Being a Good Soldier
You have another new regional or national sales manager— and the person is a rep’ s worst nightmare. Whether it’ s your largest line or a basic bread and butter line, what should you do?
Your first instinct may be to push back. Maybe just a little. Perhaps flex your relationships with senior management a bit, or remind them they don’ t have authority to terminate your contract. After all, you are really irreplaceable and this person needs to find out who is top dog. Well, you may be irreplaceable, or you may be married to the owner’ s offspring, in which case save yourself some time and stop reading this article.
However, if you are a highly paranoid rep like me, I suggest you read on and most of all, ride out the storm.
© michaeljung | stock. adobe. com
What should you do? Do what reps do best, make this person your friend and build a solid working relationship. You may not feel vulnerable today, but someday your sales numbers could fall off for reasons beyond your control, or your senior management contacts might be the victim of a management shakeup. Then your introductory selfimportant attitude could come back to haunt you.
When the new regional or national sales manager comes on board, be the old dog who learns new tricks. Just because you always did it your way doesn’ t mean that new methods from the new sales manager wouldn’ t bring in some new commissionable sales.