Help! My boss wants to visit customers with me in the field!

Salespeople often get nervous when their manager contacts them to arrange a day in the field with them seeing customers. Field accompaniment is a great way for a sales manager to give coaching and feedback to their salesperson, and for the salesperson to learn "on the job". In this episode host and trainer Steve Vaughan is joined by his two colleagues Jayne Green and Pascal Le Floch. The team discuss the importance of preparation for the days, some key "Do's and Don'ts", how to agree who does what in the call, and lots more useful tips and recommendations. 

Steve Vaughan, Jonathan Cooper, Pru Layton, Christian Walter, Pascal le Floche and Jayne Green are Sales Trainers from george james ltd. You can email the show at: Podcast@georgejames-training.com

The trainers on LinkedIn:

Steve Vaughan https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-vaughan-salestrainer/
Jonathan Cooper https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-cooper-18716b1/
Pru Layton https://www.linkedin.com/in/pru-layton-b46a3528/
Christian Walter https://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-walter-a1857b1/
Jayne Green https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayne-green-salestrainer/
Pascal Le Floch-Riche https://www.linkedin.com/in/pascal-le-floch-220ba46/


george james training website https://georgejames-training.com/

Transcript

Steve Vaughan (00:00)
Hello again and welcome to the Luxury of Choice, a B2B sounds and business podcast brought to you by the training team of George James Limited. My name is Steve Vaughan, I'm a Senior Sales Trainer and Director at George James and I'm also the host and producer of this podcast. And today I've got two of my colleagues with me, Jayne Green and Pascal Le Floch. And Jayne is in the UK like I am, so I know it's nice and warm where you're right now, Jayne. The weather's beautiful up here, isn't it, at the moment?

Jayne Green (00:25)
It is,

it is. We've had a really lovely spell. It's great.

Steve Vaughan (00:29)
And what's it like in France right now? You having a nice weather as well?

Pascal Le Floch (00:32)
yeah, really sunny and lovely weather. Thank you.

Steve Vaughan (00:35)
Yeah, sure it won't last. Probably by

the time the listeners listen to this is probably snowing, you know, the knowing the UK. And now I'm tempted to wait. know. So I'm off. I'm off to California in a couple of days on business anyway. So can guarantee you it will be 75 degrees Fahrenheit all week long in that part of the world. Anyway. As if I would now, as if I would. It's just that sort of, you know, expectation of weather in the UK. We all know what it can be like.

Jayne Green (00:53)
Is that why you're wishing snow on us Steve?

Pascal Le Floch (00:56)
Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (01:04)
So let's move on to today's topic. So we've got another episode today, very much aimed at the salespeople, but also the sales managers listening in today. And it's what do we do or what are the sort of best practices when the sales manager wants to go out to the field with the sales person. So let's imagine that we're, or we're thinking about a salesperson, territory salesperson in the field covering a territory and their boss rings up and says, Hey,

what you're doing next Tuesday, I want to come out with you for the day. What are our thoughts? Is that something we should welcome? Is this something we should be terrified by? And also, you know, what's the kind of best practice we should think about in such a situation? Jayne, when you got that phone call from your boss when you were in the field as a territory salesperson, what was your first thought?

Jayne Green (01:53)
I think in my early days it was like, yikes, you know, why are they coming out with me? It depends where you are and how confident you are, I think in your sales journey, but you know, it can be a little bit daunting, can't it? That sense of like, I'm going to be, you know, everything, does everything have to be perfect? Do I have to create this really special day that's out of the ordinary?

Steve Vaughan (01:56)
Yeah.

Mmm.

true.

Jayne Green (02:18)
But yeah, it can have a bit of a strange feeling. It can feel a little bit stressful at times.

Steve Vaughan (02:23)
It can, yeah.

I need to make a confession here right now that when I was a very, very, very young salesperson, so somewhere back in the dark ages, my first sales job, I had a sales manager come out with me in the field. was going to come out for two days. And the first day I was out with him, he was vile. was, I mean, you'd probably say now with modern parlance, you'd probably say he was a bully really. Obviously no names.

