The Well Oiled Sales Machine

You might remember that old commercial that
categorized people into spenders and savers.
Then it made a liitle joke calling some couples
"spavers." There's some smidgen of truth in
that commercial.

After working in sales for a couple of decades,
and for several companies before I started my
own, I can tell you there are two kinds of sales
management, spenders, and savers, and we
used to call the savers "cutters."

It is always better to work for a spender. Spenders
make sure you get the materials you need, pay for
a golf outing, a dinner, whatever it takes to get the
job done. Cutters do the exact opposite, and make
it doubly difficult to do your job.

To give you an example of a cutter, I offer the
following story. We once had a company dinner at
a restaurant that was also one of our accounts. The
executive VP left a 5% tip after running the wait staff
hard all night.

(Mostly to get his drinks.)

Salespeople threw all kinds of money on the table
to cover his extremely low tip. This isn't how you
treat a long time account, but he saved on the bill
by shafting the staff.

He argued about expense reimbursements, and
once threatened to fire me over a $300 Christmas
gift to a very large and profitable customer. The
net profit on that single account was over $350,000.
I told him where he could place those papers, and
I never heard from him again about that issue.

Four years into his tenure he got fired, because
sales had slipped.

He was followed by a spender.

The first year sales rose 40%. The second year
the same. When I left they had never failed to
trample the previous years budget.

Salespeople made plenty of money and no one
argued about expense reimbursement.

If you want to be in the sales game you have to
pay the freight necessary to win the game, or
you're just grandstanding.

When I first started this company I flew to Los
Angeles on a moment's notice just to talk to a
guy who had a big title. It was all gut instinct. I
landed that account within 30 minutes of arrival,
and I still have it today. When I landed it, it
became my biggest account. Today there are
several accounts larger, but that one in the
beginning was crucial to my success. I often
wonder whether the old VP of Sales would
have approved my trip.

And the answer is, probably not.

That's why I have my own company.

From the big saddle,

Jim Whelan
The Chairman of the Board

P.S. Is anyone in Hollywood going to move to Europe after this election?

thejamesrwhelanagency.com
206 407 3124