do but … are you sure you want to dance around the issue like this and hope he picks up the hint? Would it be better to be direct about the issue and suggest that you should be transferred to someone else given this salesman’s workload or whatever?

Anyway sorry this post got so long.

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Permalink Reply by Wesley "Nonapeptide" on November 11, 2009 at 8:58pm

All good points. I'll probably re read this comment a few times to absorb the concepts. That's a refreshingly different perspective about not being friends with those you work with. My problem as of yet is that all my work has been as a result of family friends so it's impossible not to get involved with co workers to some extent. On the positive side, it's nice to know so many people that own or have significant influence in various organizations that can give me some work. Workplace frienships? Forget that... there were workplace marriages left and right at one place. They all seemed to work out though. Hmmm...

And finally, your point about making it up front to a salesperson that you'd drop them like an ASA does P2P traffic when someone else's prices are better is well noted. Although, I've heard some accounting departments demanding that all purchases go through a few approved resellers no matter what the price is (PC Connection for example) but that's for another post.

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Permalink Reply by Isaac on November 11, 2009 at 9:01pm

Oh, to ingrain this into my mind. I keep seeing visions of the salesperson's son, Tiny Tim, hobbling to a Thanksgiving table with only a dish of Flav-R-Pack brand frozen peas and Melba Toast on his plate. "If only I had bought that SAN from his dad..." Okay, that's an exaggeration but you get the idea. =)

I forget to say this earlier but I reject your casting of Melba toast as some sort of inferior food. Yes, yes, I’ve had many lunches where Melba toast figured in prominently. Also it’s Thanksgiving … I’m sure the salesperson’s family could scrape up some extra money (by selling those stupid proprietary cables no doubt) for the jolly green giant brand peas.

Oh I know! They should dump the peas and get ramen noodles instead and put the Melba Toast in the soup to thicken it up. Then they should use the saved money to buy a little can of SPAM. And then could shape the SPAM into a vaguely turkey shaped mound! See! They’re well on their way to a lovely Thanksgiving even without your SAN purchase!

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Permalink Reply by Wesley "Nonapeptide" on November 11, 2009 at 9:10pm

I recant my mis characterization of Melba Toast. And since you've mentioned it, I'll send my sales guy a link to this Turkey mold just in case.

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Permalink Reply by Steven L Cox on November 11, 2009 at 9:59pm

Speaking as a sales rep, the first priority is the customer. It doesn't matter if the customer is small or large. The purchasing agent of a small shop could move to a really big shop and you'd want him to remember you! (I've had it happen)

Talk to the guy. Be honest. I like the "who should I CC" question. It opens discussion on the issue on non-repsonsiveness and could very well fix it. There could even be admin folks in his organization who do quotes.

I used to work with a guy who could sell matches to Satan. He honestly cared for his customers. But his follow-up was awful. When he had people around him who could do the grunt work, he was wildly successful. When he had to do his own grunt work... well....

Interesting topic...

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Permalink Reply by Wesley "Nonapeptide" on November 11, 2009 at 10:21pm

"The purchasing agent of a small shop could move to a really big shop and you'd want him to remember you! (I've had it happen)"

That brings up another very interesting topic in this situation. I'm going to be moving to a top 5 most populous American city in the very near future. More than likely, I'll be getting a job there that will have a larger environment to look after (and the attendant larger budget). My sales guy knows this. I've told him at least twice. I've even asked him if I can continue to ask for quotes from him even though I might not be eligible for non-profit prices if I end up in a for-profit workplace. (He told me that the reseller does indeed sell goods to for-profits)

And yet... silence.

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