Jayne Green (02:40)
⁓

Steve Vaughan (02:45)
and my first day was a bit of disaster and I have to admit I pretended to be ill the second day. The first time and the only time I've ever done it in my life. I had a tummy upset and I wasn't able to spend the day with him. So confession time. I'm sure you never donate anything like that, Pascal.

Pascal Le Floch (02:59)
Let's say I'm taking quite a different approach here because when I was starting in Sears I was unlucky enough, I don't know, but the thing is that my boss was always remote so when some of them posed me to come on site I was very pleased because I felt a bit alone on my own so yeah it was just the other way around.

Steve Vaughan (03:03)
All right.

Yeah.

⁓

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah,

Jayne Green (03:25)
Very good, very

Steve Vaughan (03:26)
yeah,

Jayne Green (03:26)
good, yeah.

Steve Vaughan (03:26)
interesting. Yeah. So, so let's look into, you know, why would a sales manager want to come out in the field with, with a salesperson? There's lots of reasons really, but what are our thoughts? We'll start with you, Jay. What are your thoughts as to what are the benefits of a sales manager coming out into the field with their salesperson for the day?

Jayne Green (03:43)
Well, it's actually really important for sales managers to come out and see their sales team on territory, see them in action. One, it can be incredibly, so I have been very fortunate to have some really great managers.

Steve Vaughan (03:51)
Mmm.

Jayne Green (03:57)
in the past as well. So, you know, when you get over that initial yikes, if you're fairly new, actually it's great having a manager there. You've got another set of eyes, you've got another set of ears that kind of sits, you know, in every call with you and that opportunity to get some really, really great feedback. You know, and it's, that sort of part of the coaching that happens throughout.

Steve Vaughan (03:57)
Yeah, me too.

Jayne Green (04:21)
the time when a sales manager is with you. And for me, that is so important and incredibly beneficial for both parties.

Steve Vaughan (04:28)
couldn't agree more. you know, the sales manager in the field can get to see their person doing the job in real time. I always used to say to lab managers when I was a sales manager, why am I here today? You know, well, you could walk into your lab and see your staff at any moment of the time, every day of the week. I get to see my staff very occasionally really doing their job. Pascal, you're a qualified coach and you do a lot of coaching. So,

I guess from your perspective, there's a lot of benefits from a coaching perspective for a manager to be in the field.

Pascal Le Floch (05:00)
Indeed, thanks Steve. And actually, that's fantastic opportunity both for the sales reps and for the manager to learn from each other, but also, as Jayne said, to get the best out of a meeting, but also to have a very successful follow-up in order to increase or improve the sales performance, the sales skills of the sales rep. And for the sales manager, it's also an opportunity to look at which area

Steve Vaughan (05:18)
show.

Pascal Le Floch (05:30)
he would probably focus his efforts on to provide the best level of support for his team members.

Steve Vaughan (05:37)
Right,

right. So if you've got that call with your boss coming out, do you try and set up a special day? Do you try and get like all your best customers aligned for the day and say, my boss is coming out, you can we have a great call today? Or would you just do whatever you were planning to do that day, Jayne?

Jayne Green (05:56)
Well, it depends how quickly they want to come out, but I would want to do whatever I normally do. You know, have I got planned? For me, it's all about, and don't we talk about preparation an awful lot and planning ahead. for, you know, years ago, my manager said, I'm coming out with you next week. I would like to think that I'd have already prepared what next week looks like. So I'm not trying to create a different day than would be normal.

Steve Vaughan (05:59)
Well true.

Hmm.

Yeah, good point.

I'm sure you would, yeah.

Mm.

Jayne Green (06:25)
What I might

want to add in would be, you know, if I've got a tough customer that I'm struggling with a bit, you know, I might want to take my manager into that account too, you know, but I would say, let's do what you normally do. Have the normal pace of your day and plan well for it and prepare and go with that.

