The Distributor Channel

The competition is trying to poach one of your top players. Another superstar is threatening to leave. Your top two are wrangling over territories and making the John Cena gesture at each other in sales meetings. It’s as bad as the recent NCAA drama. What’s a leader supposed to do? Well, there’s a lot you should be doing. Ensure your assigned territories make sense. ( See my previous blog post .) Align your compensation with your strategy and market. (That’s a future blog post.) Lead by example and behave professionally. (Hmm, let’s put a pin in that, too.) Enough of the shameless self-promotion, let’s tackle another aspect of leading salespeople to championship performance: Incentives and Bonuses. Salespeople are coin-operated. Not that other aspects of their role don’t motivate them, but money really motivates them. So does customer satisfaction, the thrill of the chase, and beating the competition out of an order. However, for now, let’s focus on Sales Incentives and best pr

For years, friends and regular readers of The Distributor Channel have commented they would engage more if Frank made his work available in an audible, on-demand format.  This would make for easy listening during windshield time or even mowing the lawn!   A few weeks ago, Jim Lucy, editor of Electrical Wholesaling, interviewed Frank at length for a new podcast episode.  The podcast covers Frank’s thoughts on new salespeople and since Jim likes to know more about leaders in our industry, there is also some random discussion.  Catch this episode HERE or anywhere you listen to your favorite podcasts!     BTW – For years folks have told Frank he has a face for Radio--might be true. ...

  Two weeks ago we posted part one of this interview on compensation with industry experts Desirée Grace and Andrea Olson.  Hop on to the second part where they discuss changing and dividing territories and how it affects your salespeople and customers.  Learn how to take the emotion out of it and avoid confrontation with both sides during this stressful time. Check it out HERE.

My grandmother was the Spring Clean Queen.  About this time every year, she began a process that lasted several weeks. She started with her carefully curated and revised list from the previous year, a habit she had maintained for over 50 years of housekeeping.  Since I was Grandma’s favorite, I knew precisely where she kept the list.  When I was eight years old, I thought about adding my younger siblings’ names to a couple of tasks.  Two things kept me from doing this – fear and common sense.   At the time, I did not appreciate Grandma’s plan, but as the years passed, I realized it was a great tool for maintaining clutter and keeping her small house crystal clean, especially for impromptu visitors.   I decided to apply the concept to distribution, as well as to my workspace.  Here are some distributor-centric fundamentals to consider:   Declutter the office : ·          One distributor we know holds an annual declutter day.  One Friday is devoted to throwing away the accu

Frank writes, rants, and pontificates thoughts about Sales and Selling for Industrial Supply Magazine.  The August editors of this publication told him to just share his ideas.  They said there would be very few rules so the sky's the limit.  Frank reported that while starting off mild, he plans to push the limits further on each subsequent adventure.  Check out his second attempt HERE .  We think he is still in control, but who knows what will happen in the future? This month Frank takes on the many definitions of "Targeting Accounts" while bringing it back to the basics. Before you go… there is a place to comment following the article.  This is the perfect space to compliment or condemn. Rumor has it, he loves hate mail. .

Check out DistrubuTED's video with industry leaders on compensation plans. Compensation is always a hot topic. Incentives play a crucial role in motivating employees to achieve their goals. However, it is important to strike a balance between being strict and being fair. By setting achievable goals and offering reasonable incentives, businesses can create a positive work environment where employees are motivated to perform their best. Desirée Grace and Andrea Olson discuss how to avoid the pitfalls many organizations make when incentivizing goals and why blanket programs can't work. Let's work towards finding the right balance and inspiring our employees to reach new heights!     Check it out HERE.