Alright, rebuttal time:
Great responses everyone. Mattf, I appreciate your opinions and agree with some of your points regarding the responsibilities of a sales rep. I don't agree with the courier idea for delivering proofs. This is one of the few times your company gets to put a face in front of the client, and the last thing you want is a tattooed ex-con with bad breath and a hangover delivering proofs for a $20,000 print job. Wait a minute, why would a pressman be working as a courier. LOL, Man, I kill myself sometimes.
Oh you got me there, love the pressman reference! The wierd thing is, the company I work for now, all the pressman are actually pretty straightforward dudes.
Granted, courier isn't the best way to send off proofs to customers. However, if you want the sales team to get new prospects you need them to actually go out and find those prospects. Driving back and forth between customers to deliver a proof might not be the best utilization of their time. Granted, I worked at Hasbro for a short time and they only do overnights for their proofs. Granted, their printing location is in Hong Kong while designers are in Rhode Island, but thats another story for the campfire.
If you want them to continue selling, then what is another alternative on how to get proofs to customers without taking up the sales reps time? If courier isn't the best option, how about PDF proofs? Or maybe next day mail? Or maybe have just one person be in charge of delivering proofs to the multiple clients. There is always another solution, which one is the best is up to you.
Clearly, our problems stem from a lack of Sales Management. We have 10 sales reps, but only 2 really keep our doors open. However, even they haven't brought in a new account in over 12 months. The other reps are quite content with their draw, and as long as their internet connection doesn't drop, they consistently put in about 4 hours a day. Damn that 10 - 2 grind!
Clearly we have come to a point in my own experience that has not seen this type of mismanagement. If only 2 sales reps keep the doors open, fire the other sales guys. That's an extreme of course, but seriously try and see how much sales each has brought in. What was the total cost of materials and OSP for their jobs? What was the total overall cost of the jobs? What was their profit? Whats their value added amount and percent? These are good tools to use in order to figure out who is actually bringing in the good money.
Quick example, the sales rep in our company that makes the lowest amount compared to the rest has actually the highest value added. So even though he made the least in terms of sales, his jobs made the most money when compared to the total costs.
Regarding motivation, I believe in "peace through force", so I support "prosperity through force". If a rep can't bring in one new account per year they lose 1% of their total commission. Two years without an account = 2%. If after three years they can't bring in a new account, we block access to youtube.com via firewall and prepress gets their parking spot. Four years without a new account gets you a transfer to the bindery department. I know this sounds harsh, but how many years could any of us underperform and still have a job? (Congressman excluded) I'm convinced that if I screwed up two jobs in one week in prepress I'd be rollerblading burgers at Sonic by the weekend.
Fear is a great motivator. Fear makes me double check my work. Fear makes me pay for insurance I never use. Fear makes me floss. Fear makes me monogamous. Fear makes me wear a seat belt. Fear makes me remember my wedding anniversary. Fear makes me invest for my retirement. Fear makes me get anally probed annually. (Oops, too much information.) Well, you get the idea. Fear is the driving force behind everything in life! So, come on, let's inject a little fear into our sales staff! Who's with me?
In regards to fear, it is a great motivator, but it is also a great way to get people to make mistakes. If you want to get rid of some of your sales staff, I'd suggest pushing fear on them and soon enough they will make a mistake. Is this the best way to address the problem? Probably not.
One good way for them to understand is just talking with them. Tell them like it is, no flowery speech or anything like that. Just down to the nuts and bolts so they can understand. IF you don't bring in money, the company has no use for you. That isn't fear, its straight up reality.
In terms of sales, they can do what they like as far as I am concerned. Just as long as they are bringing in the sales its ok. Potentially for each quarter you could make a benchmark for each sales rep to reach. If they don't make the appropriate sales amount, just keep track of it until the rep starts to show a future liability issue. Then you need to make the choice of either helping him/her to get out of it or just canning them. Thats all there is too it. No fear, no motivation, just straight talk (not a McCain reference) that anyone can understand.
From my own experience, our sales team keeps as many clients as they can and do research into trying to enter into markets that they believe are key areas of interest for the company. A lot of times it works and sometimes it doesn't. At the end of the day though they all have their specific clients they have had that keeps them going, and thats fine. If they keep bringing in the work all is well.
You mentioned a lack of sales management, that might be a next step to go forward on. Have an individual manage the sales team to push for new clients, continued sales and no messing around. Direction might be the best idea for this group, not fear mongering. We know how that ended up in politics, shouldn't be the case with printers!