Steve Vaughan (06:34)
Great idea.

That's a great thought. And the thought I thought about actually is if you have got your boss coming out with you, how can you make best use of that opportunity to move a sale forward? I see you're nodding Pascal. Yeah. Something you agree.

Pascal Le Floch (06:56)
⁓ definitely. And I always told my team, please use me as a tool to get best of your meetings. Of course, we need to agree upfront about who...

Steve Vaughan (07:03)
All right.

Jayne Green (07:05)
Hmm.

Pascal Le Floch (07:09)
will play which role. However, yes, that's key and probably we'll come back on this, but whatever the roles are, let's say, how can we get the best of the meetings we get? First, to get the highest satisfaction levels possible for the customer, but also for us related to the goal of the meeting.

Steve Vaughan (07:11)
That's super important.

A green roles upfront is super important. Again, another story from my very early sales career. Actually it was the same company. I've never been in a customer meeting with my sales manager and we're trying to close the sale.

And it wasn't going very well. all of sudden my sales manager stood up and absolutely tore into me and said, you've wasted my time. You've wasted this customer's time and stormed out and left me with a customer both looking like that face had dropped her jaws are wide open. And I think in their idea, the idea was to try and get me back into the cell, but it didn't work. So agreeing those roles upfront and who's going to do what and where is super important. Yeah. Jayne, what are your thoughts on that?

Jayne Green (07:54)
⁓

Yeah.

Yeah, definitely. I think you need a plan. You need to know what, how you're to play each call that you're going into. But what I would say for salespeople is you're still, you unless you've agreed a different plan because of a specific customer that you're going to see, remember that you're in the driving seat. You know, it's your customer. You know, don't sit back as a passenger just because your manager's there. Take control of that meeting as you would normally and, you know, practice what you know is best, you know.

Steve Vaughan (08:15)
Mm.

Yeah, it's your customer. Absolutely.

Yeah.

Yeah, super

point. Yeah. Because you've got to go and see that customer again afterwards on your own at some stage. And if the, if the customer, if the manager's kind of taken over, that's kind of changed the relationship a bit. In fact, might even be the customer wants to see the manager next time, every time perhaps, or something like that. So what kind of things did you prepare then beforehand, Pascal, when you went in with a salesperson, how did you, how did you do that?

Jayne Green (08:40)
do that.

Yes. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Pascal Le Floch (09:02)
⁓ First of all, it's quite similar to when you have to prepare your own visits, know, so with or without your manager. So what's the purpose of the meeting? What's the goal you want to achieve? What does the customer may expect from this meeting according to you?

Steve Vaughan (09:09)
Absolutely. Yeah.

Jayne Green (09:15)
Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (09:16)
Mm.

Jayne Green (09:19)
Mm-hmm.

Pascal Le Floch (09:23)
What are the things you need to prepare to be able to answer any meta question, objection, whatever. making sure that you come with the right level of information, the right materials. yeah, and last but not least, what is the type of commitment you want to get from the customer at the end of the meeting?

Steve Vaughan (09:29)
Yeah.

Right.

Yeah. Good point. And part of the preparation should be to let the customer know that your boss is coming in with you that day, in my opinion, because I mean, they may even for someone as fundamental as security, they may have to watch a health and safety video, all that kind of stuff. So if they're not expecting the manager to be with you and you're sitting in the reception, there's two people rather than one that might create a problem actually for the customer. So you should always let the customer know that there's going to be

two of you. And I've always believed you should be absolutely upfront with the customers to who the person is. Don't say they're from marketing or something, unless they are from marketing. If it's your boss, then let's be honest, Jayne, say, I've got my boss with me today.

Jayne Green (10:21)
you

Yeah, definitely. Let the person know that you've got your boss coming or your line manager, however you use the language within your company so that the customer knows. And it's just that part, isn't it? They may need an extra pass to get in. They may need extra authority to get through the door. So make your life easier by planning for that upfront, by letting people know or parties know who is coming. Because customers often don't like an extra person turning up, haven't planned for that.

