Planned Obsolescence
When I was operating a seed sales territory, I managed more than 120 dealers, along with 42 District Sales Managers and 5 Regional Sales Managers.
This was no small task.
In order to keep up with all of the activity, while ensuring that I was providing the support my Team needed, I relied on clear, precise communications. With that number of people reporting to me, I needed to communicate a lot, every day.
The U.S. Postal Service and the Telephone Company were my primary, in fact, my only means of communication outside of face-to-face contact. Since I traveled almost constantly, I had to make sure that most of my schedule was planned out in advance of leaving my home or office.
Planting seasons and harvest seasons were especially challenging times of the year. It was very hard to find growers because often they were spread out across the countryside, working in fields far from their home base.
This meant that if I didn’t have an appointment prior to my arrival in the territory, I had to make face-to-face contact with someone who knew where my prospect or customer would be.
