I recently discussed the subject of hiring distributor sales reps with my good friend Deone Johnson, vice president of sales with Brissman-Kennedy, an AmSan distributor in St. Paul, Minn. With my past hiring experience in the janitorial supply business and Deone’s current experience, we came up with a few hiring insights that we’d like to share with SM’s readers.

These ideas should be helpful to anyone hiring salespeople in the jan/san business — or any other business, for that matter. In addition, these tips might even be helpful to those who are looking to be hired. Deone and I agree there are three areas that must be addressed and put in place for a salesperson to be successful in any business:

  • Product knowledge

  • Industry knowledge

  • Selling skills

So with that in mind, let’s proceed.

Here are a few questions you should ask yourself: Where can I find prospective salespeople? What type of experience can I expect to find? What kind of training will be needed for each specific new hire?

First, look within your own organization — these people are familiar with your company’s policies, fellow employees, customers and they might even have some product knowledge. These people could be from sales support, customer service, repair or equipment specialists. In fact, it could be people from any department who aspire to positions in sales.

Another place to search, of course, is within the jan/san industry itself — either on the supply side (inside or outside sales) or within the building service contractor sector (sales or operations). These folks will have some product and industry knowledge and probably some selling experience, but you’ll need to educate them on your way of doing things and on your specific products.

One important issue when thinking about hiring someone is cost of training. If you are up to your eyeballs in work and expect your vendors to do the bulk of the training, or all you have time for is to hand your new representative a roadmap and a candy bar with a “good luck, go sell something,” then you better find a very experienced person. In fact, you might be better off not wasting your money (it can be a lot of money). Don’t “hire and hope.”

Hiring requires a big investment of time and money, and you should expect an excellent return on that investment. As a manager, a big part of that return rests on your hands.

You must have a hiring plan set down on paper. How many salespeople will you hire, and over what period of time? What is your training schedule and what is your territory plan? What are your sales and gross profit expectations? These are a few of the very important questions you should answer before moving forward.

Be prepared to tailor your training to the person’s experience. For example, if you hire someone from within your organization, they will require more sales training and less operational training.

Someone you hire from within the industry might have product knowledge (though not necessarily of your particular products), but may need some help with industry knowledge and selling skills. Someone who sold to the same type of accounts that you do (industrial products to industrial plants) probably has many contacts that might buy janitorial products from your company. This person will need some education on your particular products, some industry insight and perhaps a sales refresher course.

In the next issue of Sanitary Maintenance magazine, we will cover Part 2 of this discussion — The Sales Interview: From Both Sides of the Desk.

To share your selling ideas, fax: (414) 228-1134, contact Mr. Dixon at (877) 379-3566 or e-mail.




POSTED ON: 3/1/2004