Edward i think you are right the best sales guy for any company is the service guy , He is the one who meets and deals with the customer all the time. A good service tec is your best sales rep as many companies look to him when they need a problem solving. As for the internet most managers are sales people who have come up though the company so they don't want to see there way of doing things change but look at Apple first with the ipod this has changed the way most customers buy there music now they just download it at a lower cost, then the iphone again most people use it for many different things.So for the companies who say the best way is to go and see the customer then spend all that time losing money trying to get a sale good look but you wont be trading in 10 years time or if you are you would have lost your share holders all there money. Barlow have proven that. Another point is that most managers are now younger so dealing on the internet is more natural they understand that they can just search for a product
and it is there on screen in a couple of seconds no one calling taking up there time in the office no one ringing them to find out whether they want there machine. none of the hassle that comes with dealing with certain people. What the forward thinking companies will do is see an opportunity to be able to make sales and increase profits and be able to pay good wages to good people because with out this they wont survive. Another point is that people are talking gross profit what is important is the net profit which might be a loss say of $1,000 so its just cost the company $1,000 to sell a truck. Then if there is a truck to come back that is on lease with a balloon payment and the value is $1,500 and the final payment is $2.500 then you can add another $1,000 on to the loses so now you have just lost $2,000 do this 20 times
and thats a $40,000 loss on this rep.