Don’t Shoot Your Food #2

I'll never understand a company that resents its sales reps. I'll never understand bean counters that focus on what they earn versus what they contribute. I'll never understand owners or managers that are jealous of the very people that turn on their machines or services.

Trust me. I've seen and endured plenty of these “leaders” during my career. The bottom line is bad so they grab a spreadsheet and look for big expenses. What they pay reps jumps out. Somehow, they do this without looking at who feeds them.

One company I know decided to fire their most expensive reps. Typically, the reps making the most are selling the most. That was certainly so in this case.

Cutting those guys loose left them with a smaller, weaker team. It was a team that couldn't and didn't feed the plant. Sales dried up and a 50+ year old company closed.

Another place decided their website, automation, and inbound sales funnel would keep them busy. They didn't fire any reps but they didn't invest in new talent either. The team aged out (grew past the excitement stage) and no one was coming behind them. Sales started to decline and guess what? They had nobody to turn to. There was no team working to target and earn new business. Ownership is left with no one to help, and it’s going to hurt — a lot.

You have to invest in sales. You have to seek, train, and nurture new sales talent. You have to arm yourself with sales leadership that is more than a quota monitor.

No competent leader would invest in equipment without someone to run manufacturing. Someone would be in charge of making work happen as promised. Someone would be responsible for protecting this capital investment.

You absolutely have to do that with sales! If you don't invest in selling, you're shooting your food. You're ignoring the most obvious business need.

A former employer of mine put it best when he noted that salespeople are the least expensive thing you can add. "If they sell anything at all they pay a portion of their own salary. When they get on their feet, they pay everyone's salary."

I'll never understand a company that resents its sales reps.

The preceding content was provided by a contributor unaffiliated with Printing Impressions. The views expressed within may not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of the staff of Printing Impressions. Artificial Intelligence may have been used in part to create or edit this content.