As a rep, your car is very important to you. If you say otherwise you are probably being economical with the truth.
You will spend a lot of time in your car. One of my colleagues summed it up quite well when he said, " I love my car more than my girlfriend. Then again I spend more time in it than I do in her!"
The
company car is a highly motivational factor. If a company changes its car
policy such that the vehicles available are downgraded, it will probably experience
a mass exodus of sales representatives. At the best, the sales manager will
be really hacked off for a few months whilst all his reps moan about it.
What really, really, really upsets reps is when their company car is of a lower standard than that driven by direct competitors.
It is a fatal mistake made by office-based management to underestimate the motivational impact of a car on field-based staff. These same managers drive to sales meetings in their high-end executive cars and then stand up to tell the sales force that any success that the company experiences is down to them (the reps), that the profitability of the organisation can be traced back to them, and that the parent company really values their worth and that they'll do anything to keep them. However, when the subject of company cars and their importance to a how a rep feels about themselves is pointed out to them, their brain synapses suddenly become disjointed. They can never reconcile the concept that 'company car' plus 'motivation' equals 'sales'. What do these reps expect? They only do 40,000 miles a year and spend four hours per day in the car. Why do they think they should have a higher standard of car? Good grief! Salespeople are all moaners who think the world owes them a living.....
A good way to decide which company car to pick (assuming you get a choice) is to watch 'Top Gear'. Order the car that Jeremy Clarkson likes the least and you can guarantee it will give you many thousands of miles of carefree motoring.
Over the last ten years, I've been averaging around 40,000 miles per year. I collect my customers at the gates of their hospital and drive them up and down the M1 whilst telling them about the products.
Posing in the car is compulsory. Ray-Bans are still the things to wear. If you hang your jacket in the rear of your car it must be on a coat-hanger that bears the 'Next' logo (or better). Marks and Spencer is not cool. If in doubt, toss your jacket casually on the back seat, as if it doesn't matter that it is getting creased.
For the record, I drive a Vauxhall Vectra, buy my suits from M&S and wear Foster Grants. I don't claim to be cool.
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