A - For new salespeople to thoroughly know what they are getting into, we have them spend a day or two out with a salesperson. Our type of sales involves a lot of merchandising, actually cutting cartons open, rolling up your shirt sleeves, and putting up products on the grocery shelves. Some people wouldn't know that unless they rode with a salesperson. In our interviewing process, we make the interviewee ride with a salesperson for a day to help answer any questions they have about the job. We try to get them involved in building displays and getting their hands dirty, so they know exactly what they are getting themselves into. We even have them go home with the sales representative at night to plan out the next day, so they know there is paper work involved at night.
New salespeople are in training about three months, working extremely closely with the district manager. From there they are put on their own for a while to let them stumble around and make mistakes. We encourage them to get out and make mistakes, because that is the only way to get out there and learn. At the same time, the district managers are following them up on a weekly basis by telephone or a personal conference to find out how things went, what they thought went wrong, what went right, and how they might improve things. Usually after about a year, the district managers work with them about once every month or every six weeks, depending on the individual.
Once they get a feel for it, the job gets to be really enjoyable, especially with our training program. They begin working out in the field actually within five days after they are hired. The training is on the job, and you take your lumps for six months before you go into a classroom program. That way we feel you have more questions, you've already gained some experience, and you know what you need to learn and where you need to brush up. As my old unit manager told me, "We send you out there to get your nose a little bloody."
Q - Could you describe your organization and where you fit into it?
A - I was a sales representative for a year and a month, but the normal time people would be in the spot is from three to five years. Then they are in the account management spot usually from two to four years. And from account manager, they move up to a territory manager. The job after a territory manager is a staff assistant, which is when you can get into brand management. A staff assistant works at our headquarters. When you become a staff assistant, you have several options to choose from. You can stay in touch with direct sales, you can go into brand management, or you can go into personnel. There are a lot of different directions to choose from.
Above me there's a division sales manager, who is responsible for a division or territory, whatever you want to call it. The company happens to have nine divisions, and each division has approximately nine sales representatives. I answer to my division sales manager through all my daily reports, and ask any questions I have. He travels with me on occasion to see what kind of job I am doing. Above him is a regional vice-president of the company.
There are 155 sales representatives reporting to 26 district managers, reporting to 6 region managers, reporting to 2 division managers, reporting to a vice-president of sales.
Q - What are your responsibilities?
A - I'm the person who 99 percent of the clients see, so I think it is very important that I make a good impression. I have to be honest with them.
I can't feed them a line, because some of my customers have been in the industry for a lot longer than I'll ever be in it. It's hard for me to tell them what to do. I can show them new products. I can keep them abreast of what our company is doing and keep them informed, but as far as sitting down and saying, "I think you need X amount of these," I don't feel that is my business. I may point out if, for example, a customer who bought 200 of an item last year only orders 100 this year. I'll say, "Do you have that many in inventory? Last year you bought 200." He'll say, "I didn't know I bought so many. I don't have any in stock. Yeah, put me down for the extra 100." You have to be prepared to help them, because they have many things to do, and they can't always be on top of everything themselves.
As for the company, you have to keep your boss informed about what people around you are doing. If you're having a problem, say, your customers are not selling a particular item or it's not going over well, it may be because the competition is doing something or because they have a better product on the line. You have to inform your superiors, because one of the ways they get information is through you.
It's pretty complex. The company runs selling skill seminars, but for the most part when we go into a retail store our responsibility is to check the distribution of our product lines. Are they in accordance with what the particular account carries? If the store is short and should have something that it doesn't, it's part of my job to sell that distribution into the store. We check pricing, and we file a pricing structure. A lot of times something on the shelf may not be priced correctly. It's the sales representative's responsibility to find out if it's incorrect and make sure that it is corrected. We are also responsible for merchandising, which means we have certain deal allowances on different products. It's also the sales representative's responsibility to try to pull extra products into the stores and coordinate them around certain advertising periods, and so forth.
Facings are really important, that is, selling a manager into giving you shelf space. You know, it's very funny, because when I took introductory marketing I just read it and thought, "This can't be the way it is." Having your product bet the one that stands out is what it's all about. Selling a manager on the shelf structure and how you want your product to appear is very important.
