When manufacturers are interviewing potential new reps, they ask questions about the internal workings of the rep agency. They may ask obvious questions, but they are reading between the lines during your answers to see if you are a business person or a sales person. What's the difference, you ask? In the manufacturer's mind, it can mean the difference between getting a line or not.
The manufacturer is looking for a business professional with plans, strategies and processes in place to efficiently run his business regardless of the challenges facing him or her. They are looking for an extension of their company and want to make sure the company they choose represents their company image.
Do you have the plans, strategies and processes in place to present a professional image to your current and prospective manufacturers?
One of the processes you should have written down is a sales process along with the methodology to achieve the steps in the process. CSO Insights, in one of their annual Sales Performance Optimization survey finds companies who have a written sales process are more successful in reaching their goals, have a higher win rate, have a larger deal dollar volume and have lower total rep turnover than those companies that do not have a written process with methods.
Whether you choose a commercial offering or develop your own internal process does not matter. It's having the methods and process in place so you can train and coach your sales people in your process, use it as a basis for comparison with your leads and opportunities as to your win/loss ratio and communicate the activity and results to your manufacturers.
Start with a simple process and refine it over time so it includes the necessary steps for each type of sale you may encounter. Once in place, you can add the name of each step in the Opportunity Phase field of MRSware, which will allow you to easily track the activities and results of your sales efforts.
With a written sales process and methodology you have taken one step in communicating the professional business image desired by manufacturers.
The manufacturer is looking for a business professional with plans, strategies and processes in place to efficiently run his business regardless of the challenges facing him or her. They are looking for an extension of their company and want to make sure the company they choose represents their company image.
Do you have the plans, strategies and processes in place to present a professional image to your current and prospective manufacturers?
One of the processes you should have written down is a sales process along with the methodology to achieve the steps in the process. CSO Insights, in one of their annual Sales Performance Optimization survey finds companies who have a written sales process are more successful in reaching their goals, have a higher win rate, have a larger deal dollar volume and have lower total rep turnover than those companies that do not have a written process with methods.
Whether you choose a commercial offering or develop your own internal process does not matter. It's having the methods and process in place so you can train and coach your sales people in your process, use it as a basis for comparison with your leads and opportunities as to your win/loss ratio and communicate the activity and results to your manufacturers.
Start with a simple process and refine it over time so it includes the necessary steps for each type of sale you may encounter. Once in place, you can add the name of each step in the Opportunity Phase field of MRSware, which will allow you to easily track the activities and results of your sales efforts.
With a written sales process and methodology you have taken one step in communicating the professional business image desired by manufacturers.
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