NAW National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors

Description

Let Restructuring the Distribution Sales Effort for Maximum Productivity guide you through the process from the traditional fully loaded salesforce cost structure to new salesforce models that promise higher profitability. The authors, Scott Benfield and Rich Vurva, quickly slice through the hype and black magic of sales performance and get down to science and hard math on making the salesforce work.

What Readers Have to Say

"I read this on a plane cross-country from Seattle. It’s good enough to read once…closely, all the way through. A serious read…nice combination of applied theory and research."

— J. Michael Marks, Principal and Managing Partner, Indian River Consulting Group

"For the electrical distribution community to become more profitable, we must change the way we do things. The changes you describe in your book are exactly the things that need to be done. We have all discussed them over the years. You have actually documented them. Now we must get on with it."

— Robert J. Reynolds, Chairman, President, and CEO, Graybar Electric Company, Inc.

"With both manufacturing and our distributors in the electrical industry spending between 40% and 50% of their supply chain costs on sales, Scott Benfield has taken on the tough, but essential task of reviewing possible alternatives to our biggest vulnerability. None of which can be ignored if we wish to remain competitive."

— Rick McCarten, Vice President of Supply and Distribution, Electro-Federation Canada

"Once I started… I couldn’t put it down. Chapter 8, ‘The Enterprise Sales and Sales Force,’ is just excellent!"

— Brad Thrall, CEO, Border States

"As always, Scott and Rich offer a compelling challenge to conventional practice in the durable goods distributor community. The book offers a great deal of food for thought and a meaningful way to look at one of the challenges faced by distributors today."

— Victor R. Jury Jr., President/CEO, Summit Electric Company

"Each chapter deals with a subject that is critical to successful distribution sales efforts. Descriptions of what to do are written in the language of distribution. I cannot think of a general sales approach that is missing."

— Warren Farr, President, Refrigeration Sales Corporation

Extended Description

Did you know that inside and outside salesforces are 30-40% of the typical distributor’s operating expenses? What’s more, research has shown that many distributors can’t answer the following questions, with supporting analyses, about their sales efforts:

1. How do we measure sales productivity and are we becoming more or less productive?
2. How many inside and outside salespeople do we need? On what accounts should we deploy them?
3. Are there different ways to deploy outside salespeople for different tasks that would make them more productive?

Restructuring the Distribution Sales Effort for Maximum Productivity answers these questions with actual distributor examples.

The authors quickly slice through the hype and black magic of sales performance and get down to science and hard math on making the salesforce work. Use this comprehensive book to

• teach your sales managers, branch managers, and executives to be concerned about productivity and why it is essential to profits
• find out how to allocate salespeople for better productivity in geographic salesforces
• learn about six alternate models of outside sales and how to use them to enhance productivity
• review the four models of inside sales and how to know the number of inside sales personnel you need
• read the latest research on cataloging, telesales, and e-commerce and learn why most compensation changes don’t work.