Empower your salespeople -- inside & out

-- Industrial Distribution, 5/1/2001

Other articles from this Cutting Tools Report:
Tool technology: Distributors make up for reduced vendors' application support
Using cost controls in a downturn
Profile: Factory Supplies of Rockford, Ill.

By Brian Norris

The metalworking industry is changing fast. Don’t believe it? Evidence is all over any of the major tradeshows. The new product introduction cycle in this industry rivals any other in its offer of new technologies.

The countless cutting tool advances offer cost savings for customers in terms of increased throughput, reduced tool inventories, and finished part quality. The traditional customer-distributor-manufacturer relationships are rapidly evolving, leaving many suppliers trying to figure out what is happening. Meanwhile, our customers are intensifying demands on suppliers for information, for cost savings, and for application guidance.

The forces of change have driven the cutting tool industry from a hierarchical, traditional business to what many call the “modern” cutting tool business. The customer has great access to product and supply information. Vendors are expected to provide a “total” solution, and “value-added” services. And of course the competition reminds us to keep a watchful eye on our existing business constantly targeted by predators.

How can we best cope with the increasing demands by our customers for accurate information, quick decisions, tooling solutions, and answers to questions? One answer is empowerment.

By empowering those closest to the customer to make decisions, we can meet our customers expectations and position ourselves to grow business. So who is closest to the customer? In many cases it is the people working the inside sales desk for the distributor and manufacturer.

The strength and depth of the relationship between the distributor and manufacturer inside sales people can be an awesome business tool. These people know the intricacies of the customer’s needs, and depend on one another for answers and decisions.

So why burden these employees with a complex system of checks and balances, sign offs and type X managers, endless documentation and paperwork that only serves to slow down the process? If we believe that they know most about the customer, they should be allowed to make the call.

The strength and depth of the relationship between the distributor and manufacturer inside sales people can be an awesome business tool.

Another team close to the customer is, of course, the distributor's and manufacturer's outside salespeople. Again, a relationship exists that is built on hours of selling time together, reliance on each other's skills, successes and failures, trust and loyalty. The combined knowledge of the customer, and products, puts a powerful and expensive resource at the customer's disposal.

I wonder how many of the new sales management techniques designed to enhance sales efficiency have the exact opposite effect: taking away time in front of the customer? We trust our salespeople to manage their own time, to operate company vehicles, to prudently use expense accounts. Yet so many times we don't let them make the call. The risk of this management approach is that while a salesperson is busy showing justifications and explanations to management for making a move, someone else has already made the decision.

The more empowerment a salesperson has to make a sales decision, the faster the customer can make a buying decision. The risk of making a mistake is greatly outweighed by the risk of not making the decision. The saddest words a salesperson can utter are “I could have gotten the order only if…”

Brian Norris is vice president/general manager of Titex Tools