Sales Representatives Speak Out

Dick Gorelick -- Graphic Arts Online, 11/1/2000

To tap the minds of domestic graphic arts sales representatives regarding their thoughts on the current state of the industry, the Graphic Arts Sales Foundation, with co-sponsorship from Hammermill Papers, recently polled almost 14,000 sales people via a comprehensive, nine-page mail survey.

Train us, please

Several major themes emerged from the survey data, starting with computer literacy. Less than 21% of print sales people responding to the poll strongly agreed with the sentence, "I consider myself computer-literate."

The respondents almost pleaded for training for themselves as well as their customers. Regardless of one's experience with individual reps or one's belief in the sincerity of the desire for training, the fact remains that it is increasingly impossible to avoid the impact of desktop publishing, database management, and other computer-related issues in the sale of print.

Account development was another strategic issue of concern that emerged from the study. The feedback confirmed the obvious: new account development--the lifeblood of many companies--largely is in the hands of less experienced, less competent sales reps. Having prospected successfully, it almost seems as though the more successful reps evidently have earned the right to spend little or no time on that activity.

There are no easy answers here, but it behooves management to find a way to involve its most competent sales people in new customer development.

Equipment sentiment change

For years, sales people have said that they needed their respective companies to invest in certain pieces of expensive equipment "in order to be competitive."

This no longer is the popular sentiment, according to the survey. In fact, only 11% of respondents felt that they were at a competitive disadvantage in the area of "state-of-the-art equipment." Reps now generally feel that their companies have adequate systems and equipment, but say that these companies don't utilize them to their fullest potential and also lack flexibility in their use.

Maintaining a sense of corporate differentiation also emerged as a critical issue. Less experienced sales people said they needed help defining the uniqueness or USP--Unique Selling Proposition--of their company. Only 14% of all respondents registered strong agreement with the statement, "My company is clearly differentiated in the marketplace."

The chief symptom of failure to clearly differentiate a company is, of course, intense price competition.

Sales management issues also were brought to light in the survey. Only 56% of the respondents claimed to have been assigned a performance objective as part of their job. Further, just 57% said they had a written job description, and only 34% indicated that they had received at least one formal, written performance evaluation during the past year.

The sales reps who said that they had a performance evaluation overwhelmingly felt that these sessions left a great deal to be desired: only 11% strongly believed that their appraisals were fair, and almost half said they were not in writing.

Sales reports, meetings

With regard to sales call reports, only 32% of survey respondents said that they were required to file reports. Of this group, more than 40% failed to see this activity as a productive use of their time, or as providing management with the tools to in turn provide them with improved direction and support.

Many of the reps who viewed sales call reports as having little or no value believed that they could be valuable if conscientiously managed and used by senior management. Survey respondents had a more positive review of sales meetings.

According to the study, the preponderance of sales people saw their customer service representative as an important ingredient in their success. Such feedback raises another issue: the need to train the sales rep and the customer service rep to communicate with each other more effectively.

More than 80% of the survey respondents stated that they felt that their companies were sincerely interested in long-term customer relationships, and were generally responsive to extraordinary customer needs. Many of the reps said that they were occasionally required to do battle within their own companies to make things happen, but generally could overcome rigid internal systems and viewpoints.