Steve Vaughan (10:35)
Mm.

Mm.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

No,

it's a surprise, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. What about then if the customer just wants to talk to the boss, you you've sat down in front of the customer and the customers all they're obviously doing is talking to the boss and kind of cutting you out as a salesperson, Pascal, how would you handle that as the salesperson? We'll talk about the manager another time, but as a salesperson, how would we handle that?

Jayne Green (10:56)
It is, yeah. Yeah, make it easier.

Pascal Le Floch (11:19)
Yes, again, back to the preparation. would say that assuming that you inform the customer, as you should do, that you come with your boss, but also the roles. ⁓ I think a number of salespeople are afraid of saying this to their customers that they come with their boss and the boss will only be the observer. I would really encourage them to do so, telling the truth.

Steve Vaughan (11:43)
Hmm.

Absolutely.

Jayne Green (11:47)
Yeah.

Pascal Le Floch (11:49)
and be clear with the roles because then first it decreases the chance or the risk that customers will suddenly look at the boss as the one to talk with instead of the sales rep and second if it happens anyway you can let's say go back to the rules that or at least the proposal you made that okay the boss is here as an observer and the sales rep is the driver so

Steve Vaughan (11:59)
Yeah.

Mm.

super.

Pascal Le Floch (12:19)
If I would be the boss in that case, I would turn back to my team member and also, let's say, answer the customers. Let's say, my colleague answering to you because he's the one to drive the conversation. And I will be pleased to provide any additional thought if needed. But I'm fully confident that he will have the elements you need to get. ⁓

Steve Vaughan (12:37)
Yeah.

Absolutely. Yeah,

yeah. I think there's, I was going to say body language. I'm not sure it's a body language, but almost like a geometry perspective to this. And that's where does everybody sit really. So yeah, go on, you're obviously thinking the same thing as me on that one. Go on.

Jayne Green (12:48)
Yeah.

Yes. Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, no,

definitely. think think very carefully when you're going into a meeting, the customer knows that you're there, then there's likely to be two chairs. If it's in an office or, you know, if you're standing in an laboratory or kind of wherever you are, then make sure you're the person that is in closest proximity to the customer, because that would suggest that you're the one having the conversation. And again, your body language, you know.

Steve Vaughan (13:11)
Mm.

Absolutely.

Jayne Green (13:29)
be open gestures, be very much part of that conversation leaning in rather than leaning back. The moment we lean back, it looks like we're a little bit less engaged and somebody else might actually want to take that. But I think I, and I remember an instance and I've seen that happen from the reverse for myself when I've been in a call with one of my team, you know, to say to the customer for the salesperson to say,

Steve Vaughan (13:40)
I leave forward now.

Pascal Le Floch (13:43)
Ha.

Jayne Green (13:57)
If the customer is looking for an answer from the sales manager, then it's okay for the salesperson to say, I can answer that for you. Take back that control. It's really gentle. I can answer that for you. And it just brings that focus back to the person that should be leading that moment.

Steve Vaughan (14:05)
Yeah.

Yeah, that's a good way of doing it.

Yeah.

or the sound manager could say, well, what do you think Pascal? Assuming you're the sound person here, Pascal, what do you think Pascal to that one and get you back into the conversation really? Yeah, yeah, good point really. What about, no, go ahead Pascal, sorry, go on.

Jayne Green (14:18)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, yeah.

Pascal Le Floch (14:24)
And it could

be also about a sign you agree with your teammate. So what sort of sign you agree upfront. So when I do this sign, like this, or whatever, then help me. Yes. Yes.

Steve Vaughan (14:38)
you

Yeah, help, I'm sinking here. Yeah, that's a really good point actually. Have a like a secret, secret,

but an agreed keyword or trigger word or something that if you're the salesman says, I'm struggling here a little bit, can you help me out boss? I used to say, if I was asking me the boss, what do you think Steve? What's your thoughts on that? And that means I'm struggling here, I need your input a little bit. Yeah, that's a really good point, yeah.

