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 There has always been a symbiotic dissonance between a sales force and home office management. Field sales reps see themselves as pioneering entrepreneurs; resourceful loners who – against incredible odds (including management) – tear a living out of the land known as "my territory."
Meanwhile, back at headquarters, executives are consecrating the cosmic values of unity, teamwork, and togetherness; while suppressing any awareness that sales people are more concerned with better computers, longer vacations, and bigger bonuses.
About the only time these groups get together is during an annual sales meeting. (E-mails and web conferences don't count.) If you qualify for a corner office credenza, your sales meeting presentation can be used to prioritize problems, suture wounds and smooth scars. Here are some thoughts...
Lectern Leadership
Unlike small conference room sessions, with their nasty capacity for catching you u nprepared, an off-site meeting presentation is superbly one-sided. You talk, others listen. You say what you've planned and polished. You read what's on your notes or prompter. No one says, "What do you mean by that?"
With practice, your sales force need never know that the decisive podium personality before them is not really a black-belt back at the office. You are to be admired and respected (from a distance).
By the time you finish, your audience should feel that: (1) you understand their problems, (2) you're thinking about next year as well as next month, (3) you deserve your job, and finally (4) the money they make is being well spent.
Many managers, at many meetings, spend much of their time exhorting sales reps to make more money so they can win family trips to Disneyland. But it's not a bad idea to tell them how the money they've been making is being used. Try these variations:
Marketing Moments
Do more than just show new product promos. Show your sales reps what it took to create them:
- schedule a presentation by your ad agency
- review outtakes from a commercial
- reveal the planing for print or point-of-purchase promotions
R&D
Take them in the back room You may have some fascinating R&D work going on. Assuming no "top secret, eyes only" stuff, take your group into the lab (a virtual tour). Whatever's going on, their sales are paying for it. And so what if they can't start selling what they see on the way back to the airport.
Feedback Forum
Hold a Q&A session with your audience. This is a move that separates leaders from lemmings. But many sales and marketing execs seem to think it's a lousy idea. "We haven't got time." "They'll get into areas I don't want to cover." "I may not have all the answers."
In my experience, responses such as "I don't know, but I'll find out" produce respect - not ridicule. And much can be learned about problems and potentials that might otherwise never have surfaced.
Coming up next: The Anatomy of An Offer A sure-fire formula for writing promotional copy that sells!
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