Progressive Distributor - 10 traits of great distributor salespeople

The 10 traits of GREAT distributor salespeople

by Richard Vurva

When it comes to hiring salespeople, most distributors follow a predictable pattern. They hire someone for a job in the warehouse, then put him or her on a career track that routes them through jobs in counter sales, customer service, inside sales and ultimately to field sales. It’s a pattern that has proved successful over the years, so it remains relatively unchanged.

The problem with that approach today is that customer demands have changed. They need their suppliers to provide more research and data analysis than ever before, focus more on processes and cost reductions than on transaction sales and, in many cases, serve as a single source for a wide variety of services and products.

New customer demands require a new type of seller. If hiring practices don’t change, it’s not likely that distributors will build sales teams suited to their needs.

“If people go about the hiring process the way they always did, they’re going to be disappointed,” says Kathryne Newton of Purdue University’s Industrial Distribution program.

“You can get myopic by only hiring from within,” she says. “If you want to gain the skill sets that other progressive companies are using, you may have to look outside your company.”

With that in mind, Progressive Distributor contacted distributor salespeople, sales managers, trainers and others close to MRO distribution to gauge their opinions on the most desirable skills and traits needed by successful distributor salespeople today. We sifted through their suggestions and then developed what we consider to be the list of top 10 traits of great distributor salespeople.

How do you compare?
If you’re in sales, how do you compare to the salesperson the profile describes? As a distribution sales manager, do you see these traits in the salespeople who report to you?

Some of the traits may surprise you. Others may seem obvious. You may even disagree on certain traits. Whatever your view, we hope the list proves helpful as your company tries to improve the level of its existing sales force or as you look to hire additional sellers.

Advice for interviewers
Interviewing job applicants without training in interviewing skills is a poor predictor of success, says Purdue University’s Kathryne Newton.

“If we don’t have training in job interviewing, we’re too influenced by first impressions, by people who talk a good game and who may not be able to actually do what they say they can do,” she says.

Before scheduling an interview with a sales candidate, sit down and develop a list of skill sets the job requires. Then, develop questions geared to reveal if candidates match those skills.

The first level of questions should relate to the job skills. Look for any experience selling or working with people in a customer service relationship. Also look for product knowledge or aptitude.

After that you might move to situational or self-descriptive questions. Keep them open-ended so you don’t lead the candidate. “What was a typical day on your last job like?” is a good open-ended question. How the candidate answers the question reveals what’s important to that person.

Targeted open-ended questions are helpful, too. The answer to a question such as, “Tell me how do you utilize your laptop computer, e-mail and other technologies to communicate with customers?” demonstrates if a candidate is comfortable using new technology.

Experienced interviewers use probing questions to go deeper and keep candidates from straying too far off the mark. One way is to ask situational questions. Here’s one that works well: “You’ve probably had a situation where you had an angry customer. How did you deal with that situation?”

“It may be useful to describe a tough territory, the kinds of end-users and the problems you’ve had in the past, then ask how they would deal with the situation,” Newton says. “You could even prep them a day early and have them make a presentation.”

Newton says it’s important to ask every candidate the exact same questions, so interviewers can make fair comparisons.

She adds one final word of advice: “Most inexperienced interviewers spend too much time talking. Research indicates that the more the interviewer talks, the more they like the candidate. A smart candidate will sit there and listen raptly while the interviewer sells the job. In a job interview, you don’t need to be selling, you need to be listening.”

A learning attitude. One of the traits that surfaced frequently in discussions with salespeople, their managers and sales trainers was a learning attitude. Some people expressed it as a salesperson’s natural curiosity to learn more that can help customers.

“Salespeople should want to know the customer’s equipment and processes, so they can better solve the customer’s problems,” says Tom Jobes, a former distributor from Fort Myers, Fla., whose company, Hands On Training, offers training to distributor salespeople. “This also applies to the salesperson who wants to educate himself further about the products his company sells.”

This curiosity should extend beyond the products and services the distributor sells.

Distributors must have flexible learning organizations that work in cross-functional teams, who teach and learn from each other, maintain open communications and achieve a shared vision of the future, says Peg Fisher of Peg Fisher & Associates, a sales and marketing consultant from Racine, Wis.

“To effectively contribute, all employees, including sales personnel, must assume personal responsibility to read, keep informed of industry trends and continuously learn new skills,” she says.

Multi-dimensional. Customers come in all shapes and sizes, so salespeople need to be flexible. They must have a willingness to build relationships with a variety
of end-user contacts.

“In distribution today, you can’t afford to just keep walking in the back door and talking to maintenance people,” says John Carroll of Unlimited Performance in Mt. Pleasant, S.C., which focuses on organizational and individual performance improvement. “Salespeople must be able to talk to maintenance people, purchasing people, plant managers. They must be able to talk to the CEO about how the things they do put money on that company’s bottom-line.”

