When you're taking a look at your business' profitability, one of the factors to consider is whether your Principals and/or your Customers are generating a good ROI (return on investment).  Being able to track the ratio of earnings to time spent on these partners gives you a general idea of the success of your sales efforts and your profitability. 


We all have our favorites - favorite manufacturers and favorite customers.  These are the people who we feel most comfortable with, who appreciate us, and who we spend most of our time working for (manufacturer) or selling to (customer).  What we don't often do is check to make sure that the time spent is worth it - i.e. a good ROI.

If you were caught off guard by the Coronavirus and your company disaster plan didn't include how to deal with a health pandemic, you were not alone.  Even emergency preparedness agencies worldwide were not prepared for a disaster of the magnitude of the Coronavirus.

However it's never too late to revisit and revise your disaster plan or, if you don't have one, develop a plan.
  
In 2017 "Be Red Cross Ready with Disaster Planning" was written to remind rep firms to develop a disaster plan if they didn't already have one.  Although the business disasters discussed did not include a health pandemic, the basic steps for planning are still valid.

​When starting your plan, identify each type of disaster you could face.  One plan does not fit all disasters.  Make sure your written plan is clear and concise so everyone knows what is expected of them before, during, and after disaster strikes.
​

The first in the "CRM in the Pandemic Era" blog series, "Tracking New Guidelines", talked about the challenges facing on-the-road reps now that the economy and businesses are starting to re-open.  Step One was to implement or set up a disaster plan to navigate through the pandemic crisis.  An important part of your plan is to use your CRM System to keep all team members informed of the various guidelines set by government - local, regional, statewide, and/or national - and by each individual company in Phase 1 of the re-opening. 

Some areas of the country are now moving to Phase 2 of their re-opening plans and many of the guidelines from Phase 1 are changing.  Staying abreast of the continual updates can be confusing and time consuming.  Utilizing and sharing the information in your CRM system keeps everyone in your agency up-to-date on the changes.

Once you have captured the latest rules and regulations for doing business, you need to start tracking your contacts' preferences for communicating and doing business.

From the opening reception to the closing banquet this year's conference was informative and enjoyable. Over 350 attendees of PTRA’s 45th annual conference in La Quinta, CA soaked up the content presented by entertaining and knowledgeable speakers.  

Leading the way, Mike Rayburn, the keynote speaker, kicked off the meeting with a funny, musical morning around the premise of “What If…?”  Believe it or not, Mike, a world- class guitarist, played the Beatles set to country music and Dr Seuss words set to the music of Led Zepplin!  It was an uplifting performance as well as motivating.    

This wasn’t the only interesting presentation.  Curt Steinhorst, a widely known expert in communication in the age of distraction, helped us identify the distractions we face every day and offered ways to break through the noise.  Todd Bucholz, an economist, offered a political policy perspective on the economy – both in the U.S. and around the world.  And, as always, the Breakout sessions held on Tuesday were informative and well attended.
 
Congratulations to the PTRA Conference Committee and their hard-working staff for another successful week.
 
They’re already planning the meeting for next year, to be held May 2 – 6 at the Grand Fiesta Americana Los Cabos All Inclusive Golf & Spa.  Mark your calendars and watch for more information from www.ptra.org.  

Join the Power-Motion Technology Representatives Association (PTRA) at the La Quinta Resort & Club, May 7 - 10, 2017 for their 45th annual conference.  The theme this year is "Bridging Generations" featuring an array of speakers that will, if other years are any indication, make you laugh and arm you with ideas for making your business succeed.

As always they include opportunities for social networking as well as educational sessions.  The Palm Springs area will provide us with great weather for outdoor activities.

EYOND, Inc will be showcasing MRSware at our table outside the meeting rooms.  Please stop by to talk with us about your software needs.  What we hear most from reps is that they are using a variety of applications that don't "talk" with each other leading to extra work and poor communication.  See how MRSware can provide you with a single, central CRM + Sales & Commission Tracking application to connect your team for maximum efficiency and productivity. 

​​Please sign up, using the form below, to meet with us one-on-one to talk about your software needs or to do some training.

​Did you ever wonder how professional athletes can be so-so players for one team and then when they're traded to another team become stars?  It happens over and over again in the professional leagues.  So what's the secret?  I believe it's great coaching that makes the difference.

Most outstanding athletes credit their coaches with helping them achieve their success.  It's hard to see our own weaknesses, yet when someone else takes a look, those imperfections are clear to see.  With help (coaching), determination, and hard work the so-so player can become a star.