Pascal Le Floch (14:50)
Yeah.

Jayne Green (15:01)
Yes, absolutely. Yes,

yeah.

Steve Vaughan (15:06)
What about then when we come out of the call? So that you've been in the call with the sales manager. So we're back to being the salesperson again now. You've been in with your boss, you get back into the car, you sit in the car and you think, right, here it goes. ⁓ What are all the things I did wrong? I'm sure we've all felt that feeling, but how can we make that a more constructive thing, Jayne?

Jayne Green (15:15)
Mmm.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, I think I would be proactive, encourage proactivity of saying to your manager, can you give me some feedback, you know, on how that call went.

Steve Vaughan (15:40)
Great. Yeah.

Jayne Green (15:41)
And I love that, welcome that. Feedback is so important for all of us, you know, in whatever we're doing. But ask for that, you know, and also there's that part, isn't it? It's like even analysing yourself out loud, you know, asking for feedback to say, look, I think this went really well and I think I handled that really well, but I wasn't too sure when this happened. What do you think? You know, be very specific.

Steve Vaughan (15:46)
Yeah.

⁓ Yeah, love it.

And of course we covered feedback on our last episode, but feedback is a gift. And we talked about the three stars of the WIS, which three things did I do really well? One thing could I have done better, even if it was a brilliant call or a terrible call, both of those applied. How did you give or receive feedback after a sales call, Pascal?

Pascal Le Floch (16:28)
Yeah, first thing is that, let's say, if I am the sales rep, as Jayne said, I would be proactive and I would provide first my feedback, how things went, how it went, what did went well. So that would be the first point. And the trap for a sales manager would be to give his feedback first because then it would kill.

Steve Vaughan (16:54)
Absolutely.

Pascal Le Floch (16:54)
any

initiative from the sales rep to share or at least he would feel first not really supported or listened or whatever. again, the sales rep to provide his feedback first, what went well, starting with a positive thing ⁓ and what he would see as ⁓ things to be improved next time, as areas of development.

Steve Vaughan (17:02)
Yeah.

Pascal Le Floch (17:19)
And from the list of ⁓ ideas or options you would see, then the sales manager could help to get probably the solutions just decided or agreed together. So it's sort of a logical, know, stepwise process.

Steve Vaughan (17:29)
Right.

Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. Would you do

that straight after the call or would you do the calls like three or four calls or whatever you got planned for the day and then sit down and do the feedback at the end of it? What are your thoughts both of you on that?

Pascal Le Floch (17:47)
It depends, you know, ⁓ it depends. First of all, let's say

Steve Vaughan (17:49)
Hahaha.

Pascal Le Floch (17:56)
If it has been agreed upfront that the sales manager comes to help the sales rep to develop his sales skills. If there are three or four meetings not in a row, first of all, it should not be in a row, enough time to debrief after. But it could be a great opportunity from one meeting to the other to get a chance to debrief and apply what has been agreed to the next meeting. ⁓

Steve Vaughan (18:24)
Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Your thoughts, Jayne?

Jayne Green (18:27)
Yeah, I totally agree because what you want to be able to do is put something into practice. You know, if we're being open enough to say, I think this went really well, I struggled with this, how can I improve that as a salesperson? Then my sales manager I would help would be able to give me some useful insight and some way to enhance my skill. Then practice that as soon as possible, which hopefully would be in the next meeting that we have organized together.

Steve Vaughan (18:31)
Hmm.

Mm.

