career path progression

[Nameless1]

We have just started a new company distributing electronic components to the SA market; and I'm in the unfortunate position of being in charge of sales and marketing!! AAAHHH!
Well anyway, we hired a lady to see to our day to day office needs; answering the phone, making coffee etc etc. So while I'm out on the road selling myself, she is in the office taking care of things. But as time has gone by I noticed that she is very much at ease in chatting with customers as she comes from a retail environment. She knows nothing about electronics, or anything technology related but gets along well with the customers; and I suspect that she can build some solid relationships with certain customers...especially the female buyers of companies that have similar interests as she does.

So I made a decision and decided to make her visit customers that she feels comfortable with; and get them to start buying from us. So her first day of training starts today, and I am going to give her a basic overview of basic electronic components....but where does one start?? I cannot go too in depth with theory...maybe just visual identification of what each component is I guess.
Anyone been through similar situations? where you can see the potential in someone and want to grow that potential against odds in a tough market?

 

[ericgibbs]

hi,

The 'junior' reps I have seen [either male or female] have been accompanied by a 'senior' rep on their first calls to a company.
There's an old saying ' you never get a second chance to make a good first impression'.

By watching and listening they pick up technique as well a techo knowledge.
It also breaks the 'ice' with a regular customer and gives him the feeling the seller has 'continuity' with his company.

In situations where a 'junior' has called on me and cannot answer a query they have used their mobiles to call head office and allowed me to speak directly with a more experienced rep. If not, they note my query and say the will get back to me, which they must do.

There is nothing worse than a junior rep trying to waffle his answer, be honest and say I dont know, BUT I will find out.

I am answering your post from the clients point of view.

 

[Nameless1]

session one: training complete

So we went through Capacitors and Resistors. I forgot how many different types of capacitors you get!!! haha
Gave her homework for the weekend, now I know how my old school teachers used to feel. The sadistic (*#$&@(*#!

Thanks Eric, I've scheduled some more visits with her as well. But I do feel quite proud of myself in giving somebody knowledge that they can use to empower themselves in a totally new environment.
I miss being the customer though

 

[ericgibbs]

You could buy her a high spec mobile phone [cell phone in RSA] with web browse features and web pages etc on a PC back in the head office.

As they say, 'the jobs OK, its just the damned customers who are a pain in the butt'.

 

[Salgat]

Look into an intro electronics course at a community college. It's only 4-5 hours a week and is a good long term investment for knowing the basics. Trust me, customers appreciate those who know what they are doing the most.

 

[Mikebits]

Look into an intro electronics course at a community college. It's only 4-5 hours a week and is a good long term investment for knowing the basics. Trust me, customers appreciate those who know what they are doing the most.

Although community colleges are common in the U.S and offer a low cost learning institution, I am not so sure they are prevelant in SA. I could be wrong though.

 

[Willbe]

As a rep, don't do this. . .

HP came to sell us one of their glitch catcher computer diagnostic machines. I asked them how they define a glitch (since it wasn't in the literature, anywhere). Neither the junior or the senior salesperson knew.

And, if you call a sales prospect to set up a meeting to pitch your stuff, and he asks why should he meet with you, you should not act like a deer in the headlights.

 

[Andrew Leigh]

Hi,

Skilled people in S.A. are hard to come by. There is to some degree an expectancy that this is the case and people do make allowances.

I have technical people who sell, I have non technical people who sell. Both do well but in differing environments. One of the keys for me with selling is to focus on who your "target" is. Don't send her into design engineer, it is not fair to both parties unless she is equipped to find the answers quickly, PDA?.

Build her confidence, if you are up to selling to the more demanding / discerning customer then split the customer base accordingly. Product knowledge can be acquired but if the right attitude is not there up front STOP now.

Selling is a skill that many do not appreciate, it is more difficult than many would admit. Service , service , service is the key. The internet can be used to get most information but the thing we all want the most is to be "loved, appreciated, understood and treated like we are the most important" in no matter what relationship we are in.

Remember you hired a "girl friday" not a salesperson. You may be extremely lucky in that you have a diamond in the rough? Who is going to look after the office when she is out? Your costs look set to increase so if she is on the road then she had better start making money to pay for the new girl friday.

If you set up mobile offices you could improve effectiveness.

Remember you can't control what you can't manage. Salespeople need to be highly disciplined, it is all too easy to goof off when nobody is watching. This is why salespersons are incentivised, to ensure that while you are not watching them that their commision is providing a motivator.

Start her on commission right from the get go, you will soon see if she can cut it.

Cheers
Andrew

Are you competing with AP and Mantech?

 

[Nameless1]

Skills Shortages

I have to say that, in my view a possible reason SA has a skills shortage is that career guidance is virtually non-existent. There are tons of people in careers that they are not passionate about and wished they were in a different line of work. Most of the time they probably wish they were in an engineering discipline. This is my opinion just based on the variety of people that I know, imagine how many more people there are out there? Opinions anyone?

What I like about moving this young lady onto the road is her self discipline and passion on where to take the company. For now there won't be much front office support, but its a risk I'm willing to take. First thing this morning was her asking for more training today. Maybe electronics is her calling, think at the end of the training I should ask her to build a flip flop circuit using a 555 timer.

We are more targeting the big 3 distributors