- Building Relationships for Sales, Equals Better Business.
Take the time to prepare your sales team. It is important to know which retailers they have a relationship with and how experienced they in fact are. How long they have been in business and do they have a good reputation. Sales reps work under your direction and expect to be paid for their work on your behalf.
Understand before they take your samples to a trade show how orders will be taken and in what quantities or dollar amount. What do your sales reps expect of YOU! Sales reps are let down by manufacturers not shipping the orders they have worked hard to write, which will also result in no payment of commission. Plus, and this is a very important point, the relationship that your sales team has worked hard to build with a retailer is ruined if the manufacturer is unable to meet the orders or have not lined up funding for production. Manufactures must understand their responsibilities to their sales team.
What should both parties do to prepare for market, how to direct sales, orders and the VERY important follow up. The sales and manufacturers partnership is a team that should be understood.
