A few years ago, I was meeting with a regional sales manager that worked for a video manufacturer. I was on the road visiting another client, and we took the opportunity to meet at a Starbucks. We’re friends, so our conversations are transparent. During that visit, he claimed that he’s become the highest paid and most glorified milk man in history. I chuckled, but he was serious. He felt as though he ran from partner to partner, dropping off the milk, but not really bringing any unique value.
Less than two hours later, I was in my hotel room talking on the phone with the owner of an integration company. They were a client of mine, and we were having our monthly check-in call about our project. When I asked him about his time being freed up to take on more “owner” duties – which was the main objective of my project – he sighed a bit and offered this: “You know, if these manufacturers would stop popping in every time they’re in town, I’d have a lot more time. It’s not like they bring us anything – we’re just part of their milk run.”
No kidding. Twice in the same afternoon I heard manufacturer sales people referred to as conducting milk runs – and neither the channel partner or the manufacturer was happy about it. Running a region in today’s post-recession / post-Internet world is insane. Ten years ago, end-users and channel partners needed your expertise, and your region was reasonably defined so you could offer that expertise. Since then, the Internet has made everyone brilliant, and the recession forced the regions to balloon in size. Today’s result is that you’re managing three times the amount of channel partners who don’t rely on you anymore. So, what can you do?
Plenty. However, there are four actions you can take that will quickly make a difference.