Yeah, that's a really, really good thought. Yeah. I think there's some practical aspects as well. Perhaps we haven't covered and that is ⁓ logistics. So for me, I always used to prefer my boss meeting with me somewhere and then I drive around the day and then I pick, I drop him off or her off at the end of the day, rather than following each other around in cars, which ⁓ I think is well, obviously it's not particularly efficient, but also you miss that valuable windscreen time, don't you? Where

where you're on the motorway and you're having a chat as you go along about various topics and you're getting to know each other on a one to one basis perhaps a bit better than you would otherwise really. I think, and I was always dry if I was a salesperson, I'd always insist on driving unless there was a really good reason why the boss had to drive really. So that was a key one for me. What about if you're the salesperson and the boss says, am coming out with you next Wednesday. What if next Wednesday is looking like a disaster? What if you've got

know, one appointment and that one's a bit flaky. How do we handle that one?

Jayne Green (19:57)
be honest, you know, be open about that if it's a really tough day and you're thinking, gosh, I haven't really planned and prepared for that, then there's probably bit of time to do something with it. But I would always be honest, you know, to say, yeah, it's a tough day. I've got one appointment, but maybe that's okay. Maybe that's a time and an opportunity for you as salesperson and sales manager to have a proper conversation.

Steve Vaughan (20:00)
That's right.

Jayne Green (20:26)
because some of those times, of course, when a sales manager is coming out with you, you mentioned at the beginning, Steve, that you don't always get to meet up very frequently. So it's useful to have some time, meeting time just to discuss. Yeah. Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (20:34)
No.

Yeah. Yeah. So you might factor in a one to one during the day, perhaps at some stage. Yeah, I think that's

a good idea. ⁓ I've took my boss cold calling before now and say, right, we'll go and bang on some doors at an industrial park or something if it's been, you know, not the best day in terms of managed to book appointments. What are your thoughts on this Pascal?

Jayne Green (20:48)
Yep.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

Pascal Le Floch (21:00)
I think it brings back to one of the key rules I would like to establish between the sales rep and his manager or a manager before the visit. Allowing the sales rep to fail or to make mistakes. That's part of the deal.

Steve Vaughan (21:16)
Yeah. That's the sales manager's dilemma, isn't it? Yeah.

Jayne Green (21:17)
Mmm, true.

Yeah.

Pascal Le Floch (21:20)
Yes,

The sales manager is here ⁓ to go back to the analogy of the pilot, the plane pilot. I would say that the sales manager is the co-pilot. He is silent, but he's active. He's taking notes, he's observing, he's thinking. He can be there for any assistive emergency, but he lets the sales rep drive him.

Steve Vaughan (21:29)
Okay.

Yeah.

Jayne Green (21:39)
Cheers.

Steve Vaughan (21:50)
Yeah,

Pascal Le Floch (21:51)
Cool.

Steve Vaughan (21:51)
that's an interesting analogy, I guess it back to a green roles and responsibility beforehand. you know, if you're the co-pilot is a cave, the pilot on the day switches the lights on a bit early, but not if he's going to crash the plane. You might want to jump in at that case. Hopefully, just pushing that pushing that analogy a bit too far on that on that one, certainly. ⁓ Would there be a go ahead? ⁓

Pascal Le Floch (21:55)
Yes.

However, after the crash, that's what Jayne

Jayne Green (22:13)
That's...

Pascal Le Floch (22:14)
mentioned, there is a

need to run analysis on this and learn from it, to avoid a new disaster, but really to take this ⁓ as a key step to improve.

Jayne Green (22:20)
Hmm.

Pascal Le Floch (22:28)
And again, ⁓ act as a sales manager as a coach, not as the one to say you are guilty. And no way, because then it will kill any ⁓ next initiative from the sales rep to welcome you on the field.

Steve Vaughan (22:36)
Yeah, yeah.

Jayne Green (22:36)
Mm-hmm.

Steve Vaughan (22:41)
Yeah, absolutely. I love all

the crash investigation things on National Geographic, but as we're about to get on a plane, I think we'll move the analogy on from that one. Would there ever be a time, Jayne, when you say to your boss, look, I just don't want you coming out that day. It's just not going to work for me. Would there ever be a time when you do that, you think?

