Column: Sales staff most important

Who is the most important person in your business? Once you know the answer, you can start making sure they are supported and trained to maximise potential for growth.
I'm a firm believer that if you are not growing your business by 20 per cent a year, you are actually going out of business.
All the time I see businesses drifting into failure - the owners unable, or unwilling, to do anything about it.
So, who is the most important person?
Is it the owner, the receptionist, the production person, the salesperson, the accounts person or the cleaner? The one person missed most when they take time off is the cleaner, but I believe the most important person is the salesperson.
Sales is king. You can have the smartest accounts person, the wisest owner, the perfectionist production person but, without sales, you have nothing.
Yet most businesses give little training or recognition to their salespeople, when these people are the first contact in your business and, in a split second, they determine your success or failure.
Sales is a profession and a good salesperson is worth their weight in gold.
We recently decided to refurbish one of our bathrooms - new shower, toilet, vanity, taps, lights and accessories worth some $10,000. I went into a local supplier and asked for some information about what they could supply. To my astonishment the woman behind the counter failed; she handed me a brochure and said: "You will find all you need to know in here."
Did she ask me any questions to qualify me? No. Did she ascertain how serious I was about purchasing and what my list may contain? No. She gave me a price list and a reason to shop around. I went to one of her competitors and the salesperson did a fantastic job.
I bet the owner of the first shop treats that frontline person as a must-have, but not too important. She is probably low-paid, untrained and plays no part in the planning of the business.
But people like her are key to growth. They decide the future of that business. The sale never comes back. Future sales don't eventuate - my loyalty has gone elsewhere.
Realise where your income comes from and who generates it. Then train the people, reward them and respect them with inclusion in the planning of the business.
You may think it smart to employ a frontline person on minimum wage and spend no money on training, but you are the dummy. The smartest thing you can do is employ people smarter than yourself.
Pay them well, train them at every opportunity and let them do their job without strings.
In a tight economy the smart and well-trained will attract business from the rest. You decide where you want to be.
- Rod Meharry is a former member of the Government's Small Business Advisory Group and a previous small business owner now looking for a new challenge