Completely agree.
The way it is here is there is a base salary for sales - it’s quite low, approx €20k per annum.
Then they get a percentage of the sales depending on the scope of the project. The idea - as PrintDriver noted - is that they are the contact and they handle all the communications. That is bringing the job in - delivering you the files/briefs etc - they take on the task of emailing/calling/visiting (if appropriate).
You send the Sales guy the proofs - he sends them on once he’s happy with them. You don’t know, you could be working on something, and the client has called your sales rep with a last minute change. But you have sent directly to the client - could lead to the client being annoyed the last minute change wasn’t communicated.
Your sales guy handles the account. From things like
- getting them in the door
- being the face for the client
- following up after the job is done to see if there are other things that you can you do for them
- trailing lapsing customers and trying to get them back with you
- following up with queries
I always give the sales guys the task of any queries that have come in
- must be followed up by 10am.
- All quotes that arrived after 12pm need to be submitted to the client the same day or 10am the following day.
- All quotes submitted to be followed up by 10am
It sounds like a lot - but it’s not. It keeps the ship sailing and communication between client and you moving swiftly.
Once I had a guy email me out of the blue, no idea who he was - asking for an urgent turnaround - query came in at 12pm - I had a quote back to him by 12.30pm - the job had gone, someone else got it.
It was beefy one too. The guy came back and said my price was better but he had to move on it.
Based on that alone, we still do nice business together and have formed a good relationship.