ТЪРГОВСКИЯТ ПРЕДСТАВИТЕЛ – ДИНОЗАВЪРЪТ на новата епоха!-част 2

SALES REPRESENTATIVE – DINOSAUR of The New Era – Part 2

For introduction to the article, please click here.

For part 1 of the article, please click here.

Part 2

THE CONSEQUENCE

The New DINO – a new biological species in modern distribution

And so he was born…THE NEW BIOLOGICAL SPECIES – this small embrio ironically happened upon the best for his development incubator – the decade of the rise of distribution of goods – from the beginning of the new century to the beginning of the crisis…

THE INCUBATOR

Since the beginning of the new century the distribution in Bulgatia started rising:

• A lot of representation agencies of worldwide famous manufacturers and brands were created
• Many Bulgatian companies started importing goods from all over the world
• Some of them got official rights for import and distribution across the country
• The national distributor companies emerged on stage
• Some of the regional traders grew and expanded to local distributors
• Almost all store houses from passive type of selling (waiting the clients in their houses) turned into active type of distribution (selling on the spot for every client
• Trade departments developed in technology – new mobile devices for trading were introduced – Visor, Palm, Hand help, etc.
• A new trader’s toolkit was introduced as an instrument for increasing the capacity of manufacturing – all trade representatives got into new cars, owned mobile devices, some of them gathered applications with laptops.
• Internet stepped into organizational models in retailing and many companies started processing applications for execution to their storehouses right after the sale (after the trade agent walks out of the store). This helped for optimizaton the deadlines for delivery, equaly dividing the work in storehouse-operational niches, decrease the mistakes in execution of applications, etc. etc.
• Manufacturers and importers discovered the power of the “sales force” machine and opened their wallets, aka. their marketing budgets and started activating promotions, activities, focuses, targets and etc. trend termines with one simple goal – increasing the sales and higher market share.
• The employers established more motivating bonus schemes, raised the profitability and created working conditions which could have been considered unthinkable 5-10 years before for the previous generations od Dinos.
• The consumption of FMCGs proceeded increasing every year. Users developed as purchasers and consumers and in less then 10 years grew from the low price class products to products from premium classes in some categories.

Long story short – trading was successful, business expanded, companies developed and invested. The sports atmosphere tempted everyone and horizons looked as “one foot away.” The atmosphere of conquering approach was dominant and in some companies people even believed that they are on a “crussade.” The most beloved and most used words were “goals, turnover, volume, numerical distribution, execution, indexes,” etc. If the company needs a new region, that’s O.K. – we hire a new employee. The company needs more clients, that’s O.K. – we hire a new employee. We introduce new products, that’s O.K. – we hire new agents. We conduct promotions, that’s O.K. – we hire new people. We open seasonal sales, thats O.K. – we hire new people…

Trade departments grew for months, not years…

And this was the incubational environment of the embrio of the new Dino. Still war from the baking oven, barelly an adult, Dino saw a great percpective – to walk around dressed in a nice shirt and pants, to drive a new car (no matter if it’s a “two-door” or a “dog-carrier”), to possess an officiary phone (which is even without a limit), to meet people all day long, and on top, to be paid a good deal of money. And if this was not an incubator, what other was!

Given the fact that the country was in a high demand for working hand, Dino quickly realized how important modern distribution was – he believed that the new factor was the modern market. And, as in other fairytales, Dino became more and more complacent! He decided that he does not receive enough money, that his new car does not suit him, that he deserves a promotion, that the whole business depends on him and more and more ignorant self-deceptions, from which the result became a fact – the second wave of Dino-migration occured. The changes in companies and positions became a matter of professional behavior. If a Dino did not change his working place for a whole year, then something was wrong with him. The employers, in their desire to develop their business, invested as crazy! They invested in material actives – cars, busses, facilities, halls, installations. They invested in technologies – devices, software, systems for management of sales and clients. They invested in architecture and organizations of the structures themselves – offices, divisions, departments, subordinate levels, reporting systems. And in this feverish activity they compromised with Dino and all of his brothers. They used to hire people with no qualities for a particular occupation, they tickled their whims, they agreed with the low level of professionalism, and most of all, they did not invest in HIM – Dino – the new biological species, who hust appeared to be the new professional generation.

