Get free content for your website
Search for articles that your audience will appreciate and reprint them for free. Ideal for finding content for your blog, website or other publication. Read our publishers guide to get started.
Articles by Thotsaporn Khumwaree
Sometimes we must dig deeply to uncover a man's troubles. Here is a morale problem that required about two years to pinpoint: Jim's problem had me stumped. He had excellent product knowledge, and his customers held him in high regard. He had a good potential territory, yet his sales were, at best, only average. While he never complained, Jim obviously had something on his nix^ that was distracting him
Training Salesmen In The New Product Line
The next step was to teach our sales force about the new products we had just added. There were just under 2,000 products in the new line. How did we do it? By making it as easy and painless as possible. The perfect solution? Television!
Flagrant errors in managing a sales force are easy to discern. What may be harder to spot are the subtle mistakes or oversights that can be just as counter-productive to profit-making and sales force motivation.
At Cadillac, the first thing we did was to build such strong identity for our new line that it was hard to ignore. We chose the trade name to encompass the entire line of safety products that is required by customers as-a result of a new law in the United States called Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970. The name describes the product line clearly and precisely.
Motivate The Salesman By Helping Him
The bigger tire firms restrict the dealers not only to a narrow profit margin but sell through countless distributive outlets, including their own stores. This further depresses both prices and profits. We, however, gave the independent tire dealer territorial exclusivity. We made sure the salesmen understood this.
An Approach That Solved The Problem
Before our next sales meeting, I laid plans hoping they would effect a cure. As part of our sales force motivation program, we formed a Million-Dollar Club with award plaques and jewelry. Since Bill had reached that sales plateau first, he became the first charter member and president of the club.
Advertising And Public Relations Are Motivation
The second thing we did to make it easy for our salesmen to sell new safety products was to help them get in the door in the first place with strong advertising and public relations support. In industry, Cadillac has a well respected name for plastics. We wanted to capitalize on this goodwill as well as let the world know we had the finest line of safety products available anywhere.
All Morale Problems Are Serious
No sales manager worth his title will ignore a morale problem or treat it lightly. He knows that all morale problems are serious because they adversely affect a salesman's performance which, in turn, affects the company's profits.