Shadowing Day 2 – The Talker

Today I traveled with my manager who talks loud, at a fast pace and often. Her expertise is product knowledge with some good selling skills.

Our first appointment was and hour and half long and we needed about 4 hours to get everything done. The problem is the account had cut us off as a supplier for a year or so and now that we are back in they have missed 4-5 training appointments.  We were able to get some information, train them on one product and secure another meeting.

The second appointment was with a former employee that has opened her own clinic, we had lunch and talked about getting more of her business.

The third appointment was uneventful.

The last appointment of the day was booked just to have me view what our new product training looked like.  The prospect had not bought from us for years and we had no plan to ‘sell’ them… however our presence opened them up to telling us they are looking for a new supplier, gave us competitive information and was a great appointment.  I learned that no matter how much an account buys you should always keep in touch.

Another good day, one more then I get pushed out of the nest.

Shadowing Day 1 – The Closer

Day one of shadowing had me traveling with a traditional sales guy, by traditional I mean a smooth talker, good with people, able to shift gears at any moment.  He is not the strongest on product knowledge and admits this quickly letting the client be the expert on product… he is all about the deal.

The first appointment was with one of his best clients, not a big client but very loyal.  The key discussions were about increasing their current discount. The rep told her that we could not move the discount on some products however on premium products we had some flexibility. He offered an additional 5% on the premium products and ‘would see’ if he could get any for the rest of the line, knowing it wouldn’t be a problem to move all products 5%.

The rep had the ability to go with an additional 25% discount on the premium but %5 seemed to make them happy. I’ve seen this with other accounts where the price is dropped quickly for non-loyal accounts to bring them on board and not so quickly for loyal accounts… just enough to keep them happy.

The second appointment had no loyalty to any supplier, for her it was all about getting her clients needs met with a high value product.  No matter what a sales rep did right you would only ever get a small percentage of her business.

The last appointment for the day was the most interesting for two reasons, one it was not what we expected and second it was a challenge. This is an account that hasn’t used us as a supplier much (if any) and the rep was prepared to wow them with up to 50% discounts on two product lines to bring some of their business in. Early in our discussions with the client we heard that sales were down and today was a terrible sales day. The client was not in a good mood and the setting was not to talk product or discount in fact when discount was mentioned she flatly said “I don’t care what the discount is I need people coming in the door”. The rep quickly adjusted and talked about marketing and advertising, the client was more receptive to this and a date was set for the client to attend an upcoming advertising seminar sponsored by our company.

Tomorrow I’m traveling with my manager.

Another Day of Training and Some Relationship Building

Today was good, I had my plant tour and did some hands on with products… I sat with customer service, received my computer and phone… basic new-guy stuff.

I did have an odd conversation with my manager at lunch, she asked me what my expectations of her were… I hesitated and said I didn’t have any to which she made a puzzled look on her face… I then answered that I didn’t have any other than for her to support me with my needs and challenges. That’s when she said “Well what I expect from you is….” I cut her off with “.. oh that’s why you asked me first… you just wanted to tell me your expectations”.  It was odd because it seemed like a question out of a movie or in a training video… she laughed a little then told me her expectations.

After work I had mentioned the hotel gym was the typical crap you get in most basic hotels (I am at a Holiday Inn) and my manager suggested I join her at her local gym then go for dinner after.

She had suggested dinner the night before despite not being hungry… she must have been feeling the need to spend some time away from work and get to know me however it was weird yesterday the way it seemed like dinner was part of her training schedule task and needed to complete it. I brushed it off last night and ate alone.

At the gym we worked out separately with a little chit chat… normal gym stuff.  At dinner we were both more comfortable and had some good conversations about family, spouses cooking skills and work.  This dinner was important to her and will be an important part of building trust and respect for each other.

10 Hours, 2 Starbuck’s Runs and 200 Slides… Day 6 is Done

Today was my first day of training which encompassed 10 hours and about 200 Power Point slides. My morning training was from a theoretical point of view and consisted of my trainer reading Power Point slides and talking about the subject.  I made sure to stop the trainer and ask her anything I didn’t understand and she was more then willing to help.

My problem with the morning session was the number of slides and the all the theory of sales and product design over practical knowledge. I kept asking practical questions that I will need the answer to in the field and couldn’t get the answer for many of them.

After the morning session my manager came in and asked how it was going,,, then asked me to explain a technical feature…. I had no idea… I was sure it was one of the 100 slides however it was obvious that I missed it.  My manager wasn’t testing me, she was testing the trainer and we talked about some of the key features without slides, we used the white board and talked about practical applications for the end users.

The first 100 slides of theory were not a waste they were good to get the basics of the terminology and I did get some questions answered however the expectations were higher then they should have been.

I will look for more practical information tomorrow and I’ll make sure to look to understand any of the foundation principals.