Lynn Cormier

As a territory manager, I’m responsible for sales in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. This means I spend a lot of time driving from place to place visiting existing customers and meeting with business owners who I hope will become customers. With existing customers, I make sure the products I’m selling are meeting their needs. If new products are developed, I make sure our customers are aware of the benefits of switching. When you are in sales, it is all about relationships. Sure you have to invest time learning about the products. But you also need to learn about your customers and their needs to make sure you have good relationships.

I also do a lot of promotions and marketing. With existing customers, I may tell them about a new product that will help their business or improve what they can offer their customers. Or it might be more sales focused, like setting up a program to boost sales and reward their top performers for growth and volume increases.

Marketing and promotion is also important for getting new clients. For example, I might set up a meeting with a trucking fleet, an after market parts store, or an automobile dealership to show them the products I’m selling and how their business could benefit from using these products. Or it could be more public focused, like when I am at a car show with my 80 foot display booth. This is where I display, demonstrate and just talk about our products. I also give away samples of our products so people can try them out. This type of promotional work is very important because it helps to make sure your products are known in the marketplace and it demonstrates that your company is part of the market place. It allows for one-on-one interaction and helps build those relationships I mentioned before.

Whether I’m on the road, or back at my office, I have to follow up on phone messages, emails, and processing orders from customers. Covering such a wide territory, it means I have to be organized and on top of things. In returning these calls and emails, sometimes I have to answer technical questions related the type of oil a customer might need. This is where product knowledge, industry knowledge and science are important. I have to be able to talk about the chemical properties of the different oils to explain the differences between my products and those of a competitor. When it comes to product knowledge, the company does extensive lab analysis of our oils to determine things like how they stand up to use and how long they last. I use science skills to explain the graphs of oil breakdown so customers understand why our oil is best.

My first language is French and I use it regularly. Our head office is based in Quebec and we have a large number of French clients in New Brunswick. I work alone most of the time from home office. But I deal with colleagues who work in our warehouse and the people who deliver our products. So it is really like an extended team where we keep in contact to ensure the right products get to customers on time.