by Art Waskey | Sep 24, 2025 | Art of Sales Weekly, Featured
Managing your Reps — Setting Expectations and Providing Reviews
This is the first in a series of articles I am writing on AI’s impact on managing the next generation of outside sales reps (OSR). I will be focusing on managing by using effective monthly one-on-one reviews. I believe the best (OSR) or inside sales rep (ISR) is only as effective as the expectations set by their company leaders. This makes management’s reviews of reps important to everyone’s success.
Call reporting
With the rapidly increasing efficacy of AI, collecting accurate data is paramount. For maximum customer and prospective account growth, call reporting is becoming increasingly relevant. Whether it is closing new business, measuring the top 4 to 6 key indicators on a dashboard, or results in monthly sales, margin, and new account margins, reps must input proper data in their client call reports for AI to be effective.
Key Elements
What are the key elements in an effective AI call report?
- Why — As noted above, AI is only as effective as the data collected. The timely reporting of activity in a customer or prospective account sets AI in motion. It can determine the most effective direction for the next call. Today’s clients will research the product information necessary to solve their need before engaging with a rep. If today’s OSR isn’t bringing new consultative solutions to grow the customer’s sales and profit, that customer won’t want or need to see them.
- When — It is no longer appropriate to enter a call report at the end of a day. That time lapse is too long and results in reps missing a significant detail in their reports. Information should be voiced to the agentic AI as soon as the OSR gets back into their car. Your agentic AI is best defined as your agent who autonomously achieves specific goals with minimal human supervision. What a great new friend!
- What — The content in the report must include the purpose of the call, the results, suggested next steps, requested quotes, and date and time for the next call. Within minutes, the agent will tell the OSR’s suggested content for an email back to the customer. The email will include contact information and an appropriate pricing and delivery quote. AI will also generate a confirmation request for the next appointment.
With this information, the agent will update the OSR the day before the next appointment with any new information it has collected on the customer. Any possible change in the call purpose will be noted. AI will also send a reminder to the customer and to the OSR on any quote activity.
The call report
A timely call report is the central basis for the sales manager’s monthly OSR reviews. Every sales rep appreciates a good review of how well they are meeting company expectations and what they need to accomplish to be more effective.
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by Art Waskey | Sep 18, 2025 | Art of Sales Weekly, Featured
Do you know who your buyers are and what they expect? According to LinkedIn’s 2025 B2B Buyers Report , Millennials now make up 73% of all B2B buyers and 44% of final purchasing decision-makers. Mark Broham reports in Digital Commerce 360: “The B2B commerce landscape is undergoing a generational transformation; Millennials – those born between 1981 and 1996 – have firmly taken control of corporate buying decisions, driving a new era defined by digital expectation, streamlining purchasing, and marketplace dominance.”
Four principles
Millennials were raised on the Amazon experience — fast and easy purchasing. They expect the same type of service from their suppliers. Here are four important principles guiding buyer expectations today.
- A personalized experience – A recent study shows that 73% of buyers expect to receive a personalized Amazon B2C experience in their B2B transactions. Many companies now utilize AI technology to track customers’ purchasing habits and online searches, enabling them to send targeted ads based on demand.
- Buyer enablement – Commercial success now hinges on the ease, speed, and convenience of sales. Distributors must create a simplified pathway to their technical expertise. The buyer must be able to access your added value differentiator with the ease of a simple transaction. If he/she can purchase what sets you apart conveniently, they will favor you.
- A Self-Guided Digital Channel – Gen Y and Gen Z (TikTok generation) are known for their self-reliance and research habits. Many customers prefer to find detailed product information, compare options, and make purchases independently, without needing to contact a sales representative. They also use AI tools in their personal lives and expect similar innovations to be available in the B2B purchasing process.
- A partnering relationship – AI will continue to advance the customer-supplier relationship by making it easier to identify customer needs. Its presence changes the responsibilities of the outside sales rep (OSR). The relationship of the OSR to the client is now one of consultative collaboration. Today’s reps need to work with clients to increase their profitability. Interactions should enhance work efficiency by helping the customer get the right things done. The relationship must move past a focus on products and services to client success. As the late Zig Ziglar expressed so well, “You can get anything in life you want if you just help enough other people get what they want.”
Meet buyers’ expectations
It is an exciting time to be meeting your customers’ expectations. Lastly, spend time engaging the next generation of buyers by providing a personalized buying experience, easy access to your products, a self-guided digital channel, and sales that focus on client success.
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by Art Waskey | Aug 21, 2025 | Art of Sales Weekly, Featured
Early in my career, I worked for an international distribution company with a steep corporate ladder to climb. As a sales manager, I oversaw a quarter of the country — from Colorado to Florida. This required a lot of travel. I met weekly with 8 different reps at various airports. When the corporation reorganized, I was offered a Vice President’s position. I aspired to eventually run a major enterprise. Would accepting the VP position help me meet that goal? Would that be a good decision for a balanced life?