Do you have team members who are so-so players at their position?  When they were hired, someone (perhaps even you) saw something in them that would make them outstanding at their job.  What happened? 

In my post "Are You Ready for Climate Change", I talked about the assurance of change in our businesses.  I wish I could say that all change is good, but bad things will happen and we need to be ready to face these challenges.



The American Red Cross is noted for being prepared for any disaster.  In fact if you go to their website you'll find a Disaster Safety Library page, listing many types of disasters, everything from earthquakes to hurricanes to tornados to winter storms with links to "Be Red Cross Ready" Safety Checklists.

These checklists contain information about the type of disaster and 3 columns of recommendations:

• How to prepare
• What supplies are needed or actions to take
• What to do when the disaster is over

The plans are clear and concise, making sure everyone understands what to do should one of these events occur.

Just like when natural disasters hit, you should be prepared for business disasters that can destroy your company unless you've prepared in advance.  ​  

​
In order for a team to get to the NCAA Basketball Tournament they have to have a positive win/loss record. Teams need to know what it takes to win, and execute their game plan when it counts
- during the season, in the division championship, and all the way through the brackets to the Final Four and the Championship.


If you want to have a championship caliber rep agency you’ll also need to have a positive win/loss ratio, know the reasons why you’re winning (or losing) business, and execute your business plan when it counts.  Finding a way to track and measure your wins or losses is as easy as implementing a sales pipeline found in a CRM application, like MRSware.  

​Climate change is a hot topic now (pun intended), but ​the kind of climate change I’m talking about is not the one that has everyone loudly voicing an opinion on its existence.  .
 
The climate I’m talking about is the business climate in which we work and the change that is taking place. 
 


​About 30 years ago (when I was just a child) I was sitting in a conference room with 50 or 60 other reps listening to a speaker who was telling us that in 10 years 80% - 90% of our lines would be different than the ones that now graced our line cards.  You can imagine the reaction to that bald statement!

​We've seen the Golden Globes, the People's Choice awards, and the SAG awards, and soon the Academy Awards will be presented.  In the category of Best Sales Person of the Year, who would get your vote?

To get you started, here are some memorable roles that can help you define the characteristics of the sales rep that deserves to win the Oscar for Best Sales Person of the Year:
​

​- from your Principals – sales and marketing materials, leads, design and artwork requests, quotes, order confirmations, sales numbers, and commission statements
- from your customers, prospects, end users, architects, designers, engineers – requests for and results from sales presentations, demonstrations, training sessions, specifications, artwork, deliveries or warehouse pick-ups, and support.

Do you set yourself New Year's resolutions?  Do you have goals at work?  Are you more likely to attain your goals or your resolutions?  Take a look at the two images below to see the differences between resolutions and goals.  

No matter how good your intentions in setting resolutions, they tend to be just that - intentions.  That's why most people fail in achieving their New Year's resolutions.  

Goals are SMART and because of all the criteria needed to set goals, they are more likely attained.

So if you want to be more successful in achieving your desires in 2017, whether in your personal life or in your work life, try setting goals.
​​

Step 1 is to export the contacts from your iCloud account.  Step 2 is to run the Contact Import Wizard to import those contacts into MRSware.

These are the same steps as you would take to import contacts from any system that you might have them in, such as from Outlook, Gmail, etc..  However, iCloud only has an option to export the contacts as a single vCard, which is not very handy, and certainly not as handy as having those contacts in a spreadsheet (to potentially clean-up before import).

​This video (created by someone else) shows the steps to export your iCloud Contacts and get them into a spreadsheet format for ease of working with:

​https://youtu.be/gHnK9EMntos

This year's AIM/R conference was held in Squaw Valley, CA - home of the 1960 Winter Olympics - and it did not disappoint anyone.  Attendance was high with a record 61 First Time Attendees on hand - WOW!  The Board of Directors works very hard to maintain and increase their membership as well as the attendance at their conferences and it gets results.  

Although the outside air was a little cool - hard frost and fog every morning, warming to the mid 50's - the conference sessions were warmly received by all.  Great speakers were heard - everything from an economic outlook to the Affordable Health Care Act to business planning to increasing profits and sustaining a competitive edge.  The LOT (Leaders of Tomorrow) group had their own sessions which included various aspects of succession planning.


