If managers share information with the employees and include them in making decisions, then I feel the productivity of the company would increase. I’m not saying include them on everything, because the manager is a manager for a reason, but on decisions that the employee would know more about, they should be included. They should especially be included on decisions that would impact customers, or decisions that would affect customers at that level.

If upper-level management would give some sort of opportunity for the voice of the salesperson to be heard and considered, I think the salesperson retention level will increase and employee morale will be higher.

Salespeople(because they are in the field) possess valuable knowledge due to the fact that they communicate with people everyday. Salespeople have the type of career where they are able to travel to a variety of places and form relationships with a diversity of cultures. A major problem in sales management is turnover, as well as role conflict. Often times salespeople do have divided loyalties between their customers and their company which creates stress and thus may very well convince a salesperson to leave his or her job.

I think that managers need to listen to their sales people more versus just looking at the numbers and making sure they make quota. The most important aspect of selling is building customer relationships, and this is what sales people are doing daily. This should not be over looked by management. I have often been put in the same position. Because of my outgoing personality, I really enjoy interacting with my customers and hearing what they have to say. For instance, customers will give me suggestions about different wines that they like, and if we do not have the brands I mention it to the manager. Mangement’s response is usually: “That’s up to us to decide. You do your job, we’ll do ours!”

It’s very frustrating because I feel that we as servers, are just like salespeople; we are on the front line! It is usually our interactions with customers and our personalities that bring customers back. I think good service is key in the restaurant business. For instance, let’s say you love the food at a restaurant, but you had very bad service. Even though you loved the food, would you come back to a place where the servers were unfriendly and rude? Certainly not. I believe that since I bring back many loyal customers (and make pretty good tips I might add), I should have some say so in what products management makes available! “Listen to your salespeople…and your servers!”