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Stick To Essential Sales Tools With Veteran Sales Reps
BY Jonathan DePaolis
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This is the final part of our three-part article about teaching older sales reps to embrace sales technology.
Wendover believes boomers are good at the initial wave of technology, but changing trends can take a while to learn. And technology changes quickly.
鈥淭o some degree, we鈥檙e all dealing with this tidal wave worth of 10 billion applications we鈥檙e all supposed to know,鈥� he says. 鈥淎nd you have to be able to pick through it.鈥�
Wendover points to several things as essential to learn: Microsoft Office applications; social media sites like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter; video-sharing services like YouTube and Vimeo; and the ability to navigate manufacturers鈥� websites so sales staff can send helpful links to customers.
Fortunately for distributors, because so much of today鈥檚 social interaction happens online over some of these applications, Cadell says he has seen an easier transition for sales reps who already use these technologies in their personal lives.
鈥淲e鈥檝e kind of reached a point in society, in general, where some of the medium platforms that are being used to get in front of a customer on the business side are some the same identical platforms that have been working on the at-home side for a long time,鈥� he says. 鈥淎t this point 鈥� it鈥檚 just the norm; it鈥檚 everyday life.鈥�
In Cadell鈥檚 estimation, it鈥檚 worth training all sales reps in new technology, regardless of age.
鈥淚t鈥檚 always worth investing the time,鈥� he says, 鈥渂ecause once you get them going [in technology], you never know what they are going to find or where their network will go.鈥�
A buyer may suddenly retire, only to be replaced by a Millennial that would prefer to do everything digitally. It鈥檚 even quite possible that a shift in philosophy or staffing reduction on the buyer鈥檚 side could necessitate a change in the way the distributors sales rep interacts with that customer. If the sales rep is already tech savvy, the relationship can remain in tact.
鈥淲e鈥檙e finding that so much more is happening right now via email and text message, because businesses are being asked to do more with less still,鈥� says Cadell. 鈥淭heir employees are tasked with more things to try to do. The walk-in and having a 10-, 20-minute or hour-long conversation days 鈥� or even having phone conversations that are longer than 15 minutes 鈥� are becoming a thing of the past.鈥�
That makes social media and digital avenues, as well as a voicemail here or there, a good approach.
鈥淏lending a good sales technique that has all of that is a good way to keep that customer,鈥� says Cadell.
Jonathan DePaolis is a freelance writer based in Tinley Park, Illinois.
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