The bigger tire firms restrict the dealers not only to a narrow profit margin but sell through countless distributive outlets, including their own stores. This further depresses both prices and profits. We, however, gave the independent tire dealer territorial exclusivity. We made sure the salesmen understood this.

But that still wasn't enough. The retail salesmen had been selling the well known tires so long, they had forgotten how to sell. Our client was an unknown name and the technical advantages of its tires were hard to teach to the salesmen.

We recognized that we had to conduct more than the usual product training and indoctrination program, and we had to do it fast. First, we wrote up some specific tire case studies that incorporated professional selling skills. Then, instead of having cumbersome meetings, we did the unusual. We rented a large van and outfitted it with video training equipment.

We drove from store to store in our van to do our motivational training. We found that the salesmen had been reluctant to commit their reputations to our product because they were weak on its technical advantages. We wanted them to have solid selling techniques backed up by sound product knowledge when they faced prospective customers. We wanted them to have the reeling of successful experience even if it was in a role-playing situation.

We spent more than an hour with each salesman going over the technical details, going over the sales cases we had written, and role-playing selling tires to each other and putting it all on videotape right in the van.

Then the salesman would review his performance and analyze it. After that, we erased the tape. We did that because we wanted the salesman to feel secure. Letting his boss see the tape would have only made the salesman anxious. And that is something you don't do to your best customer.

All this was long, hard work. We put thousands of miles on our van, traveling from one end of the country to the other. Why? Because those salesmen were our best customers. If we could motivate them, build their confidence in our tires sell them then they would sell the product. Essentially, this is what you do with your best customers. Removing the impediments to the sale is the first job of a company. And that first impediment is your salesman's reluctance to sell or his salesmanship deficiencies.

Further proof

Here's another recent experience of ours that points out the value in treating your salesmen in the same way as you would your best customers. Our client was a large distributor of steel, industrial hardware, electrical appliances, and plumbing supplies. Each salesman had a geographic territory and sold all lines. Our research showed that the salesmen were skimming only the surface of potential sales. Their sales line was too broad for any one salesman to be fully versed in all the products. So, instead of dividing the line by category and then having different salesmen call on each firm, we did the opposite. We divided the salesmen according to a specific kind of account steel mills, coal mines, contractors, and so on.

Soon we found we were getting deeper penetration in each of the lines because we were "market targeting." The more a salesman knows about a specific user/customer, the more he sells and the happier he is in his job. This approach enables salesmen to suggest new lines and pare the customer's inventory of lines he has less use for. Company profits and salesmen commissions increased markedly. Moreover, each customer felt that our salesmen were now experts in his industry. He was confident that our salesmen had the solutions, not just the catalogs.

What we did was to implement the attitude that our best customer is our own salesman. By targeting our sales strategy according to specific markets, and making each salesman an "expert" in his own area, we gave the salesman benefits and advantages just as we try to give to customers. Everybody comes out ahead.

Industry's best customer

There are many reasons why industry isn't terribly happy about salesmen. They cost money to maintain, they complain a lot, they sometimes inflate their expense accounts. But salesmen are the ones who move the products to the buyer, who make the sales that keep industry solvent. Yet, if industry wants high profits, then it must motivate its salesmen to an above-average degree.

One of the best ways of doing that is to treat the salesman the way he treats a customer. The salesman does not treat a customer as if he were an employee, and neither within reasonable limits should industry treat a salesman that way. He is the vital link between production and profit. If you do an excellent job of selling the salesman on your products and on ways to sell them better, he will almost inevitably do an excellent job of selling to customers. That's why I say that industry's best "customer" is the salesman, and he should be treated accordingly. Get him sold and you can sell the world.