Techno-savvy. “Salespeople cannot be afraid of technology,” says Newton. “When I started in training 15 years ago, outside salespeople were notorious for not wanting to do any computer training. You can’t do that anymore. Salespeople have to be willing to learn how to use computers on the road.”

Great salespeople utilize technology to hone their research and data analysis skills, says Fisher. They know how to gather information on sales and profits, products and services, competitive intelligence and market trends analysis.

“The information they gather through customer-focused probing helps them define, by account, sales strategies and specific sales call objectives to redirect sales activity,” she says.

Value time. “Once the car door slams, salespeople are on their own,” says Jobes. “The time on the road may be spent productively, or it may be wasted.”

Great salespeople are comfortable with using laptop computers, personal digital assistants, customer relationship management software and other tools that help them better manage time and information.

Inquisitive. “Great salespeople have customer-focused probing skills,” says Fisher. “Instead of making assumptions, they ask ongoing questions to identify changing purchasing practices, needs and interests today and in the future, areas of pain, problems and complaints. The goal is to define, refine and put one-on-one solutions in place.”

Integrity. “When I think back about the sales folks I’ve known, the best ones were the people who could establish rapport with the customer,” says Steve Luteran, industrial marketing manager for Trumbull Industries, Warren, Ohio. “They understand what the customer’s issues are and the customer feels they’re on their side. They can be trusted.”

Great salespeople set the tone of relationships early, says Neil Gillespie, president of Infinity Strategic Consulting in Pittsburgh. “They make it known how much they appreciate good performance from their supporting relationships, as well as how much they don’t enjoy poor, unresponsive performance.”

Adaptable. “Because of changing customer requirements, sales efforts have to change,” says Jerry Nichter, president of Orr Safety, a safety distributor in Louisville, Ky. “We’re looking at a much more sophisticated group of people with the ability to go in at higher levels in the organization.”

“The salesperson of the future may find him or herself making presentations at a higher level in the customer organization than is required today,” says Bill Purser, chief marketing officer for Applied Industrial Technologies. “Tomorrow’s salesperson will be required to establish relationships much higher in the customer’s chain of command.”

Adds Fisher: “Today’s customers are better educated, more informed and have more competitive options available than ever before, including new channels like dot-com companies. The winners will be those who can be trusted, on whose words and actions customers can depend, who work to achieve mutually beneficial long-range relationships vs. people who are one-time sales driven by a short-sighted commission mentality.”

The 10 traits revealed
What should you look for when you hire your next salesperson? According to distributors, sales trainers and other industry experts, here are the most desirable traits inherent in great distributor salespeople. A word to the wise: Don’t expect to see every one of these traits in every salesperson. But if a candidate comes along who holds a majority of these 10 attributes, don’t let that gem get away.

1) Integrity. It should go without saying, but we’ll say it anyway. Great salespeople are trusted by their customers, employers and co-workers. They fulfill all promises made, never divulge confidential or sensitive information and treasure long-term relationships built on trust.

2) Techno-savvy. Great distributor salespeople utilize laptop computers, e-mail and the Internet. In addition to using technology in their daily jobs, they’re conversant in technological solutions to customer problems, such as electronic data interchange, electronic funds transfer and e-commerce.

3) Great communicator. Even in an age when customers can log on to a distributor’s database and order products and services online without human intervention, people skills remain paramount. More than fast talkers, however, great distributor salespeople utilize multiple communication tools to effectively deal with customers, including face-to-face, telephone, e-mail, the written word and formal presentations.

4) Product aptitude. It’s true that services, not products, are becoming the key differentiators for distributors that want to sell on anything other than price. But product knowledge — specifically applied to help customers increase their productivity and improve their processes — remains a valuable skill of top-producing distributor salespeople.

5) Multi-dimensional relationship builder. Great distributor salespeople can break free from their comfort zone. They have a willingness and capacity to build relationships on multiple levels with customers, from hourly workers in the maintenance shop and production line, to the bean counters in purchasing and the suits in the executive suite.

6) Lifelong learner. Great salespeople have an insatiable appetite for knowledge. They take advantage of every learning opportunity. They learn their customer’s business, get to know their competition, and absorb knowledge from suppliers, trade associations and every available source.

7) Inquisitive. People who are naturally curious tend to ask a lot of questions. Rather than doing all of the talking, great salespeople tend to ask questions, then listen with genuine interest to what the customer has to say.

8) Adaptability. In an industry that saw few changes the past 50 to 100 years, change is beginning to come at a breakneck pace. Great distributor salespeople recognize emerging trends and are quick to capitalize on those trends that can make them more competitive and valuable.

9) Solution-oriented. Great salespeople understand that their existence hinges on their ability to solve customer problems. They keep an alert eye out for systems and processes they can offer to their customers.

10) Time manager. Great salespeople don’t procrastinate. They value their time, and the time of their customers, suppliers and co-workers, and budget time wisely. They have objectives for every contact they initiate and respond promptly to customer requests.