By Kevin Gephart
Assuming you have diversity of personality-types within your sales department, make a formal determination of which rep fits into which of the four basic personality types: drivers, expressives, amiables, or analyticals. (If you’d like more info on these personality types, send me an email). Understand which category the client decision-makers are in (with rep’s input?) and make the match accordingly. People believe that anyone that looks/acts/talks as they do is brilliant, so it requires a good matchup of personality types. Designating reps with unique backgrounds as “specialists” in a category is also powerful (I’ll cover that more in a future column).
Management must make the account intros with the rep. It conveys to the client they are valuable and endorses the rep to the client.
Sales reps deplore account reassignments because often perceived they aren’t equitable. If management administers equitable account reassignments both the reps and the OOH company win. Reps can be pro-active with an account that isn’t clicking with them. Find a rep to trade the account with and get it blessed by management.
A time honored but seldom used management tool is the “courtesy call”. A manager, on a regular basis, calls the decision makers of the top 50% of the company accounts to determine how the rep and the company are meeting the client needs. Use a pre-determined list of open-ended questions. Never ask “if” you’re meeting expectations, ask “what” you can do differently/better to serve them. It’s nice to hear good feedback, it’s critical to hear what can be improved. Reps can do their own courtesy-calling but may get different answers than management. Be sure your sales staff knows this is a part of your ongoing management process. No need to have reps intimidated/surprised by a courtesy call. As a rep when I was frustrated with an account, I would invite management to make the call. They will likely get insight you can’t.
Be conscious of the type of buyer you are courtesy-calling to best understand their motives. Sometimes a client may request a different rep because the client has unrealistic expectations, leaving the rep to often say no. The client may feel getting a different/more compliant sales rep will make it easier get their way. As manager you can ask for a 90-day delay in reassignment to coach the rep toward improvement.
It can be a delicate balance between sales management’s support/defense of a rep and giving in to the client who wants a change. If you are asked to replace a rep and you feel it’s for the wrong reasons, point out to the client that while you’re willing to make the change, they will be denying themselves the great services/talent/insights of one of your best reps.
Next week: Who should handle account payments/collections?
Send me your questions/comments to: KevinJGephart@gmail.com
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