brighterisbetter
Flashlight Enthusiast
Greetings fellow CPF'ers. Here's my dilemma. My corporate office in Minnesota late last year terminated all of their outside salesforce in hopes of focusing their time/monies toward an email blitz and inside sales effort, about building better relationships with customers through phone contact and other means by our call center - having a "sales agent summary" if you will. At first while in shock by their move, it's proven to be wise in a sense. Sure, my competition hired up our laid off sales staff and they're now working against us, however we've experienced a 10% sales growth through the first quarter and just had our strongest February in company history.
So...the point. We have one remaining outside salesperson company wide covering the territories I sell to out of KCMO area (Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, some of Oklahoma), and I work with him on a daily basis, sometimes in person and sometimes when he calls in from the road. I consider him a personal friend and he is in fact the one who landed me my job here with the company 10+ years ago. I'm now being pressured by corporate to give insight from a local level to them whether in my mind I feel that his salary is justified or not for what we "get out of him" so to speak. Or, would that money be better spent on other sales methods (viral marketing, location specific branding, etc). I'm seeking advice from experienced business people in the CPF community on what to do. I have a conference call this afternoon after hours with the higher-ups and it sounds to me like the decision whether to terminate or not rests not entirely on my shoulders/feedback, but a high percentage of it at least. Should I overlook my allegiance to this person and look at the bigger picture? Should I speak on his behalf and attest to how he's a forward thinker who has the company's best interest at heart? I'm torn and really hate being put in this situation. Yes, I feel he's an asset to the company. Yes, I feel sometimes that money could be spent elsewhere to mix things up. Can't have both though.
Please respond with helpful insight.
So...the point. We have one remaining outside salesperson company wide covering the territories I sell to out of KCMO area (Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, some of Oklahoma), and I work with him on a daily basis, sometimes in person and sometimes when he calls in from the road. I consider him a personal friend and he is in fact the one who landed me my job here with the company 10+ years ago. I'm now being pressured by corporate to give insight from a local level to them whether in my mind I feel that his salary is justified or not for what we "get out of him" so to speak. Or, would that money be better spent on other sales methods (viral marketing, location specific branding, etc). I'm seeking advice from experienced business people in the CPF community on what to do. I have a conference call this afternoon after hours with the higher-ups and it sounds to me like the decision whether to terminate or not rests not entirely on my shoulders/feedback, but a high percentage of it at least. Should I overlook my allegiance to this person and look at the bigger picture? Should I speak on his behalf and attest to how he's a forward thinker who has the company's best interest at heart? I'm torn and really hate being put in this situation. Yes, I feel he's an asset to the company. Yes, I feel sometimes that money could be spent elsewhere to mix things up. Can't have both though.
Please respond with helpful insight.