WEST SIDE STORY

If you were looking for the Jets and Sharks, I’m sorry.

This West Side Story has to do with a rep I worked with that had more than just a little trouble finding his way around his territory.

I was out on the West Coast and was asked to work with a rep for a day. With all my traveling around, there are not many cities I haven’t been to, however in all but a few cases I don’t know my way around the city at all. I usually see the airport, a taxi, and a hotel in each city I go to. Not exactly an in depth knowledge of the area. The city I was working in with this rep was no different.

The rep picked me up at my hotel right on time at 7 AM and we went for a cup of coffee so I could get a feel for what he had planned for the day. He gave me a good briefing on each stop we were going to be making and told me he had a few cold calls that he wanted to make as well. I was all set for a great day.

We left the restaurant and drove directly to our first stop of the day. It was a customer of his that buys several lines from him and he showed me the business and how he works it. After writing an order and chatting with the buyer for a few minutes we were back in the car and on our way to stop number 2.

As we drove to the second stop I noticed that we drove back through an intersection we drove through on our way to the first stop. Not really thinking much of it because sometimes doubling back on a route is the shortest distance to travel, we made it to stop number 2. This was a small shop that the rep told me only buys a few items from him. He wanted me to see if there was anything I saw that I felt would help sell more in the account.

As we walked in I looked around and saw a few things, but agreed with the rep that this was a small business and the opportunity was going to be limited. After 2 demos of new products we left without an order and headed to stop number 3 which the rep said was his number 1 account.

The next stop went very well for the rep, and after selling a new item he took a large order for the customer. We were doing well, 3 stops, 2 orders and several demos and a new item sale.

As we drove to our next stop I once again recognized the same intersection we had driven through twice already.

To make a long story short, over the next several hours we made 4 more stops and drove back through that same intersection 2 more times.

As we were driving to a restaurant for lunch I asked the rep if he had a map in his car. He didn’t so I asked him to stop at an office supply store so I could buy one. When we got to the restaurant I grabbed a table big enough for the map to be laid out on.

Still not knowing the area, I asked the rep to put dots on the map for the 7 stops we made so far that day. He made the dots for me. I then asked him to number the dots in the same order we stopped at them that morning.

When he was done I asked him what he noticed. He looked and sheepishly said that we crossed back and forth in the area all morning. I joked with him saying that I knew several people at that one intersection because we drove through it so many times. Using the scale of miles on the map I estimated that we had driven over 25 miles since we left the hotel that morning. Then I did some quick measurements and figured that if he had planned his route better he could have cut over 15 of the 25 miles off the route.

Living here in Georgia, I am a bit spoiled. Our gas is some of the lowest in the country. On the west coast things are a lot different. The gas was almost 60 cents a gallon higher. To make a point I asked the rep how many miles per gallon his car got, he said about 18. Doing some quick calculations I asked him how he would like to save almost $30 a week.

He knew where I was going with this conversation, but I went there anyway. I said, if we just save 15 miles before lunch and another 15 after lunch every day that would be 150 miles a week. If his car gets 18 miles per gallon that means he would save 8.3 gallons per week. At $3.65 a gallon that equals $30.29.

Next I asked the rep how fast he usually drives. He laughed and said he always speeded wherever he went. (I had to agree just from the morning’s time together) He said 50MPH was a good average. (I didn’t want to argue with him, but around town he probably didn’t average much over 30) Either way I then asked him how many sales calls he thought he could make in 3 hours. He told me 4 or 5. I then asked him if he made 5 calls how many he would close. He said at least 2. My follow-up question was what is your average sale? To which he said about $300.

Once again I did some fast calculations and asked him if an additional $31,000 in sales was something he would be interested in. I am sure you all can guess his answer. I explained that is what an extra 3 hours a week of selling time rather than driving time would get him.

I called this post WEST SIDE STORY because it happened on the west coast. I know that I could have called it EAST SIDE, NORTH SIDE, SOUTH SIDE, INSIDE or OUT SIDE STORY. This same thing happens thousands of times a day all over the country.

My challenge to you is to take a little time and do the same exercise with your days as I did with the rep I was working with. Go step by step and come up with the figure you are missing because you are driving instead of selling.

Lorin