Roadman Roundtable

The story is told of a dedicated road salesman, perhaps not the brightest bulb in the business but one of the hardest working, most service-oriented guys you'll ever want to meet.

Anyway, it is a Friday night and his long-suffering wife is finally being taken out for a nice dinner. Ready to close down the shop for the day, this road guy receives a panicked call from a customer 100 miles away, desperately in need of a new uniform for a talented transfer student playing in his first game the next morning.

Without a second thought – and supposedly after a quick phone call home – this guy personally takes the uniform off the rack in his store, adds the number and name and school logo, picks up his better half in his 10-year-old Toyota with a leaky radiator and drives the 90 minutes to make the delivery by 8 p.m. that evening.

His wife? She gets dinner at a nice oceanfront restaurant 100 miles away. Who says roadmen don't have a social life?



The story may be more team dealer urban legend than total truth, but too many similar stories emerged in our chats with dealers, roadmen and vendors for it to be too far off base. We set out to find out where the erstwhile roadman stands today in the scheme of things in sporting goods and we found him right there in the middle of the road, sample case in hand and a dazed look on his face.

Sporting Goods Dealer: A simple question to start: What makes a good roadman?

Sonandres: Relationships. There's an unspoken belief among roadmen and the coaches that "I'll keep you out of trouble."A coach needs that because he has enough to worry about without wondering if his uniforms are going to show up on time.

Swangard: A good roadman is as good at customer service as anybody can possibly be. One of the reasons it is so tough to break into this business as a new salesman is because of the relationships these guys have. The people they are calling on are almost like family.

Webster: Well, it is a sales position, so you have to be aggressive and beat the bushes because it is very competitive.

Kruse: I had one salesman that delivered uniforms on a Thanksgiving Day morning for a tournament. And I've had people standing up until two in the morning pressing sponsor names on the back of Little League T-shirts. That's a good roadman.

Swangard: Work ethic is certainly a big part of it. The hours a good roadman put in are extraordinary. You walk into a Hayden's on a Saturday and half of his road salesmen are in there working.



SGD: Honestly, is being a sporting goods roadman a good job?

Kruse: It is a great job, but it's also a tough job because of the demands and because there are peaks and valleys in the course of a year that challenge them. It's certainly not an 8-4:30 job.

Baumgarten: It's a difficult job these days. You're out there selling, which is fine, but then comes the hard part of keeping on top of the product coming in. That has changed the job because it keeps me from going out on the road more.

Schneider: For the right person being a roadman is a great job. You are not going to live in the Taj Mahal, but you can make a good living probably doing something you really like. I can think of worse things to do for a living.

Swangard: Sure it's a good job, but it is not a job where you are going to make a million dollars. But put it this way: A lot of what I am now comes from what I learned as a roadman out in the trenches.



SGD: So with the millionaire thing out of the question, how does a dealer motivate his roadmen?

Sonandres: Good question. All I can say is that he had better find a way, because the business doesn't belong to the dealer, it belongs to the roadman. If he changes companies, you'll be lucky to keep 20% of that business.

Swangard: He has to be a self-starter. If he isn't, you as a dealer are not going to be able to motivate him anyway.

Baumgarten: Money helps me.

Snow: The best dealers give their roadmen the tools they need to compete.

Considine: As a vendor, the best thing we can do is to make things simpler for the dealer and his salesmen. We make sure our salesmen walk in their shoes so they know what they need to do this.

Webster: We try to supply our roadmen with the proper product and pricing to get their job done. Obviously, financially, the more they sell the more they make, so we make that easier for them.



SGD: With the roadman in such a strong position, how much "stealing" of roadmen by the competition goes on? And how do you protect yourself?

Kruse: We have picked up a few and right now there seems to be a lot of movement of salespeople. To keep that from happening you have to keep them advancing. Because if you lose a person, you've lost a key component of your business, someone that it has taken you three years to train and to get the know the business.

Schneider: Of course, a lucrative package is key, as long as you keep your own bottom line in mind. A roadman is a business partner of the owner, and he has to sell at a profit to make his own profit. It is easy to steal a salesman if you are just going to pay a salary.

Swangard: Dealers need to treat them right, pay them well and make them part of your family. Nobody would leave Ron Kruse because he knows how to treat his roadmen well and he bends over backwards to make them happy. Why? Because he knows they are the ones who make him money.

Webster: We are honest and we treat our salespeople like family. We are lenient and maybe don't crack the whip like we probably should, but for someone to want to go somewhere else there would have to be a real financial incentive.



SGD: Speaking of money, we'd like to know how you pay your roadmen? Not how much, but how?

Webster: We pay them an annual salary to live on and a bonus on top of that.

Kruse: All commission based on payment of invoice. We have a regular formula based on volume and profitability.



SGD: Is there any one best way or paying?

Sonandres: The most important thing when it comes to compensation is that there desperately needs to be a sliding scale. Whether it is 6, 8, 10 or 12%, it can not and should not be 10% across the board for any sale. A dealer that sets up its compensation as a flat rate is making a mistake because if you give a roadman 10% on any sale there are no limits. They could sell something at below cost and all of a sudden you're paying this guy 10% for losing your money. You must tie or relate commission to the profit made on that order.



SGD Let's wrap it up with one more thought-provoking question. Will there always be sporting goods roadmen?

Swangard: Yes, that is one of the premises of the team business. A sale comes in the last three feet and that three feet is just me and you, eyeball to eyeball, sitting across a desk from each other. It's a handshake and an 'I'll get that for you' that makes this business. I don't see how this industry can be successful without roadmen.

Snow: If there are salesmen in sporting goods there will always be roadmen. People always want to do business with people they know. Sure, I can buy a car on the Internet, but I would much rather buy a car from someone I can speak to.

Kruse: I hope so, but am not so sure with all that is happening in the industry with Internet sales and buying direct through catalogs. The roadman still plays an important role because people want to be serviced and taken care of, especially in something like custom uniforms. I worry about what is happening, but the roadman is the life support of our business.

Baumgarten: Sure, but the job will be different. They will not be on the road all the time. There's a lot more phone and computer work to be done. That's why I make sure I deliver all of the product myself so I can still touch the customer. I consider that part of the selling process.

Considine: I think so. We have had many discussions about whether the Internet will replace the way we do business, but I don't see that happening. The Internet is changing the way we do business and communicate with our customers, but not necessarily for selling. — SGD