The highlight of the conference for me were the sessions led by AIM/R reps:
Kelly Michel presented "Best Practices in Website Development"  which was a very humorous approach to developing a website. He emphasized how helpful the images of jobs completed by his agency were in getting new business and demonstrating to his manufacturers his agency's value.
Colin and Hunter Fein discussed  "Best Practices in Technology"  offering what technology had been successful for them and providing the names of some applications that the audience might find useful.
Charlie Parham presented "Best Practices in Operations" which was a comprehensive program on how their company operates and what makes them successful.  He included all aspects of their business - customer service, sales, marketing, warehousing, and training objectives, measurements, reviews and results.  
Steve Elis presented "Compensation Plans that Work" sharing the compensation plan his agency has used for the last several years which has been extremely successful in increasing his business and retaining his sales people.  The plan contains two elements - goals for the team and goals for the individual.  A pot of money is built up and depending on the number of goals achieved the employees share the pot at the end of the year.


One of the major benefits of attending your industry's rep conference is to network and learn from each other.  The AIM/R reps who participated in this year's program were truly unselfish in sharing private agency operations in order to help other reps (including competitors) enhance their business and improve the overall professionalism in their industry.  Congratulations to AIM/R!  

During the MRA Seminar, there was some discussion about whether social media was an effective marketing avenue for manufacturers' reps.  I recently came across a video from Tom Griffin, CPMR, who is the Managing Director Catalyst Sales, Inc.  Catalyst Sales is a manufacturers' rep agency selling in the electronic components industry.  

Tom was interviewed about the subject of social media for reps and I thought you might find it interesting.  
Listen to the interview at: http://www.catalyst-sales.com/social-marketing-for-re-groups/

I'd be interested to hear of any other rep agency who's had success with social media.

This year's MRA Seminar examined the relevancy of reps today and what they need to do to preserve their competitive advantage.  If you weren't there you missed the opportunity to learn how to keep yourself current with technology and use it more effectively, how to sustain your value proposition, and arguably the most important benefit of any rep conference - the chance to network with your fellow reps.  

Below are the highlights of MRA Seminar 36:

In the first session, "Redefining the Independent Rep", Dr. Dan McQuiston, of The McQuiston Group, started off by asking a couple of provocative questions - "Does your customer really need you?" and "What are your customers looking for?" He also presented a comprehensive view of 

• the challenges facing reps today
• the 3 "C's" of a competitive strategy
• how to deliver value through meeting customers' "Silent Demand"
• what changes could be made to redefine yourself and your agency
  

Of major interest was a dialogue on the results of a two year study done by an ERA (Electronic Representatives Association) Task Force, called "Thriving on Change"*.  The Task Force identified four key areas rep firm owners need to address in order to maintain their competitive advantage:

• globalization and logistics
• economic, educational and demographic shifts
• dominance of the Internet and technology
• industry issues and market maturity

A lively conversation ensued - first by small groups where reps talked about one of the four topics, then by the entire group - discussing what is currently being done to address these issues, as well as offering potential solutions and/or actions for the rep owners to consider.  

Steve Turner, Turner Time Management, presented "Technology Update and Microsoft Outlook Techniques".  For any of you who have listened to Steve, you know he offers a wealth of information and tips for being more productive while using technology.   

During Steve's discussion on mobile technology options, Doug Nash, President/CEO of mobilegear.com, talked about some of the tools his company offers to make "road warriors" more effective.  (You also missed the great door prizes Doug handed out.) 

Ted Parisot, Informe, Inc,, reviewed digital marketing strategies.  Ted provided everyone with an overview of digital marketing - Outbound and Inbound - along with a template to use when planning.     

Needless to say, I was excited to see the emphasis placed on technology during the meeting.  I was happy to hear the group recognize the old adage "knowledge is power" and that the ability to create and consume information in real-time, should be a priority for businesses today.  They realize that reps will have to adapt and change their habits in order to incorporate the use of a good Customer Relationship Management (CRM) application in their daily routines.

Next year's seminar will be held in Las Vegas, NV late February or early March.  Hope to see you all there.

*  ERA White Paper - "Thriving on Change 2014: How the Field Sales Function Keeps Evolving "    

MRSware has the ability to show appointments from other calendar services you may use right along-side your regular MRSware appointments.  This can be handy for those of us that might also use other calendar services, or have mobile devices that automatically sync to other services when a new appointment is added.

In MRSware, click on your Calendar.  Click on the Calendar menu on the menu bar, and go down to the Show Internet Calendars menu option.  Before you even get started, you will see that there is already one entry in your list, "Google Holidays" -- this is where the holiday appointments that are already showing in your calendar are coming from.  

