Sales and Product Knowledge Training Program

Sales Process Guileline

Mat Promotion Training

Route Sales Promotion Guidelines

Our experience suggests that the best route sales promotions always have certain guidelines in common. Those guidelines can be summarized as follows:

• Your Route Service Representatives must believe that the product being offered will satisfy a long-term need for the majority of their customer base.
• The Selling Cycle needs to be week to week. Samples placed in the 1st week must consistently convert to rental sales in the 2nd week.
• Your Route Service Representative must believe that the Cost Benefit Ratio of offering the new product is in his favor. In other words, will my commissions earned exceed the additional time needed to service the account?

So as to insure that the Cost Benefit Ratio is viewed as positive, please consider the following tips for a successful contest:

• Select the product that will best assist you in achieving your goal. Both logo mats and anti-fatigue mats will prove to be excellent sources of revenue. I listed some of the advantages of each product:
• Comfort Flow Mats
• Multiple placements per account
• Easily sampled
• High degree of customer acceptance
• Value / Lease product is very profitable
• Custom Logo Mats
• No upfront investment
• High degree of customer acceptance
• Can be of source of new revenues if structured correctly
• Will provide a competitive advantage
• Establish a theme for your contest that is fun and that will get all service staff involved, and motivated.
• A kick-off dinner or breakfast will demonstrate to your staff that this promotion is special, and a promotion that management is firmly behind. Attendance should be mandatory, and you may want to consider inviting spouses.
• Make sure that you have the proper inventory levels prior to that start of the promotion. Relative to our Comfort Flow anti-fatigue mat, I would suggest a minimum inventory of 20 – 30 mats per route.
• Consider a sampling incentive of $1 - $2 per sample placed. This incentive will be paid on all samples placed, provided a certain percentage converts to sales. In other words, you may want to pay a $1 incentive for each sample placed, provided 50% of the samples convert to rental. A $2 incentive may apply once 70% of samples convert to rental.
• Full-time professional sales representatives and all levels of management should participate in running routes to assist with the promotion. As discussed, coordinate the routes so that you get the maximum benefit of your sales staff. You may want to consider scheduling 2-3 routes for each sales representative daily.
• Consider an accelerated commission structure for rental sales. Excellent promotions provide ongoing motivation for the length of the contest. An example, pay out a 3 to 1 commission for the 1st 20 mats rented; 4 to 1 for the 21st through the 40th mat rented; 5 to 1 for the 41st through the 60th...
• Incentives that may be referred to, as “spur of the moment” tend to provide additional excitement. Outstanding promotions provide incentives that are not expected by the Service Department.
• If your Service Department can be equally divided into teams, healthy competition will follow. Additional incentives can be paid when the team, and all members meet a certain goal.
• Post the results for the number of products sampled and sold by route. Keep the information updated on a daily basis. The results should be posted in an area that is highly visible for all to see.
• Insist on 100% participation from all members of your Service Team. Route Service Representatives that are not meeting their goal should receive extra training with their immediate supervisor and or a sales person.
• Finally, establish a Company Goal that is a “stretch” for all. When all team members meet their individual goals, and the Company Goal is met, additional incentives can be paid.