How Management Can Create More Sales in the 4th Quarter

The importance of your delivery driver as being your best salesman: The impact of your driver or delivery personnel is more important than you might imagine when it comes to your business. With drivers delivering more and more items in today's B to C world, they seem to be at a premium and in demand, and rightfully so. In my world, it is not unusual to get more than one Amazon delivery just to my house daily.

Recent Podcast

In my recent podcast with Bob Natale, Laundry Consultant, this subject came up, and here are some of the takeaways. The link for my podcasts is https://www.hospitalitycleaning101.com/podcast/.

Whether your company has one truck or a fleet of delivery vans, management and owners need to realize their drivers' importance. In many cases, they are the company's brand identity face, and it's no longer the salesperson. See, fewer salespeople see their customers as much because of lockdowns, gas prices, and Zoom, for a few. So makes the formula, in many cases, your driver, your BRAND.

When a customer calls your office, do you answer with the same person who knows everyone by name, or is it voicemail prompts? Possibly that makes my point as the reason they see their driver as your BRAND. But, in doing so, you have the responsibility to have them in appropriate attire and professional image. Especially if you are selling chemicals or cleaning products, it's imperative. But then again, is your vehicle clean?

Key Points

In my recent podcast with Bob, we reviewed-

• The driver should convey a positive impression to all customers' business parties.
• Drivers can influence future sales with suggestions and recommendations at the actual point of purchase.
• If there is a backorder, it can be addressed immediately, and make sure a solution is in place.
• Have they seen any new construction on their route which resembles a business that would fit the persona of a new customer?
• A paperwork trail should be made out and turned in at the end of the day with the management with any issues they might have heard.
• Also, the driver can be trained to look for opportunities and let the customer know a salesperson will contact them later in the day. ( Hopefully, the salesperson or office follows up )
• If there is a billing problem, it can be communicated to the office immediately.

Now lets me explain there is a time restraint for all of this because the driver has a time limit that I am also aware of.

Let's now be accurate because the driver only has a certain amount of time, and we don't want them driving faster or breaking the laws on parking. So what can and should you do? The answer is straightforward: to pay them for their efforts. Rewarding their actions helps alleviate this, and it's a win-win proposition. They will find the time if they are compensated.

As Bob stated, you need not want to make drivers commissioned or paid for the complete order; however, they should make extra money for any new sales.

As any medium-sized companies try to grow their sales with existing accounts versus acquiring new buildings, the driver can recommend the end-user with a possible flyer or even drop off a sample.

Summary

The driver has a significant position, which is now more than ever. Therefore, up to their image with a crisp uniform, offer immediate compensation and bonuses, and your business will be rewarded for your efforts.

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Jerry Bauer
Hospitality Cleaning 101
Jerry@hospitalitycleaning101.com

Transcript

How Management Can Create More Sales in the 4th Quarter   

PODCAST INTRO: 
Welcome to “Cleaning Processes with Jerry.” This podcast is dedicated to building an online community of like-minded individuals and businesses in the chemical and cleaning industry. We're going to share some ideas, tips, solutions, and stories to solve problems and expand our markets. Please join me every week; we introduce a special guest that just might be you. I worked for ChemStation of Boston, based in New England. I also run the blog Hospitality Cleaning 101. If you ever have questions, feel free to reach out. We will answer on a future podcast if you'd like. At the end of the show, I will include my contact information.  

Today, we do not have a guest; I am doing this solo on a Sunday afternoon, before my favorite time of the year. Number one, it's Fall. Number two, it's the final quarter of the year for us to make our budgets, make our growth, make the company profitable and meet our numbers. What I'm about ready to share is just a personal viewpoint and not upon who I work for now. But what I have noticed in my last 40 years, the subject is about the fourth quarter, and it's for management and ownership to look for the biggest sales to end the year. I probably should do this same podcast in the last two weeks of December for some of you out there, who were management started playing games. In other words, they are asking for sales that are not what they're asking for things because they want to make certain numbers. I personally don't have that. However, I have been to it more than enough in my lifetime. 

Today, I'm going to turn the tables, I'm not going to ask what I need to do as a salesperson out in the field to create more business. I'm going to turn the tables on management and ownership. Again, this is no reflection on who I currently watch. However, I, like many of you, are receiving emails from maybe sales gurus you follow on LinkedIn, or maybe you've purchased their book, or maybe motivators turn off fourth-quarter sales and all the things you can do to meet your numbers.   Again, I'm going to turn the tables. I'm going to put this back on management and ownership. A while back, I guess it was March of this year, I did a podcast with Bob Natali laundry consulted. And we spoke about this subject for 5 or 10 minutes, what we're gonna speak about soon. And I've wanted to come back to this ever since, and now coming into the fourth quarter is the best time. It is, in my opinion, important, and I back up a second. 

