Sales Rep 101 – Chapter 29

Always Watching

I have been in sales for over 30 years and I have seen this happen time and time again. I know most sales reps don’t really think about how this can affect them and their sales but because I’ve seen happen enough I think it is important to at least discuss the topic. I live in city of about 130,000 people. Not a huge city but big enough to access to most everything you want to do. But also small enough to run into people you know. It is amazing how many times I will see someone that looks so familiar but I have no idea where from. That’s because it is easy to see the same people especially in the same part of town that you live in. I say that but at the same time the grocery store that I use is a mile away from me and I know the same people have use it but I go to the store 2 or 3 times a week and nobody looks familiar. Isn’t that crazy?

When you are in sales you see people all of the time. And sometimes you will recognize customers but more often than not they are just someone that looks familiar to you. However, your customers on the other hand will always remember you. Whether it was a good experience or a bad experience they will remember. So why is that important? Because sometimes sales people are a little different than typical people. We might be a little loud or a little too outgoing for people. For example, I used to work for a company that had a team of about 15 sales reps. Half of them were in there 20’s and 30’s and liked to go out after work. And to be honest they sometimes would make complete asses out of themselves. So you may be asking what this has to do with anything. Okay fine…I will get to my point. The point is that sometimes your customers see you outside of work and they remember who you are.

And if they see you do something stupid or act like a fool they may be less willing to refer people to you. And that is a big deal. But on top of that you still represent your company outside of work. And if someone recognizes you and knows you are sales rep for a certain company that can have a negative impact on other sales reps on your team. Let me give you a real life example.

Years ago I worked in the Yellow Page industry and we had a pretty big group of sales reps. And we would travel to different areas to work that territory. We had a group that liked to go and cause trouble sometimes after work and every year we came back to that territory people knew we were back in town. I started to realize that some of my customers were not thrilled with my fellow sales reps and it started to have an effect on my sales. I could tell that they were less willing to listen to all of my ideas I had for them because of who I worked with. I was not part of that group but they knew that we worked for the same company. I had good relationships with my customers and for most of them it was not a problem. But for the customers that did have a problem it affected my income and that pissed me off.

So my point is that when you are in sales you need to assume that someone is always watching. Is that fair? Probably not. But it is just a fact of life that people judge others fairly or unfairly and that can have an impact on your team.