There are some good sales people and then, there are some very bad sales people. In my work as a national sales manager, I was blessed with a crew of middle of the road reps around the country and in the midst were a couple of really, really bad ones.
The factory I represented at the time was geared for materials used in sterile areas such as operating theatres, chip manufacturers, research centers and other similar institutions. The presentations were critical to the validity of the products and many hours of research were needed to figure out where to find your clients, who were the most important people to contact and not to forget any critical contacts.
I made appointments with several facility managers and asked the local rep to accompany me as a learning/teaching time. She agreed; until she found out the first appointment was at a research laboratory. She refused to get out of the car because she was opposed to medical research.
My first instinct was to ask her why she was representing manufacturers who provided materials to such places, but I held my tongue. She stayed in the car as I met with the facility manager of the laboratory and answered his questions. The meeting lasted about two hours. After discussions were finished, I left the lobby and found myself without a ride back to the city. The rep had left me on my own.
I called a cab and went about the rest of the day using his services until he drove me to my hotel at the end of the working day. I arranged for a rental car for the rest of my stay in the city and left several messages with the rep asking her to call me and straighten out the situation.
At the end of the week no answers from the rep came forward and I left town, with positive outcomes from the meetings I had arranged. Orders for materials were to be sent directly to the factory and in turn this rep was to benefit financially from my work; I had to terminate her contract immediately.
After all the paper work was in place and the contract cancelled, she called and apologized for the misunderstanding we’ve had and asked to be reinstated, to which I declined.
I went back to the city and organized a few meetings looking for a replacement rep and found one who was not only capable, he was not opposed to working with sterile area managers or research facilities. He proved to be an asset to our company and our business.
I know being an independent rep is difficult work. Not knowing from one month to the next where the rent money is coming from or if there will be enough money to put gas in the car to see clients, can be exhausting and depressing. Good reps know how much their efforts will bring in financial rewards month-to-month and bad reps have excuses at the ready and are always asking for more time to get the job done.
Sales people are to be commended for their work as they hear the NO answer too often to count; they continue to do their work regardless of how many negative answers they receive and they are rewarded not only financially but also by being recognized by their peers.