If you don't like to show Holidays in your calendar, you can turn it off right from here by unchecking the menu for it.  To add a new external calendar to your MRSware calendar, go down to the next menu option,Manage ICalendars.

It is a pretty simple dialog from the MRSware side, just asking you 2 things: what you want to call the calendar as it appears in the MRSware menus, and the link to the calendar service you are adding.  Of course, finding the link in the various services you may use is going to be the hard aspect...

I will give the Google Calendar instructions here, since this will be one of the more popular choices.  If there are any other services you would like instructions to find the appropriate link for contact us.

If you missed this year's PTRA conference in Albuquerque, NM, you missed an opportunity to hear great speakers and network with your fellow reps, not to mention learn more about the best CRM software package designed specifically for manufacturers' reps - MRSware!

PTRA always has great speakers, and this year was no different.  Some of the highlights for me were:

Mike Mulane's "Countdown to Teamwork" - Mike is a retired NASA space shuttle astronaut who used his experience with the space shuttle program to remind us of the importance of teamwork.  During his session, Mike talked about three areas of importance in teamwork - 

1. Normalization of Deviance - avoiding the lowering of your standards
2. Responsibility & Accountability - including the entire team
3. Courageous Self-Leadership - motivating yourself, with knowledge, to take yourself to the next level

With these three topics, Mike showed us the value of teamwork and how you can move your company and people to step outside their comfort zones to succeed in business and life.

Susan Sabo's "Office in your Car and Other Productivity Tips" - Susan's entertaining discussion included many ways to be more effective and productive in your personal and business life.  She shared ideas and tips on how to be more organized - at home, at the office, and in your car using gadgets, software, and low and high tech tools.  Throughout her presentation, Susan stressed the importance of setting up routines to help you stay organized leading you to be more effective and productive. 

Dr Michael Santo's "Selecting the Right People for the Right Positions" - Dr Santo discussed the differences between two types of testing tools - psychological tests and behavioral tests.  For hiring, Dr Santo suggested psychological testing is the preferred method.  Dr Santo presented five areas that are key predictors of top talent:

1. Influencing ability/Rejection Tolerance
2. Initiative/Stamina
3. Interpersonal ability
4. Problem solving ability/Decision making
5. Flexibility

Using only the old ways of vetting candidates for hire - resumes and references - is ineffective, but combining these with psychological testing you can find the right people for your company.

Alan Beaulieu's "Fiscal Reality" - Alan and his twin brother, Brian, are two of my favorite presenters.  They are informative and entertaining - not an easy task for economists.  I am lucky enough to hear about their research and predictions a couple of times a year at various conferences, and find they are always informative and thought provoking.  One of the interesting statistics Alan shared with the group was the percentage of the world's GDP for certain countries - 

• USA* 21.9%
• China 11.9%
• Japan 8.3%
• Germany 4.7%

* With the largest contribution to the world's GDP, the USA has only 4.5% of the world's population.  
Alan's overall tone was positive, saying even though wages, inflation, interest rates, and taxes were all going up, the next four and a half years were going to be good years economically.

With this small recap of this year's PTRA meeting, I hope you can see the importance of taking the time to attend.  It's really a priceless opportunity.  Next year's conference will be held in May at the Hyatt Regency Lost Pines Resort & Spa in Lost Pines, TX. 


I look forward to seeing you there. 

Imagine driving by your exit on a thruway because you were thinking about your next sales call or you were involved in a conversation.  Or can you imagine forgetting the name of the person you're about to introduce?  And how frustrating is it to spend 5 - 10 minutes looking for your glasses only to find them in on top of your head?  

Sound familiar?  I forget how many times I've been in these situations.  

Well over the weekend I read a great article posted on LinkedIn's Sales Gravy group  "10 Tips for Improving your Memory".

Obviously I need to work on my memory and will try all of the author's tips, but number 7 struck me as especially interesting.

Number 7 says you should write things down to remember them better.  The author goes on to say the pen is mightier than the keyboard for remembering.    

While I'm not going to disagree with what he says, I will say, those of you using MRSware's journals to capture and save your notes from your sales calls, don't have to worry about remembering details.  All you have to do is open MRSware and search your journals to find the information you're looking for

So, while it's always a good idea to exercise your brain and body, don't forget to take advantage of the memory aid you have available - MRSware.

