Dealer Sales Reps – An Endangered Species?

By: Norm MacLeod

It was late summer back in the day and a bunch of us industry guys were out on Lake Simcoe cruising around on a vendor’s giant yacht (a converted PT boat actually) when an enormous wind gust came up out of nowhere. A couple of the deck chairs were swept into the water and we gleefully yelled out Deck chairs overboard. Some wit then yelled to the President of the then second largest national commercial stationer, “Hey, one of your reps has blown overboard too.” Without any hesitation the President yelled back, “Save the deck chairs.” That was back pre-web of course but are sales reps any higher on the respect scale in these days of on-line digital sales, marketing and customer service?

 

 Based on the current practices of the major North American chains I think the answer has to be No. Whenever their stock craters, the first thing they usually announce is that they are successfully implementing their synergistic, customer-centric, negatively optimized growth plan and that by the way, they’ll also be cutting back the outside sales force. Do dealer sales reps have a life expectancy longer than Lady Gaga’s current hair style and how on earth do they get to a level of respect commensurate with their real value?

I think the answer to the first question is a conditional yes. There is still something to be said for the personal touch in securing, negotiating and maintaining a solid customer relationship, at least in the B2B world. To ensure that this value is maintained and also to begin increasing their respect level dealer reps must work smarter than they ever have before. A large part of working smart is learning to use Analytics. Whether a rep is a hunter, farmer or just a nice smile with a free hot lunch, they need to go past the usual CRM clichés (how about those Leafs?) and actually understand their customers’ needs and where the opportunities lie within each account. While the digital world may be threatening the rep’s existence it is a double edged sword in that it also provides gigabytes of data on each and every customer and allows them to touch customers more frequently and effectively than ever before.

Back a few years ago, when reps were being pointed and incented in the direction of the new frontier of Cleaning, Breakroom supplies, I checked, where I worked, with the person who orders all supplies for the office whether our Office Supplies rep had mentioned that they now sell CB supplies. The answer of course was no. All of our purchase transactions are processed online, a simple request to Google Analytics or Coremetrics would have provided the rep with a complete breakdown easily sorted by product category. The rep could then easily see that no CB supplies were being ordered. They could also see that every 3^rd or 4^th cycle of toner ordering was going to someone else and that on some orders the copy paper was being dropped as well. This kind of knowledge and understanding is POWER.

These types of analytics allow maximum account penetration and can also help identify product areas where pricing or quality may be an issue. This is also a role the rep is best suited to fill since they have the most to lose and/or gain. I’m not sure how much autonomy reps have in altering the customer’s price matrix but having the ability to tinker with the complex product/price matrix would allow the reps to address cost issues while maintaining the overall account GP. Is this within the rep’s current skill set?

The digi-com world can also allow a much closer relationship to form with the actual end users within a company rather than just a cost-conscious purchasing agent. When a design firm orders the Econo 4’ X 8’ whiteboard, an e-mail followup should probably be sent to the department chief pointing out that a board designed to last 2 or 3 years of use isn’t the most economical choice when the multiple re-order and mounting costs are factored in over a longer period. This would certainly be a better response than calling to say the board they want is back-ordered.

When the same firm orders a suite of Bush or Sauder RTA furniture, maybe the rep should be texting to point out that the products will require a day’s labour to assemble and that the products are not designed to be moved once in place. Of course, these followups require a reasonable level of product knowledge (which is a whole other topic) but for reps to ever be respected it’s an area they really need to work harder at. Building trust and providing genuine value added service is the best form of job security a rep can have. Even if there is a termination due to “right-sizing” that account will probably belong to the rep more than the company.

Another type of analytic can also help account openers. Have you googled the company you are making the pitch to? At the very least, you’ll be able to get some basic stats like how big they are, whether they have other branch offices, who owns them, how many employees they have. If they are publically held, check out their financial status and read their Investor Relations information. Most companies will also have a mission statement and a more qualitative summary of who they are, what they stand for. Knowing that the mission statement of the company emphasizes their environmental sensitivity or a commitment to buying local can make all the difference in the focus of your proposal.

Do reps routinely check out the principals listed on the web-site on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn to understand their special interests and past history? Knowing that the key decision maker used to work for one of your current accounts could help in winning a contract. Do the homework, it’ll pay off. The customer will respect the efforts you have made and the bosses will be impressed by your proactive approach.

Digital tools are there to be used and rather than budgeting x number of hours for cold-calling a week, perhaps there would be a greater return if those x hours were allocated to studying and applying customer analytics. The rep’s future really comes down to survival of the tech-smartest.

 

Norm MacLeod has been a Marketing / Merchandising executive in the Office Products channel for over 30 years. At the dealer level, with Willson Stationers, Compucentre and most recently Basics Office Products and at the vendor level with Blueline Inc. Currently in a semi-retired state as a photographer at large and special projects gun-for-hire for the Basics Dealer group.

         He can be reached at: nwmac123@gmail.com