How many salespeople do you really need?
According to Brent Grover in the latest episode of MDM’s Executive Briefing, the answer varies. But to arrive at the right answer, distributors need to re-evaluate how their sales territories are structured.
“The sales model has really changed,” Grover says in Cutting Big Data Down to Size. “The needs of the customer have changed more and more.”
Customers are getting information not only from the distributor, but also the websites of the distributor and its suppliers, as well as search engines like Google. They also want information about their orders – price, when it will be delivered and more. “The salesperson used to be the one that answered those questions,” Grover says.
The salesperson also used to be the one that wrote up the customer’s orders. But that’s changing too. More and more, customers submit orders electronically – whether direct through EDI, via email or through a distributor’s website.
So before answering how many salespeople you need, Grover suggests answering the question: “What kind of salespeople do I need?”
Look at the types of customers you have, where they are and in which industry. And examine their needs. “We’ve suggested dividing customers up based on what they are looking for from their suppliers,” Grover says.
Some want a consultative relationship, and they will buy as much as they can from that distributor. They want the distributor to help them save and make more money. Those customers are different from customers whose needs are technical in nature, who want a salesperson who is a problem-solver and who understands how they operate.
Others may just want a distributor who is easy to do business with, and there are customers who don’t want a salesperson at all, Grover says. Those are the customers who will search more frequently online or send out bid requests.
“I think the data can help you figure out not only how many reps do I need but what kind do I need,” he says. “My premise is that I think there are more salespeople out there in the wholesale distribution world than we really need, but there aren’t enough great ones.”
Hear more from Grover on how distributors can use data to improve their businesses in the Executive Briefing episode, Cutting Big Data Down to Size. Listen to a clip from the episode below.
Grover is also the author of The Little Black Book of Strategic Planning for Distributors, available in the MDM Store.
