Friday, February 27, 2009

My sales reps

I love most of my sales reps. I even enjoy talking with reps that do not work with my business. Actually, some of my favorite reps in the industry, I don't even do business with!

I was in the process of writing a thank you note to the boss of reps that I had dinner with at market. I then realized, I'm not really sure that he is their boss. I swear I think he is, but I'm not sure. So do I send this letter anyway? I hate to e-mail the guys and be like "Hey who is your boss?" I seriously need a chain of command on the website.

Industry chains of command are notoriously complicated. I have a good friend who when we were in high school would ask me what his Dad's position was, because as a retailer, I knew. As his son, he never knew.

The big problem is we have 24590834 Vice Presidents in this industry. There are VP's that mean something, and others that just have a title. That is confusing. People tend to ask "You are the VP of...?" To which I usually reply "The whole thing. I'm the only VP."

Hopefully, the National Sale's Manager and National Product Manager's thank you note should go to the VP & GM. (Thank GOD I keep an old conference guide in my desk, because I couldn't have told you what they did until I looked it up. It is pretty much the who's who of the industry).

To sum this up, if you are repping for someone, make sure your contacts know who your boss is. Especially if they are the kind of person that will use it for more good than bad.

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