Salespeople and sales managers: Endangered Species

In North America there are over 2 million sales representatives and executives from more than 337,000 sales (Source: U.S. Labor Department, salaried, full-time benefits). As the new global economy takes hold, purchase technologies improve, and the pressures to grow business and reduce costs to increase ... forces to quantify the sales are discovering that there are far more effective ways to sell products and services.

The average annual salary w / benefits for sales representatives is $ 100,000 and for sales managers is $ 140,000. When measured against the growth of their sales / profits, the costs are high. The old maxims of insufficient resources to sales representatives to grow the way business is falling flat in the face of reality. Cold calling does not work and old relationships / loyalties are fading. Personalization techniques, new technologies and scalable way in which companies now purchase, are limiting the opportunities for sales representatives to be successful. Sales managers are now faced with a high sales rep, training options with a lackluster, unrealistic targets and new realities that are tying the hands to the impact on business growth. Companies are clearly through the purchase of new and better sales channels.

Three channels are reinventing the way companies sell / buy their goods and services: branding, technology and culture.

Branding: Just as ranchers burned their brands on their cattle ranches, businesses today are spending millions on the positioning of their brands to be recognized, differentiated and sizzled with their consumers. Creative Styling logo, colors, music, star power also come together in order to know immediately with a picture or a sound, what the product / service and identify how our preferred choice. Marketing is now heavily involved in the production and distribution of goods and services, the consumer experience monitoring and adjustments to make every experience repeatable, creating loyal customers. Those who a better position their brand in the minds of their customers are the ones who reap higher sales and margins. Outlets include sponsorships, television, radio, print, Internet and sports, but also effective are the techniques of guerrilla warfare to a word of mouth, the inclusion of engineered products, articles, interviews and testimonials. Just think of your favorite brands that you buy ... It has a sales professional that make a difference or have you already sold the experience of branding?

Technology: Ask any producer / distributor channel largest growth was in the last 10 years for business to consumer sales and hands for each has been the Internet (sales reps and sales managers please note: there 'was needed in this kind of spike in business / profits). Now business to business sales are exploited in a similar way, partly through Internet portals, but much more by third parties that exploit new technologies to see more options, saving lever, make comparisons of cost and determine the values ​​of the deliverable. .. without charge to buyers as these entities are based contingency. No stampede more traditional representatives, product pitches, cold calls or catalogs ... as smart buyers know they can not discover all the products / services options available to them on their own or rely purchase from past relationships that have a more limited and rising costs. The vast majority of businesses are not able to afford chasing the software to analyze the options and leverage their purchasing power. Luckily in today's market, third parties have emerged to analyze complex optimally on a contingency basis. These highly professional sales agents, being paid only on results, are the forces of growth in sales today.

Culture: the old command and control, operational guided cultures in business are giving way to real customer driven business models. Operationally driven enterprises often lack the confidence and respect with their sales staff, thereby creating the responsibility calls that lead to unproductive cellular calls, e-mail, reports confusing to read, without meeting the objective, instinctive training, low pay , heavy responsibilities of customer service, sales quotas set by hopes, rather than ability and bonus programs that are elusive at best, crippling at worst unproductive. Companies that grow their goods and services have the leadership that fuel cultures where everyone is responsible for sales and recognize that the sale on the street is best left to professional agencies. Agencies understand the need to contract with only those who know where and how to buy customers, making the real growth in sales value and the savings happen.

As companies continue to reinvent the way they buy / sell their products / services, sales professionals must reinvent what they have traditionally been seen as a career path. There will be more great resources insufficient sales staff in services or manufacturing. As the traditional drop in sales work, results-oriented professionals will take their skills and intelligence representatives fully commissioned production based, supply chain management agencies and distributors that are much more effective in creating growth sales. With fewer jobs available for sale, most capable representatives who happen to excel in the real growth will move to being fully commissioned reps. The underperformers fall in jobs of customer service (also declining in numbers and compensation), inside sales positions (also declining in numbers and compensation) or fall into opportunities underemployed (also declining in numbers and compensation).

The outlook for sales professionals in the sales agency fee is based significantly improved, while sales of traditional jobs are clearly decreasing in number and compensation. The time now is for the representatives and sales managers to review their career in jeopardy and take control of their destiny, instead of falling prey to the realities of the global market....