1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184 
Bitter taste of broken trust
Page 66
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Trust is important, bu Jason Hamer suggests you should still keep tabs on your sales people
Good sales people are like gold dust. Essentially they act as your 'shop fronf,encouraging companies to part with their hard earned cash. Loyalty and honesty are qualities all business owners desire from all their staff; in the sales area they are critically important.
Sometimes it can take years to build a strong bond. That's why it might seem a good idea to take on a family member or a friend, assuming they have the necessary skills. But we've all heard tales of friends or even family who have taken advantage of an employer's trust — and family feuds are not exactly unknown in the industry With drivers the harm that can be done is pretty limited. A surly attitude will soon be reported back by clients: illegal running will show upon the offender's tacho charts and in either case the firm will soon recover its goad name —assuming you take the necessary steps to put things right.
But when you send someone out to drum up new business you really need to know where he or she is, and what they're up to.
I have previously touched on West One's vehicle tracking policy and its positive benefits. In the case of a salesman this technology could give you advance warning that things are going awry.
For example,while you assume your new star salesman is out and about on your behalf, he might simply be spending his days in the bookies, in between telling you how tough things are out there.
The tracker will at least warn you when to start asking those pointed questions. But as we all know, in an industry as cut-throat as ours, laziness and incompetence are not the worst sins.
Out on their own
I've known of cases where salesmen did indeed put in the miles to visit potential clients The problem is they weren't doing it on their employers' behalf. Instead they were preparing to launch their own businesses while taking a wage packet and travelling expenses under false pretences.
It's disloyal of course —not to mention illegal—but proving ii could be difficult.
So as well as tracking technology you'd be well advised to require your salesmen to keep records of every visit they make, successful or not, which will allow you to check up on them if things seem to be going wrong.
I trust my employees: trust is essential in any successful business. But it must be earned by employer and employee alike and fitting a tracking system to any employee's vehicle should not affect his attitude if he is loyal to the company and doing his job correctly. So next time someone contacts you selling a service you might begin to wonder whose car they are driving, who is paying them... and where the buck stops if you need to rectify a problem.
• Fingers crossed, 2004 looks to he a good year for all of us in road transport-I have no doubt that the government will throw some problems at us but with hard work the right staff and touch of luck, thi future's looking bright.