Front Row Solutions

Imagine trying to drive a car with only the rear view mirror to guide you. Not a pretty concept is it? Very often at industry conferences in discussions with publishers I hear the desire to be more efficient in their sales management. So how do you do that when more often than not the only information front line sales managers have access to is when they spend the entire day in the field riding with reps (and you can only be so a small number of people in any given day), or through an archaic reporting system that turnarounds sales data within a day or so after the fact. Really is like driving that car with just your rear view mirror, isn’t it?

We think we found a way to add a view out the front windshield to your sales management car. We recently looked at the unique Sales Productivity & Accountability Management system from Front Row Solutions which provides “real time” sales results information. Their software provides both management and sales reps with an instantaneous overview of sales performance.

We recently talked with Tom Tolbert, the President of Front Row Solutions and a 16 year Yellow Page Industry veteran with experience in sales management at the District, Regional, and VP Sales levels at several industry leading publishers about their new system. Before becoming the leader of Front Row, Tom successfully managed hundreds of sales canvasses in his career as well as having extensive experience in all facets of the publishing business. Tom used that experience in new canvass rollouts, prototype and pure pay for performance directories to shape a truly leading edge product.

YPT: How long has this system been around??
Tolbert: The system was developed in 2007, and our first customer went live in early 2008. As a brief overview, it provides Key Performance Indicators on your company’s Sales Activities delivered seamlessly via a web-based interface to your desktop via Front Row’s Management Dashboard and has the ability for multiple drill-down levels to really get as deep into the data as you would like.

YPT: Who’s most excited about this product concept??
Tolbert: Probably front line managers because now they have a way to dig through all of the data minutia they get to figure out who’s working and who isn’t and who needs additional training, support, or development. For senior management which in bigger organizations is often a couple of layers removed from the actual reps, they now have a real time, feel for what’s going on in any market, on any team with any rep, at any given point of the day. It also provides a unique way for those senior managers to reach out and touch a rep with a positive message when they have just made a sale. Some senior level managers in larger organizations may not have a chance to interact directly with a rep more than a couple of times a year. With this system they can provide quick feedback across the organization. And we all know how high performing reps like that adulation.

YPT: How does it work??
Tolbert: When the rep leaves an advertisers location following a sales call, using their mobile phone they send a short text message which describes the type of call, results of the sale, and how much money was involved. That information is collected and aggregated by rep, by manager, or in any combination the company wants.
Because of the real time entry it is also gives the manager an idea of where the rep is physically located.

YPT: Does rep need any special equipment?
Tolbert: Not really. As long as the rep has a mobile phone that has SMS/text (Short Messaging Service) or WAP (Wireless Access Protocol) access to the Internet to send short messages. SMS allows for short messages (up to 136 characters) to and from mobile phones and computer systems.
That’s the big difference with our system as a rep can spend less than 5 minutes a day to handle all of their daily reporting by sending a short message in 10 seconds or less after each sales call.

What requirements are there for publishers?
Tolbert: None to speak of. We can interface with all of the formal publishing platforms. We do have a formal relationship with DIAD so we are fully integrated. But we have customers that use Bookman, Yellow Magic, and others.

YPT: Isn’t this going to make reps feel like they are being micromanaged?
Tolbert: In today’s results driven sales environment where many of the reps are on straight commission or high commissioned pay programs, they are expected and incented to produce results. This system affords the reps a higher degree of direct management transparency, and doesn’t necessarily require them to come in to the office every day to report results. So in the long run it gives them more time to sell. Most importantly though, it’s all about increasing sales productivity. If an organization has 100 sales people, we believe the publisher will see 100 more sales calls a day from that team at a minimum. Because it removes so much of the normal results reporting, we think it allows reps to make one more call a day, and still get home in plenty of time to have dinner with their family.

For managers, it will obviously prevent a lower performer rep from hiding. It drives accountability, identifies and rewards the top performers. Managers generally know already where the rep is working and what types of accounts they are selling to in a typical day. It also highlights those reps that are true performers because it demonstrates to management that the results they are delivering and allows them to receive that timely kudos for the results they bring.

YPT: Isn’t this big brother watching?
Tolbert: It may be viewed that way by some, but as one VP of Sales noted the only people afraid of the police usually have some reason to be. While at Names & Numbers where I had reps spread across 10 states and 65 markets, each rep had to fax a daily sales report to Kansas where the information was entered and compiled for distribution to managers later that evening. By comparison, this process is so much easier for reps and managers, removes the issue of any bad rep handwriting, and doesn’t require any fax or computer access. Now after each sales call, the reps completes the activity card questions, and essentially their daily reporting is done. In addition the manager gets the information now instead of at the end of the day or week.

It is important that everyone understands that all the system does is provide data. It is still up to the manager to decide how to use that information in managing their team.

YPT: Can managers also get the dashboard summaries on their cell phones if they are out in the field with reps?
Tolbert: Yes. It does work best on the new smart phones, but we have launched a new mobile browser that condenses some of the dashboard information for managers. That way they can see real time sales and productivity data at any given moment.

YPT: What are the biggest concerns you get from publishers when they first look at this system?
Tolbert: One is a false belief that “we already have a system that does that” and it is usually a very time intensive, rep dependent reporting process which assumes that the reps are taking the time to report at the end of day and remembering what happened on each call. There is no comparison between the information received from this real time, data rich process vs. those older processes.

The other concern is one that usually just requires some education, and that is this system will run off our top reps because they don’t want to be micromanaged. But we have found that with nearly all of our clients, once the top reps see how easy this is, how it does provide the confirmation of their results, and that they are able to get much more feedback from their manager and senior management, they typically love it. It also has many productivity tools in it for the rep like assignment management and mapping features. The lower performing reps are the ones that don’t like it and for most organizations, can actually result in what should be viewed as positive attrition.

YPT: What types of publishers have signed up for this system?
Tolbert: It has been a wide range of different sized publishers such as Valley, Names & Numbers, PDC, Hanson and Best Publications to name just a few. We also have newspaper publisher clients, clients in medical sales, plumbing supply service, elevator repair service and even a heavy equipment Case International dealer. Anyone that has an outside sales force is a potential candidate for this system.

YPT: What size organization does this system work for??
Tolbert: Our smallest client has just 3 sales reps, and we go up to ones that have several hundred reps. But even in the larger organizations of several hundred, they are still configured in teams of 8 to 10 reps that a manager needs real time data on to make informed decisions in order to meet company goals. In a smaller company, if one of those reps decides to slack off for Just a day it can really have a huge impact on that team, that manager, and even the company’s overall results.

About Front-Row Solutions:

Front Row Solutions provides real time sale force management systems and sales rep productivity tools designed to enhance sales performance. The analytics collected will truly affect your bottom line sales results.

For more information you can see a video of our product at: http://www.frontrow-solutions.com/video-lightbox/homepage-vid.php, or for a personalized demo contact Tom Tolbert at, 505-699-3320 or via email at tom@frontrow-solutions.com.