Question for Sales People

[GemmaUK]

We do kind of have a salesperson and admin set up but we end up with a high end sales guy and a sidekick who does some sales but a lot of the admin - there is also back up on hand at all times. Plus always the option to have another department manage it as a project.

 

In response to the other replies, as I mentioned before, we have all of that back up.

The particular person having this issue this week is the sidekick and mostly does admin and makes maybe only one sale per month of his own of low value.

[TaraMaiden2]

In response to the other replies, as I mentioned before, we have all of that back up.

The particular person having this issue this week is the sidekick and mostly does admin and makes maybe only one sale per month of his own of low value.

 

Late to the discussion, and I am in retail, so take this with copious quantities of sodium chloride, but - draw him a diagram.

I'm serious.

Some people learn better by reading and repetition (My H) and others like drawings and illustrations to absorb information better (me).

 

When I studied Shiatsu, I had to naturally also study Traditional Chinese/Oriental Medicine. There are several complex aspects regarding different 'Elements' which control different organs, paired with associated organs as Yin and Yang....

 

Argh. Written down and read, it was too much for my apparently inadequate brain...

But when I took each 'Element' and illustrated the different aspects pictorially, it all fell into place and made sense....

 

Sometimes, it's not WHAT you're trying to convey, that can confuse.

It's the 'how'....

 

Just my 1 pence....

[GemmaUK]

Late to the discussion, and I am in retail, so take this with copious quantities of sodium chloride, but - draw him a diagram.

I'm serious.

Some people learn better by reading and repetition (My H) and others like drawings and illustrations to absorb information better (me).

 

When I studied Shiatsu, I had to naturally also study Traditional Chinese/Oriental Medicine. There are several complex aspects regarding different 'Elements' which control different organs, paired with associated organs as Yin and Yang....

 

Argh. Written down and read, it was too much for my apparently inadequate brain...

But when I took each 'Element' and illustrated the different aspects pictorially, it all fell into place and made sense....

 

Sometimes, it's not WHAT you're trying to convey, that can confuse.

It's the 'how'....

 

Just my 1 pence....

 

Love love love this idea!!!

In the type of business I am in this is also going to be really easy to do!

 

Thanks Tara, and don't dis yourself at all. We all have different ways we understand things. I don't care how I get there. I just care that they end up getting it because it will make all of their communications quicker and easier once they have it down.

[TaraMaiden2]

Cool, I'm glad it helps!

 

If only the entire scholastic education system recognised this, we'd have fewer SATS tests and better results, I'm sure!

 

Good luck, hope whatever you do, works!

[GemmaUK]

Well, we now have all of the invoices for this particular project.

All of them have been added to our finance system incorrectly by our Accounts Payable Manager and all looked to be making a loss.

Any loss makers she should query but she hasn't done that on these 30 odd invoices.

I spent my entire morning reworking it all, splitting out costs where they should have been coded differently and coming to a correct margin with just a few residual queries to speak to the younger sales guy about.

He also showed me a spreadsheet he is putting together for future sales and I got him to arrange it differently based upon your suggestion.

Once he had re-arranged it all he 'got it'!! Yay!

It's all laid out with simple wording and merged cells to make it idiot guide clear but I now know he has got it because each time he says 'revenue' he also says 'sell to the customer' and each time he says 'cost he says 'buy price' from the supplier of 'xyz' and he looks at me as if to ask 'right?'

The spreadsheet is now the closest thing you could get to a picture but only using words.

 

Thanks Tara! I owe you one! :

[TaraMaiden2]

No, you don't. Good Sales People work together, and share ideas. That's how progress happens.

 

Really glad it worked well.

 

25% share of the net profits will do nicely.....

[GemmaUK]

25% share of the net profits will do nicely.....

 

Um...yeah, I would split it with you - there would be plenty!

 

Seriously, thank you!

 

It helped a lot. Simple idea that I had not thought of which is precisely what I was after!

It will be used again...I will see if I can get us some commission.. :

[GemmaUK]

So, this has been an interesting few weeks..

 

The management of the project has now been taken over by a young lady.

She sent a file out which she didn't understand which was compiled by Mr Sidekick.

She is very very new to the business and was under instruction. She is pretty unconfident at what she is doing right now as she has only been with us for 2 weeks and has never worked in Sales at all.

 

Mr Sidekick ignored the easy spreadsheet and used his old version, he also went to another sales person for help with the margin calculation - and they won't tell me who they went to for that help.

The margins were all wrong. Every single one.

 

I asked the new young lady if she was confident in working out a margin she said 'I think so...is it revenue, less cost divided by revenue multiplied by 100?'

Spot on! Off the top of her head. She knew the margins were wrong on the spreadsheet but went with Mr Sidekick as he is her boss and insisted it was correct.

 

She has reformulated everything, it's now all very clear and concise, we all understand the document.

 

I need to speak to Mr Sidekick when he is back from sick leave.... He had a wisdom tooth taken out and has been off sick for the past 6 working days so far due to it. Hopefully he will be back in on Monday.