It was Bob's opinion and mine that the importance of your delivery driver is your best salesperson. Now that takes a lot for me to say Page 2 of 4  because that would mean I would probably be out of a job. But again, I'll say it again, “The delivery driver working for your company is your best salesperson”. The impact of your driver or the delivery person is more important than you can imagine when it comes to your business. With drivers delivering increased items, in today's B2C and B2B world, they're at a premium and in demand. And so rightfully, in my world, that is not unusual to get more than one Amazon delivery just to my house daily. Whether your company has one truck or a fleet, or just a couple of delivery vans, management and owners need to realize their drivers importance. In many cases they are their company's brand identity is no longer the salesperson. See, fewer salespeople see their customers as before the lockdowns, and gas prices in zoom. That makes my formula, in many cases, correct that your driver is your Brand. When the customer calls the office, do you answer with the same person who knows everyone by name, or is it a voicemail prompt? That makes my point.   But in doing so, you have the responsibility to have them in appropriate attire in a professional image, especially selling of cleaning chemicals or cleaning products. Then again, is the vehicle clean? I worked for Ecolab, where I worked for one manager who demanded we get our car washed once a week. And at that time, I thought it was foolish. Today, I totally agree with it. How can you pull up in a truck or a van or car that's filthy, and you preach clean? The key points are the driver should convey positive impression to all the customer’s business parties. Frequently, the driver knows many more people within an account then I the salesperson. Drivers can influence future sales with suggestions and recommendations at the actual point of purchase. If there's a backorder, it can be addressed immediately and make sure a solution is in place. They don't have to call the salesperson, they don't have to call the office necessarily, they can start the process right then and there. If the delivery person says, “Well, that's not my job”, you have to compass where it is their job, we're going to talk about that a little bit as the driver is driving down the road. And they seen any new construction on there way which resembles a business that you would probably like to fit that would fit the persona of a new customers.   I recently sold an account and actually got credit for the actual delivery driver’s staff this truck went out and actually showed the potential customer. What do our fillable tank look like in the back of his truck? And we eventually got the business. It wasn't gotten by email blast advertising. It was gotten by the delivery driver taking next step. Now with that some type yet to make them responsible that some type of paperwork trail should be made. And at the end of the day, management has to know what's going on. Also the driver can be trained to look out for other opportunities, other items that can be sold. If there's a billing problem, it could be communicated to the office immediately back then. Let’s explain, there is a time restraint all this because the driver has a time limit that we all are all aware of. Now, let us be accurate because the driver only has a certain amount of time. And we do not want them driving faster of breaking laws on parking. So what can and should we do? The answer is straightforward. Pay them for their efforts, reward directions, pay helps alleviate problems. It's a win-win proposition. They will find a time if they’re compensated.   As Bob stated, the need not to want to make your drivers commissions are paid for the complete order. However, they should be able to make extra money on any of the latest sales. As a medium Page 3 of 4  sized companies try to grow their sales with versus acquiring new buildings. The driver can recommend the end user with a flyer or even drop off a sample. In other words, why do you want to create more stops when there's a value added already in existing accounts. There's accounts that I used to see monthly and I'm going to add my 40 year cliffs. Let's not offer this thinking about something I'm doing now. If I would see a customer once a month, frequently the driver would see them weekly, twice a month or also once a month. I believe the once a month has been now been pushed back to every other month, every third month because of, again, travel cost. People don't necessarily need you in our building. We become more acclimated to zoom is the driver who's the brand of your business.  The driver should never get position, which is now strong more than ever. Therefore, up there image with the crisp uniform. Don't have to do their uniform at home. Have a new uniform. Shirt, pants for them every day. Offer, there's a key word in this next statement. Offer immediate compensation and bonuses in your business rewards for [inaudible 00:10:34]. The reason I say immediate, “Many, many years ago, I was in a sales contest. And it took a year to get compensated”. Well, do you know a next time that supervisor came out with a sales contest. Do you know how many people participated? Zero, in fact negative zero. In fact, he called a Saturday meeting and made us off come in to listen to him complain. I went out back in it. It was the one who was guilty of it. He promised of spiff, he promised a little something extra, but he didn't deliver. Remember, you delivery personnel, they are the source point of contact for the customer. They are the face that greets the customer and they are able to sell products in order to deliver to them. The job of the delivery driver is to deliver the products to the customers. Of course, these drivers have to help maintain a high level of customer service while on the job. The key is to make them feel the receiving something extra and not just a package that goes for both the driver as well as the customer.   [Inaudible 00:12:06] years ago, we've just a UPS and this was even before Amazon where I work had a relationship with UPS driver. He knew everyone's names. When FedEx and other companies came in to try to get our business, we wouldn't leave because we have relationship with the drive. We didn't have a relationship with UPS Corporation, their billing department, I think the account rep who is responsible call once a year. With the rise of online shopping and the decline of freakin more retail stores, now more than ever, people are going to buy online. This has created a need for people to be able to deliver these products of course. Delivery drivers are responsible for delivering the goods from the warehouse to, of course, the end user. Here's the final key. “We know there's a shortage of drivers out here”. The number of delivery drivers is expected to grow by 30% in the next 10 years. I didn't say that salespeople are going up by 30% but drivers. The company's commission based sales force is responsible for assigning the company's products. It’s the diver who can push that home by helping with the ancillary items, the proper delivery in the suggestion of more line items. If you would look and your delivery driver, it’s something more than just a driver. I think you can increase your sales in your fourth quarter.   PODCAST OUTRO: Thanks for listening. I hope you enjoy today's podcast. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to reach out to me. If you would like your question to be Page 4 of 4  answered on a future podcast, let me know. If you would like to become a guest on the podcast and feel you have something to offer with cleaning or chemicals, the sanitation, please reach out. My email address is jbauer@hospitalitycleaning101. I hope you continue to listen. Please like, share, rate the podcast and share with others. Continue to wash your hands for 30 seconds. Have a great day and we'll see you soon.