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DSRs with culinary experience becoming more common as distributors embrace that expertise

DSRs with culinary experience becoming more common as distributors embrace that expertise

All sales jobs are challenging, but you have to love what you do to be a distributor sales rep, or DSR. It takes knowledge of technology and love of gadgets to sell an iPhone or a Blackberry. But what if you have 10,000 products in your warehouse? If you’re selling smart phones, people will come to you or buy online. What if you had to drive to eight customers a day, spending close to one-third of your time behind the wheel? If you’re selling technology, you might have to explain the bells and whistles to inexperienced customers. What if you actually had to help your customers run their businesses to ensure their survival?

If you don’t want to learn about hundreds of products, spend hours in your car or take any responsibility for your customers’ profitability, forget being a DSR. If you do, you will join about 40,000 reps in the United States who have taken on these requirements and have exciting, decent-paying, stable careers. And you will join a number of people with culinary training, chefs included, who are migrating from the demand side to the supply side.

This migration of people from the back-of-the-house into distributor sales has been going on for the last couple of years. In fact, a recent Technomic survey revealed that one-third of all DSRs now have culinary and/or restaurant experience. I’ve spoken with reps who are former chefs who say they like the sales hours much better than the brutal schedule in a restaurant operation. Culinary training is attractive to distributors for its product knowledge and operational knowledge, both of which allow consulting with customers on a peer level.

Technomic’s annual DSR survey was just completed for the Technomic Distributor Intelligence Report. In addition to possessing culinary training, DSRs have an average of nine years of experience in the industry and seven with their present company, the data show.

Distributors who responded to the survey report an 85-percent retention rate. Interestingly, 86 percent of distributors are not reducing their head count despite the economy. However, they are not increasing overall numbers at all. The weaker reps are being trimmed and replaced as a result of economic pressure on performance—in other words, produce or you’re out.

As you might expect, product and sales skills training are paramount and ongoing, not only to ensure performance, but also as a competitive strategy. Distributors reported different approaches for new vs. experienced DSRs. New DSRs receive more hands-on training and experienced DSRs are given more classroom-style training. The development of new DSRs can be cultivated through mentoring, on-the-job training or ride-withs—when a new rep rides along with an experienced rep to learn from observing. Experienced DSRs participate in sales skill development and product-immersion seminars. Both, however, attend traditional sales meetings where manufacturers demonstrate the benefits of their wares.

The area that distributors find most challenging when it comes to training is time management. No surprise there, given the complexity of the job. Distributors also would like to see more electronic training available as well as more workshops and seminars.

This industry couldn’t survive without the skills and experience of its distributor sales force. The position of DSR has evolved to the point where it can be considered a career of choice. I expect to see more culinarians crossing over.

Survey data used with permission of Technomic Inc. Caroline Perkins is editor in chief of the Technomic Distributor Intelligence Report.

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