Outside sales people; assistants?

[vinylvillain]

To all the outside sales people; do any of you have an assistant that works for you on the inside while you're on the field? I find time management to be very hard between meeting customers, doing surveys and writing up work orders, making sure your orders are being taken care of etc. etc.. How do you manage this process? Do you handle everything yourself or do you have someone who helps with 50% or more of your office work load? I could be cold calling or doing true outside sales stuff if I wasn't busy writing estimates and writing work orders. If you do have an assistant, how do you manage them? How do you reward them? Does it come off the top of your commission or does the owner/boss pay them?

There are 2 specific accounts that are a catch 22 with me; if I didn't have them, I couldn't pay the bills but I could get so much more done. Since I can't tell them to take a hike, I am finding more and more that if I had an assistant to do my dirty work, I could hopefully sell and do more.

Any input is appreciated.

 

[Pete Moss]

Our outside sales people are doing just that specifically. On occasion this involves taking photos and measurements for the proofs. They have a work order with them in which they fill out with all the details. That work order along with any collateral is passed along to graphics. Generally correspondence with the client is handled with them from there.

 

[Fares Bayazeed]

Impressions Printing OKC has their outside reps set up with a notebook and software to quote printing jobs. They must have their notebooks in direct contact with each individual needed according to the type of print (wide format, Offset, etc.), also in the notebook is software for pricing. They also supply their outside reps with company cell phones. They did $5.3MM last year in printing and are #25 on the Top 100 Small Commercial Printers in the country. I am actually an inside rep for an OEM Compatible Ink Manufacturer and was looking for new customers when I decided to click into the employment opportunities section of or their website which spells out the benefits of the outside representative they are seeking. Hope this helps.