It's hard to believe that we're already 6 weeks into the New Year.  If you've kept any of your New Year's resolutions, you're doing better than most of us.  I'm suggesting you make one more resolution and keep it - plan your sales calls.  

Over the last several years, most industries have slowed down, and therefore, the potential customer base for most manufacturers and their representatives has shrunk.  Whether this is due to mergers, acquisitions, or business failures, the result is the same - the remaining companies and their employees are looking to work with people who offer the most value to them and don't waste their time.

Regardless of whom who call on - a CEO, an engineer, an architect, a manager, a buyer, a sales rep - they have a large number of people who are vying for their time and attention.  How do you make the most of the time spent with your prospects/customers and become their go-to rep?

The answer is - prepare for the sales meeting by planning your call in advance.

Dave Kahle, a nationally known sales educator, lists 6 components to a well-planned sales call:

1. time spent reviewing the account profile and/or personal profile previously compiled on this customer
2. a set of objectives for the call
3. an agenda
4. a set of questions, prepared for the situation
5. a variety of "next steps" the customer can take as a result of the call
6. all the necessary material and collateral (literature, samples, etc)

Using the above criteria to plan your calls will take time and effort, but by using 2 MRSware reports - Contact Printout and Customer Snapshot - you'll save a great deal of time.  These reports contain the information you'll need:

• to review the company/contact profile which was previously compiled
• to set up your call objectives
• to set up an agenda
• to create a set of questions specific to the situation
• to create the "next steps" for the customer to take
• to gather the necessary collateral materials for the call

If you want to increase your success and become a valuable asset to your business associates, commit to taking the time required to prepare your sales calls.  You will find the invested time is valuable to your business partners, as well as yourself.

In my last post, MRSWARE's Opportunity Tracking was shown to be a versatile tool used by sales reps and managers for new leads and business opportunities.  We also have some customers using Opportunity Tracking to keep track of their bids.

Leads and bids are essentially different animals.  Leads are all about the sales process and efforts - qualification, presentation, specification, follow up, quotation, commitment.  Bids are all about meeting the specs and being the lowest bidder.  As a result leads and bids are tracked differently in Opportunity Tracking. 

Bids are a one time opportunity with specific products that have to meet certain specifications - product, packaging and shipping.  There's not a lot of selling taking place for a bid.  A municipality or state or school or hospital puts together a list of products that it needs and waits for the prices to come in.  Other than creating specifications that may limit your competitors, for the most part the lowest bid wins.  And while it's good to know what phase the bid is in, the close reasons are the most important - why you won or lost the bid.  Once the bid is awarded the sales person has to wait until the next bid opportunity arises to get the business.


When tracking bids, management can sort and filter by the type, by manufacturer, by dollar volume, by competitor, by close date, and by close reason.  This allows them to see and share results and trends with their manufacturers and customers.

New sales leads and opportunities are the life blood of any company.  Leads come from many different sources - marketing campaigns, current customers, trade shows, word of mouth, cold calling, telemarketing, and social media, to name a few - and are of varying quality.  Following up on these leads and keeping track of their status is crucial.

Manufacturers' representatives, as multi-line sales agents, face a unique challenge in regards to new leads and opportunities.  Not only do they have to follow up on and keep track of what's happening with each lead or opportunity, but they also have to report to multiple manufacturers about the status of their leads.  

It's not unusual for a rep agency to have dozens of leads, per manufacturer, after a national trade show.  Most of these leads have to be qualified and then the good leads are given to reps in different territories.  Once these leads have been passed on, each individual rep has the responsibility to report on his/her sales efforts - activities and results - for each lead.

MRSWARE offers Opportunity Tracking to help reps and management follow up and keep track of sales efforts.  
      

As business grows, it's harder to keep track of sales activities.  Managers often ask - Is there any way to search by sales rep to see a summary of journal activity and non-activity for that sales rep's customers?

For example: Let's say Sales Rep George has 25 customers.  I would like to get a "snapshot" of his customers with his call frequency. I.e., he went to ABC Supply twice but went to XYZ Industries no times.


In MRSWARE there are 4 ways to find reports on sales rep/user activity: 

1) Search Journals by User
To see a list of activities entered by a particular user, select "Search" → "Journals" from the menu and select the user from the "Opened By" selector.  You will probably also want to use the date range selectors to narrow down the results to a range you are interested in.  The search results are all journals matching your criteria.  You can look through the list, open any journals to read the details, sort, filter, and save the list out to a spreadsheet ("File" → "Save As").