DeWese--Time for Some Self-analysis

When you are face-to-face, you might ask, "Mary, do me favor. I'm curious. How do I stack up against the other salespeople who call on you? How can I improve?" Then ask, "While we're on the subject of improvement, how can my company improve?"

Now, you may get some darn good suggestions for improvement. Like your customer might say, "Bill, it would help if you would take the earring out of your nose and try to hide those tattoos with, maybe, a long sleeved dress shirt instead of that sleeveless T-shirt. And please stop parking your Harley in the handicapped space. Oh, and your company could be more timely with my press OKs. I really don't have time to sit in your lobby for three hours while the pressroom does makeready and comes up to color."