It’s been nearly three years since the music world lost perhaps one of the greatest drummers in Neil Peart, who succumbed to brain cancer in January of 2020 (an omen of things to come that year, for sure). At the time, we related his story and included an anecdote related to the quest for constant improvement (you can read it here).
Without repeating ourselves too much, Peart was a prime example of a performer at the top of his game who nonetheless felt his skills had stagnated, and sought out a mentor who could help him regain the touch that made him legendary and catapulted his band, Rush, to unprecedented levels. It’s the key takeaway that bears an underscore: If someone who is largely at the top of his/her game believes there is room for improvement, learning and refinement…well, there’s no reason for any of us to feel we are above seeking out tips, tools and different methodologies that can take our game to the next level.
In this week’s State of the Industry report on sales, we asked our dealer panel what programs and training sessions they have employed to help account representatives elevate their performance in the field.
One of the few positives to come out of the pandemic was the opportunity for dealers to leverage downtime by significantly increasing and modifying its training sessions to become highly affluent with not only print devices, but also workflow and all the ancillary options that connect the dots with the modern office. One such dealer was UBEO Business Services of Austin, Texas, which sought to emphasize the importance of going deeper into existing accounts in not only workflow but production gear.
According to President Jim Morrissey, UBEO fortified its intranet set with a comprehensive set of learning materials, and the dealer has taken an on-demand approach to training. The company has five levels of training: Formal classroom work with a dictated curriculum agenda; a consultant on retainer who is well-versed in social media; bi-weekly success stories shared from fellow reps; on-demand materials; and sales-led follow-ups from the intranet.
“This has really become a phenomenal tool for us, post-COVID,” Morrissey noted.
Wealth of Sources
Electronic Office Systems of Fairfield, New Jersey, doesn’t lack training options. Its president, Andrew Ritschel, has 42 years of sales acumen under his belt, and the firm’s sales manager has 20. That has opened the door to plenty of mentoring opportunities, and on top of that, the dealer offers videos, guest speakers, books and other options, accentuated with questionnaires to help gauge the reps’ ability to absorb the materials. A lot of emphases is also placed on manufacturer instruction regarding products and services.
“We want our reps to work hard but work smart,” Ritschel said. “We ask them to work Monday through Friday, 8-5, but in order to do the job effectively, they really need to work 50 to 55 hours. So there’s a lot of work on their own time. But we provide them with all the tools they need to be successful.”
Uniformity in a sales program’s approach is of the utmost concern to Tim Renegar, president of Kelly Office Solutions in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. With the most recent iteration of the dealer’s program, its three branch managers went through it prior to the reps, ensuring that the managers are reinforcing the same processes.
“It has yielded pretty dramatic effects, because we had some older and newer reps that were all used to the style they’d been following,” Renegar said. “Now it’s consistent across the map. We’re doing document management and ancillary products training, simply because we want [the reps’ to go deeper and wider into their accounts. What they learned is going to be reinforced and tested, and we’re doing a better job of it now.”
Hired Guns
Just prior to the pandemic, Strat Systems in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, hired a business development coach that works with the dealer a week each month. The guru covers communications training, sales, people development and coaching, and President Brent Simone believes the move was fortuitous in light of what the world was about to endure.
“I feel fortunate that we had that in place before the pandemic, because [the coach] has helped a lot with keeping people’s heads right in today’s world,” Simone said. “It’s been interesting to see.”
Contracting a coach has also proven beneficial for Pulse Technology of Schaumburg, Illinois, and has supplemented the dealer’s internal program. CEO Chip Miceli turned to Sandler Training, a global organization that mentors more than 50,000 reps each year, to provide one-on-one instruction on a weekly basis.
Coaching tips and advice from Pulse reps who have a lay of the selling land also go a long way. “We strongly believe in and practice mentoring, with more seasoned representatives helping a newer team member, especially in his/her early months with us,” he added.
Some dealers, including Usherwood Office Technology of Syracuse, New York, employ a trickle-down training method. The company hired an outside firm to train its managers on a different methodology, which was then shared throughout the sales staff, according to Don Foley, vice president of sales.
“We also have our Usherwood boot camp and take advantage of the training that manufacturers offer,” Foley added.