Jayne Green (22:52)
You

I mean, there might be, I don't think I've ever done that. ⁓ No, I wouldn't, but I embrace and like the idea of somebody coming out with me. One, Pascal mentioned that as a salesperson, you can tend to feel alone a lot of the time when you're doing your job. So the idea of two people doing a call together is actually quite powerful because you've got more eyes within that.

Steve Vaughan (23:06)
No, not me. I would have been brave enough, I don't think.

You do.

Jayne Green (23:30)
And of course, if it's a day that you haven't actually, depends why you wouldn't want your manager coming out with you that day. You know, I'm thinking, if it was me, I haven't prepared for that day. I have got nothing going on. Do I want to admit that and show that to my manager? As a manager? Yeah, no, no. But as a manager, would I want that, my salesperson to say,

Steve Vaughan (23:48)
I'm sure you were never in that situation by the way, Jay.

Jayne Green (23:58)
to me, I've got nothing prepared for that day. You know, I think it's not what you want to hear, but I think there's a useful time, no matter what we've got in, and hopefully a well planned and thought out day, you know, ⁓ there is just good time to seek, you know, an opportunity to speak with your sales manager on a one-to-one level. So the time you, maybe the only other times you ever see your sales manager is a sales meeting, and you might feel you're competing with other people for time to talk to them.

Steve Vaughan (24:18)
Yeah.

Yeah.

for sure, yeah, yeah for sure.

Jayne Green (24:28)
You know, so here's a great

opportunity, you know, to actually take that and embrace that moment, you know, and maybe if it's a really bad day or whatever, it's like, actually, can, why not suggest that day is not the best for me, but I've, you know, I've got another, can we do that the next week? I would suggest not. I'd go with the run of what your sales manager says, but you can offer another date up.

Steve Vaughan (24:42)
Hmm.

Yeah, I guess unless it's, know, if you came with me next Wednesday, we can go and see XYZ company. We can close this out together. It'd be far more valuable. You know, you can, guess it's a negotiation to some degree, it? that was the case, really. What about if, and I hope this doesn't happen these days. I'd be surprised if it does, but what if you got the phone call literally on the morning, Pascal, your boss rings, where are you today? I'm coming to meet you. How would you handle that? Does it ever happen these days? Hopefully not, but.

Jayne Green (24:58)
Mm.

Yes.

Yes. Yeah.

Pascal Le Floch (25:21)
I would say it did not happen to me quite often. ⁓ Anyway, as Jayne said, you are supposed to be prepared and it should be a normal day for you. ⁓ Knowing that 80 % of a meeting's comes from the preparation. ⁓

Steve Vaughan (25:23)
Nah.

Yeah.

Jayne Green (25:29)
Hmm.

Steve Vaughan (25:32)
Yeah.

Jayne Green (25:32)
Yes.

Steve Vaughan (25:39)
Great point.

Jayne Green (25:39)
True,

yep.

Pascal Le Floch (25:41)
It's not something that you could just neglect. It's not when your boss is coming that you are going to prepare your meeting, hopefully. So, let's say, I would double-check with him anyway what is the intent again. What's the reason he's coming? ⁓

Steve Vaughan (25:43)
Yeah.

Jayne Green (25:48)
Exactly, exactly.

Steve Vaughan (25:58)
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, nothing better to do almost. Yeah.

Jayne Green (25:59)
Yeah.

Pascal Le Floch (26:01)
And in the case I could not

inform my customer upfront, then I would mention my boss that probably we would have to postpone the meeting because I don't want to put my customer base or create some bad surprise or mixed feelings for my customer. First, ⁓ I think about the customer.

Jayne Green (26:12)
Hmm.

Steve Vaughan (26:19)
Yeah

I think it, yeah, I mean,

if the customer isn't expecting both of you are back to that discussion about letting them know beforehand. I think if your manager is going to do that, I'd have to wonder why are they doing that? Do they think I'm useless in which case, and we'd hopefully have a conversation for that. But also it just feels a little bit, I don't want to use the word bullying because, know, I'm not going do it, but it feels a little bit high stress management really that, you know, we.