And so Dino lived, day after day, up until…

“THE CLASH OF THE TITANS”

The crisis stormed in and distinguished Dino’s pink everyday life in all of its aspects and varieties. Consumption decreased, people came back to consumption of less in both quality and quantity products. The turnover of stores decreased (drastically for some categories) and they, in return, started decreasing demans. Many of them stopped working with a large part of their previous assortment. Distribution quickly reached its level of unprofitability. Some of the clients and/or routes Dino used to have turned uneffective for him. Fuels continued increasing, and his income kept decreasing. The working day expanded, and sometimes continues over the weekend. And so, slowly but inevitably, Dino moved to the other side ot the distributional picture. From pink ignorance and a routine of serving the region, mixed with having coffies and nice conversations with colleagues and friends on the route, he was pushed into a dark desolate cage in which from one side there were his bosses yelling “NOT ENOUGH PROFITABILITY” and on the other his clients yelling “NOT ENOUGH CLIENTS.” And he had to sell. Can you imagine what he had to do?! SELL!!

He used to hand catalog around! Now he was forced to do trade presentations! The important thing was to receive the application. A lot of new prospects that had acquired his phone from a common friend used to call him before, but now he had to look for them on his own! Up until now he did not have any problems with diesel or gasoline. Now he had to walk from time to time and he could surely not go to his parents with the car for the weekend. He used to take applications on the phone, and now he had to visit store after store and desperatly negotiate for every item, for every single order from the application. UP UNTIL NOW! HOW ABOUT NOW?

Up until now was easy. Dino realized that now came the hard part!  The market was no longer the same, clients changed, many of them realized their mistakes and stores grew more and more difficult to conquer, like a fortress. Retailers became stricter and whimsy. Manufacturers became rigorous and more demanding.

DNA ANALYSIS

The level of competency of Dino’s skills had not prepared him for such problems. Dino knew a thing or two about introduction of products (because he was often stimulated for this) but did not know how to manage their turnover. He knew how to sell with promotions, but he had no idea how to invest promotional budgets and how to determine what type of promotion was the best for a particular object. He knew how to give stock, but did not know how to control the payments of his clients and gather the money on time. Dino knew his products perfectly but did not know the needs and specifications of his clients’ business. He knew his way around in sales (in terms of “offering”)  but did not know a thing about trade (in terms of “selling”). In short, Dino appeared in his highest form of incompetence in the conditions of a difficult and complicated market and even more difficult clients in it.

The most common working style up to date did not work anymore. Dino was forced to think which clients were worth the effort (and how much of it) and wich were not (and until when). He realized that there was a huge difference between the “product story” (telling the client a story about how great the product is) and “effective trade presentation” (which now engages the client into a purchase). He turned out unprepared for a plethora of objections from clients like “I do not have clients,” “The turnover is weak,” “I have enough goods right now,” etc. He even understood that he could not do a simple calculation of what the losses of the store were from stock defficit (lack of stock), so he could regulate the availabilities. On top of all, when a client said that he wants 5 pieces of a particular stock, and Dino noticed that he needed 10, he did not know how to convince him with an argument that he needs 10 instead of 5. Not to mention the cases where Dino had to calculate the critical points of profitability before a promotion or level of turnover of invested money after promotions.

Then Dino and his brothers sat down and thought over everything they knew and everything the market needed but they did not knew. They wrote it all down on a piece of paper and named it “DINO-DEFFICITS”…

…to be continued in Part 3…

Visit our practical workshop:

THE SALES REPRESENTATIVE – THE POTENTIAL OF MODERN DISTRIBUTION!

The workshop will take place on the 20th of May 2011 (Friday) from 9 AM to 4 PM in Sofia

For more information please click here.