Company Reps

Company reps, we need them they need us, I do not dislike reps, they are ordinary people like me & you doing a thankless job covering many thousands of miles a year trying to sell their companies wares, They can be a great source of information and you can also have a friendly chat and moan about the industry as a whole.

I would not like to be a rep, loads of reports to do at home in your own time on a laptop, stuck in traffic for hours, and then being ignored or even dismissed when entering business premises whether looking for new business, visiting an existing business or evenly more importantly going into an existing business informing them of new products or promotions.

If your a rep & reading this you must be thinking wow what a nice guy this is, he actually understands what we do and how hard the job is for us, well I do but here is the bit I don't like. Mine and many other KBB companies have one person that has to have all the information because either they are the buyer, designer, MD etc.. or all of these put together.

So it is quite frustrating when I am sitting in my studio either designing or with a customer or I am at a clients home and a rep calls in, so I am unable to speak with them or worse still because I am not there they can only pass on a limited amount of information about why they have called.

So I think it would not only benefit their company, themselves and us the retailer that they should give us a day or two's notice as to when they will be calling, this way I am totally free to take in any info they put my way, they have not had a wasted journey and their company could see an upturn in sales due to the fact that we are more confident in selling the product on offer because we understand it better.

So I am not trying to put you off coming I genuinely want you to come & see me so your visit benefits every body plus we do a great cup of coffee and we are a good sounding off board.

I am sure there are a lot of companies that feel the same way, like  I said you do a difficult job so why make it more difficult.

Thanks for reading

Russell