Jayne Green (26:36)
Yeah.

you

Pascal Le Floch (26:48)
Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (26:49)
Hopefully wouldn't need to get into that scenario as manager. anyway, we're looking at this situation as it from the salesperson. any any final thoughts? And so, you know, we've got our boss coming out with us next week. Anything that we've missed, do think, Jayne?

Jayne Green (26:57)
Yes.

I'm not sure whether we've missed it, but I think it's a great opportunity for any salesperson to, you know, I've said already, embrace that moment, but take this as an opportunity where you can further your development. You know, I think that's part of it, isn't it? I would, and I think in my days of being a salesperson, and maybe this was just me, if there's any of my managers that ever were listening, they'll be all, goodness me, yes. I would have taken that moment to talk about actually,

Steve Vaughan (27:17)
Yes, of course.

Hmm.

Jayne Green (27:35)
What are my plans? You know, how can I develop further? You know, what does this look like? What else do I need to know? So I used to enjoy those moments. Of course, you've got to make sure you're well prepared for it, just as normal for any day. But the time that you've got to spend with your manager is really fruitful. Get that feedback. Get that feedback. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (27:41)
Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. It's a chance to find out what's going on back at the office and what's happening in the company and things like that as well, isn't it? Yeah.

One from you, Pascal.

Pascal Le Floch (28:02)
Yeah, back to what Jayne said, I think it's a unique opportunity to strengthen the relationships between yourself and your manager. ⁓ Also to convey some messages, know, so feedback from customers, feedback from the market, and also asking questions about either the next products to come or what sort of support you need from your manager, except, you know, the different...

Steve Vaughan (28:09)
Yeah. Yeah.

Jayne Green (28:17)
Yes.

Yeah.

Pascal Le Floch (28:28)
visits you just run together. it's again you know one-to-one conversation that's ⁓ quite unique and that you need to take care of and tech has a real great opportunity. yeah that's where I think that it's important to keep in mind as a sales rep.

Steve Vaughan (28:36)
Mm.

Yeah.

Yep. Great opportunity to get better in your job, you know, get some feedback from your boss, learn from your boss, spend time together, get to know them as individuals. It's a great thing to do. So if you have got your boss coming out with you, listener over the next week, hopefully that's give you a few things to think about and a few ideas as well. And if you're the boss going out, we'll perhaps look at that from the other side in a future podcast, but yeah, give them a bit of notice. Don't just turn up on the day before. That's a little bit, not exactly playing the game, is it really? So.

Jayne Green (28:51)
Yes.

Steve Vaughan (29:16)
So if you've enjoyed today's episode, dear listener, then don't forget to subscribe to the show. That way we'll make sure you never miss an episode. And also if you listen to us on Apple or Spotify, you can leave us a five star review. And I think on Apple, can also leave a few words as to what we've been talking about and what you think on the show. You can also contact the show through an email address, which is just podcast at georgejames-training.com. That's podcast at georgejames-training.com. You can contact

Any of us at the George James training team, if you know us obviously directly with our emails, but all the email links to Jayne, Pascal, myself, and our other colleagues are all also in the show notes to this particular show. So don't be strangers. We'd love to hear from you. You can reach out to us. all love LinkedIn connection requests for sure. So don't be shy to reach out to us. And if you would like us to look at a particular topic in the future, then of course we would love to hear from you as well. We do have a lot of scheduled training courses coming up over the next few weeks. I know Pascal, you're running some.

In Paris, Jayne, you've got another round of courses in, I think in Cambridge coming up next time, it? Yeah. So if you're new to sales, that'd be a great place to go. And also there are courses coming up for distributor management and also sales management. So check out the George James training website for more information on those as well. I'll be back again in a couple of weeks time. Until then, happy selling. Keep calling out there if it's a sunny where you are right now as it is here. And we'll talk to you soon.

Jayne Green (30:19)
Yup, yup, me, me, me.