"Sales and Marketing Management in the Distribution Industry"

One of the biggest observed problems of the sales manager has been, and continues to be, the conversion from sales representative to administrator. As a result, the roles of the sales manager as administrator and as a manager of people are thoroughly analyzed.

Some of the topics covered in this sales and marketing management training program for wholesale distributors are:

• Personal and departmental planning.
• Developing, monitoring and managing accurate sales plans, and understanding their importance to overall business plans.
• Implementing alternatives to the "best guess" method of budgeting.
• Understanding the P&L statement, and learning to objectively manage sales related expenses.
• Organizing, training and documenting the performance of the sales force.
• Designing effective, results driven compensation programs.
• Market analysis and strategic planning for wholesale distributors.
• Product management, and it's role in the strategic planning process.
• Penetration driven flyer and promotional support.
• Strengthening working relationships with brokers and manufacturers.
• Conflict management (within the sales force, between departments and within the customer base).
• Coaching skills (the adult educational process).
• Managing morale.
• Recruiting, selection and hiring.

But most important, particularly for consulting clients, is the ability to manage the plan from the "Distributor Selling Skills" sales training workshop to increase the overall profitability of the organization. Ongoing monthly planning tools are introduced to follow-up on the plan developed in the territory sales training course.

It also provides answers to many common sales management questions. Including:

• Can we minimize turnover of sales reps in their critical first two years? If so, how?
• How do I get sales reps off of the payroll and on to commission as quickly as possible?
• How do I teach my sales reps, sales managers, and product specialists, what I know to be important, without resentment from my employees?
• How do I manage and monitor my sales managers in an objective way, and how do I reward them for a job well done?
• My sales meetings are a grind... are there ideas to make them more productive?
• Since this course is a logical extension of the sales training workshop, how do I manage all of the tools presented in that program on an ongoing basis?

Participants should include, district sales managers, general sales managers, and senior sales and marketing management personnel, and the general management team.

Course background

Frankly, working with sales managers is my first love. Early in my line career, I had been promoted to a management position without any training, and I had always wished that someone had taken the time to teach me what to do.

This program comes to market as two very distinct products. It's one day version is freestanding, but is generally used in a consulting environment to be sure that the sales management team knows what it's doing. (See the email I received from a company that was referred to me on the homepage. It was used with them.)

In it's one day format, it's just a hands on, hard skills workshop to teach good people who didn't have a lot of training, to do their jobs.

In it's two day format, additional material is added, and case studies are added from my work with distressed companies.

This version is generally taught with several to many companies in attendance, so it's something to think about as a breakout for national meetings, or in a regional format.

It's a great learning environment. In our two days together, a case study is presented periodically, there is a spirited discussion as each team analyzes and presents their conclusions to the group, and then it's followed by the answer to the case study, and lecture material to increase their skill level on the topic.

Often, material from this course, is combined with purchasing and marketing topics to create a custom program to fine tune a "perpetual motion machine" between the product mix and the customer base. It is generally used in a consulting environment, but can be a freestanding program if requested by a client.

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Management consulting, time and territory management training, territory sales training, sales management training, purchasing and marketing training, and broker and sales agent training, in the wholesale distribution, foodservice distribution, and manufacturing communities