First things first
The VP offer represented a big step up the corporate ladder. I was 35 and happily married with three young children. This was a big life decision. As suggested by Steven Covey in his book The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People, I looked at my “first things first” priority list — God, family, and then career. I worried that this new position would take me even farther away from family life.
Finding a balance
An independent distributor heard of my concerns. He was in the process of taking over the family business from his father. He saw me as a good candidate to help him grow that business. This meant I would be home more often, which represented a good life balance for me. I accepted.
Three guiding principles
Life-changing career decisions are challenging. Here are some guiding principles to consider when you find yourself at a crossroads.
- Personal Integrity – Does this position align with my understanding of personal integrity? People rise and fall based on this important quality. The best way to assess your integrity is to ask yourself: Who am I when no one is watching? Strive to be beyond reproach, temperate (sober-minded and clear-headed), and self-controlled.
- Family Life – The foundation of family is honoring and supporting your spouse’s priorities. Will this new position allow me to build on that foundation? In our 53 years of marriage, a road of compromises has assured a straight pathway for our family and a clear direction for our children.
- Relational Health — Will this new position enable me to treat others the way I would like to be treated? As the late Zig Ziglar reminded us, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” Show others hospitality, keep your ego in check, and demonstrate humility.
A work in progress
I have used these guiding principles during my 50-year-plus career. These principles are never fully achieved. To own them requires developing habits around them. Lastly, balancing life decisions should always be considered a work in progress.
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by Art Waskey | Aug 6, 2025 | Art of Sales Weekly, Featured
Like so many areas of business, the art of strategic planning has been greatly altered by the introduction of new technology. Software applications and Artificial Intelligence (AI) have greatly improved our ability to project and make a strategic plan.
Three questions
I suggest you ask these three questions when making your strategic plan.
- How are changes in technology affecting your operations? When developing a strategic plan, be sure to consider how the use of artificial intelligence (AI) is impacting your operations. A recent report from the Harvard Department of Education looked at the use of artificial intelligence (AI) by generations. The report highlights that younger employees are using AI generative agents at work, with 65% of users being Millennials or Generation Z. In contrast, 68% of non-users are from Generation X or the Baby Boomer generation. Half of the surveyed teens also reported using generative AI.
- What differentiates your company? Personalization is your greatest asset. Make this a critical part of your strategic plan. Focus on your company’s unique expertise and skills. These allow you to offer value-added services and local visibility. Look at ways to improve bundling, assembling, repairing, and customer training. Utilize advanced technologies to enhance your personalized differentiators. Regulatory pressures and cost challenges will continue to slow the pace of competing online e-commerce verticals, as well as other evolving companies and AI-native startups. Leverage personalization to increase your market share.
- What matters most to your customers? What continues to set the distributor apart from Amazon, Granger, Home Depot, and other evolving companies? It is clear that customers still value trust, adaptability, and strong local relationships. In your planning, consider how you can focus on person-to-person availability in new ways that will generate greater profits for both parties. This includes using AI technology. AI can lower costs in areas like order automation, product information enhancement, marketing, and returns processing. It also improves customer personalization by providing timely insights into customer behavior changes. Be sure to make targeted investments in digital technology, particularly AI applications.
Make a plan
In conclusion, consider developing a plan that takes into account how technology, such as AI, is affecting your business while also prioritizing the needs of your customers.Success will follow!
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by Art Waskey | Jul 30, 2025 | Art of Sales Weekly, Featured
Traditional forecasting
When I retired from a very successful distribution company in 2018, we were creating our strategic plan using the most current and sophisticated methods available. Sales forecasting is achieved by analyzing previous sales cycles and following leading economic indicators.We also reviewed other companies’ and suppliers’ forecasts in our distribution vertical. Using that information, we projected our top customer sales.
We created our five-year strategic plan using a combination of SWOT analysis, future asset development, and market share projections. We also evaluated the potential impact of adding new locations and products. Given the tools available at that time, these methods yielded the best planning results. Today, new technologies enable us to sharpen that forecast.
Unforeseen events
The above type of strategic planning could not foresee the effects of a global pandemic, 2023’s inflation, supply chain immobilization, generative AI, international wars, and tariff corrections. Also, each of those forces impacted how distributors operate, compete, and, most importantly, plan for the future. Moreover, to effectively compete in today’s technologically fueled market, new methods need to be added to traditional strategic forecasting techniques.
Keeping up
To continue to build resiliency in your strategic planning, keep up on new methods through sources like Distribution Strategy Group, National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors, and their affiliate, Modern Distribution Management.
It is especially important to keep an eye on Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications. AI technology both reduces the cost of doing business and improves customer personalization. Lastly, these initiatives are critical to a good strategic plan.
Exciting times
We live in an exciting time for distribution. How do you plan for the future? You sharpen your forecasting skills by including the use of new technology and improving customer personalization in your strategic planning.
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