Vendors Please Listen to Your Agents!

I got a boatload of emails today regarding end of year spiffs from what seems like every Master Agent and/or Vendor in the entire Telecom Industry.

I have to say that I enjoy these emails, because usually they are a way for me to make a little extra money.  Hey give me 125% upfront, or 10K if I sell 10K.  These are awesome spiffs.  Do you know what a bad one is?  Whey the spiff gives the customer a bunch of months free.

Vendors, this does us no good.  These are just months where the agents don’t get paid.  I was on the phone with a couple of them who are offering these “spiffs” today and had some enjoyable conversations.

One vendor told me that I should use it as a closing tool.  Gee, thanks for your help bud!  Why would I use his three free month promo (and not get paid for three months), when I can use his competition’s promo and get 150% upfront?  Plain fact is that I wouldn’t.

Now, I am all for helping the customer out and getting them the best deal possible.  However, that does not involve me taking money out of my pocket unless I absolutely have to.

Another vendor told me that their process for giving the customer the three free months is so difficult that most customers just give up or don’t even fill out the rebate forms.  Ok, now I have to deal with a customer that is going to be unhappy because this guy figured out a way to make it difficult and therefore no one usually gets the three months.  If I want to work with stuff like this I will go sell insurance and listen to people call me about their claims.

Finally, the third vendor I spoke with said that their accounting department never catches up with the credits when this happens.  Since, I only get paid off a static MRC number the credits “usually” don’t come back to haunt the agent.

The point of all this is that, and I speak for all agents that I know (which I probably shouldn’t) is that we don’t want to give away free months.  If you are going to give money away give it to us.  Believe me, it will help you sell more in the future.  My concern is that this will fall on deaf ears as the marketing arms of most companies come up with these promotions.  So, vendors…..talk to your marketing people and make this nonsense go away!