A Q&A with Profit & Productivity Summit conference speaker Mike Marks
Mike Marks, the co-founder of Indian River Consulting Group, believes distributors need to stop weighing field sales reps’ time down with administrative work.
Instead, distributors need to rethink how they can better use their resources to drive greater sales productivity.
We sat down with Marks to learn about how sales productivity impacts distributors’ profitability and productivity. He previewed his session at our upcoming 2024 Profit and Productivity Summit for Distributors.
Distribution Strategy Group: When it comes to sales productivity, what do distributors struggle with the most?
Mike Marks: The most valuable thing a field salesperson can do for you is call on a major customer of your competitor and disrupt their supply chain. They then choose you as their supplier of choice.
That is a non-recurring effort that creates a long-term recurring revenue stream. It’s very powerful. But there’s so many things that get in the way of a field salesperson doing that because they’re expediting, they’re sourcing products, they’re apologizing for warehouse mess ups, they’re doing clerical work. I mean, it is nuts.
We’ve thrown everything at them.
DSG: Why do they need to prioritize sales productivity improvements?