Hi, everyone, and I am delighted to welcome to our Coursera course here, Mr. Brian Ours. Brian, he and I are going to have a conversation, and you're going to have the opportunity to learn a bit about him, and his job, and what he does. I'm going to have him introduce himself to you, but I can tell you that Brian is a sales manager. He is with the company called Cintas. He is also a very proud graduate of WVU, and has been a great help to our sales program over the years. So, Brian, first things first, thank you. Thanks for being part of Coursera course, and being part of this and sharing your considerable experiences with us. So, let's just begin with Brian. Thank you. Tell me a bit about your career, and who you work for. Awesome. Thank you for having me. The quick version I've been with Cintas now for 15 years. So, I began my career at Cintas as one of our service reps. So, jumping on the truck, driving the truck, having a delivery route everyday and running through. Started with that, I was a service rep for five-and-a-half years, transitioned over to sales, and ultimately was a market development rep with Cintas, which handled our current business. From that, transition to a facility service rep over the course of two years and then moved into a uniform sales rep. With that, was a uniform sales rep for about eight years, and from that, experienced a lot of challenges and changes through the course of the economies, and then moved to a market sales manager with Cintas Corporation. So, which is where I am at now. Great. So, let's talk about Cintas. Tell our students a bit about the company and what it does, because I'm sure some of them probably are not familiar with the name. Absolutely. Cintas is a company that was started back in 1929, out of Cincinnati, Ohio. We're an industrial laundering, outsourcing company. So, anything from industrial uniforms, floor mats, facility service products, to everything from first aid and safety, fire suppression systems. So, everything to get the employees ready for the workday. Just to get a sense as to the size of the company, about how many employees do you have? Cintas is a fortune 500 company, roughly 30,000 and we call them partners, because no job is any more important than the other. So, we have roughly 30,000 partners, and 405 locations across the country, Canada, Mexico, and two locations in China. Wow, so this is a really significant huge operation and all. So, now, in talking about you as a sales manager, and tell us a bit about what it is that you manage? Like, what do you oversee? At my location, I have one facility service rep, two market development reps, and two uniform reps. The everyday through the work week, we have a phone block, Monday and Wednesday mornings, where we have a sales meeting first thing in the morning on Monday mornings to get the team rallied up, and then they go into phone block. My day consists of, at that point, a couple of sales leadership calls, and then we roll into one team meeting on Mondays. Then after that, my sales reps go out into the field. So, from that, I'll jump in the car with at least one of the reps every day, either just to guide, to lead, to help them in areas that they may be struggling in, and to get in front of more prospects. So, when you are with your sales team, like when you're with them on a sales call, what do you find your self mostly, how do you help these people? Is there certain types of needs that they express that you address? There is. Well, in one every sales call, when we come out of the sales call, I'll ask them what they did good? Where they felt they struggled and an area that they felt that they could have done something different; very constructive, very positive. I never give negative criticism. I feel that it's anti-constructive. So, we'll break down every single sales call because am not with them every day to better guide them. So, when we do go into a sales call, we follow what's called requirements based selling. So, with all of the different sales approaches, we follow requirements based selling. So, we walk in, will set the agenda. Did they set the agenda with the prospect? Did we find out what their business objectives and buying motives were? Did we find out were they the decision makers? So, with that, we walk through the process. Did we gather relative evidence? Were we able to make the sale? Or what do we need to do to follow up? So, we break down each part of the process. That way, we can take a look at what they did well. Was there a breakdown in certain areas that we could have done better that if we didn't get the sale, that we could have got the sale? So, that way there's better set up from a time management standpoint. When they are making that phone call to set the appointment, are we getting in front of the right person? Are we bringing what we need to the table, whether it's samples or whether it's value driven? Were we able to gain the business at the end of the day? I see. So, when you were talking about Cintas, and maybe just to get a better sense as to what you are dealing, talk to us a bit about like just the industry that you operate in. So, I believe you are the market leader, what is this industry that your space is? The industry that we are in is industrial launderable garments. So, garments to get employees ready for the workday. Products and services that allow businesses to operate. So, everything from toilet paper, paper towels, hand soaps, the consumables that they need to flame resistant garments for certain industry from they protective standpoint, that they are required to have on the everyday. So, we are an outsourcing company. So, if people, we are going out to gain the business from an image standpoint, for car dealerships, for the back of the house. Protective garments for the oil and gas industry to be able to get out one location to operate, to just companies with shop towels, and whatever the case may be. Wow. Right, and I would think, I'm just thinking about, if you think about businesses and those that where people wear certain garments or uniforms and all. I'm thinking like hospital would be. Absolutely. Scrubs for hospital employees to the maintenance staff being in flame resistant garments because of those are requirements, to in a way, in the hospital setting alone, we can handle virtually every different department from a color standpoint to be color-coded, for nursing to anesthesiology, to whatever department it may be. So, we come in and do a side assessment, and we're able to do a customized program to fit each and every customer's needs, whether it's a floor mat for an entry to the executive garments. All right. So, one of the things that we talked about in the course here is the business of sales forecasting and how that's a very important thing. I would think that that's one of your job responsibilities as a sales manager. Can you tell us a bit about how Cintas approaches the business of sales forecasting? Sure. Each of my reps, we do what's called a QSAP or Quarterly Sales Action Plan. So, we take a look at the previous six weeks of what they have sold, the previous three months of what they have sold, and knowing what is in their sales funnel of what is going to close, what has the potential of closing, what is basically a stretch. From that, we take a look, and I have them provide me their forecast. Then, from there I take all of my team, and go through, and from that, I make my forecast, and which goes up to my director and my VP, which in turn goes up to the senior VP of sales within the corporation. So, that way we know what selling expenses we have coming up. We know potentially from being in the stock market, what the stocks are going to do. So, the company can accurately forecast to our shareholders. Right. In fact, you brought up what was my next question which was also, is part of your forecasting, you are looking at your sales expenses, and your budget that you have for that and all. So, one of the things that we want to point out to our students is that, we talked about a number of ways that one can develop a sales forecast. What you've heard Brian mention is more of the bottom-up approach. Did you hear how he talked about, they first turned to their salespeople, and ask them, to estimate what they think their sales are going to be? Now, the argument for that is, that they're the people that are closest to the customer, and they have a feel for what things have to do. I would think Brian is the sales manager, you need to then look at those numbers, and in some cases exercise managerial judgment, may be increasing or in some cases decreasing the numbers based on your own. Well, and it comes back to realistic, numbers. If I have a rep that's struggling, is he giving an accurate forecast? If I have a rep that is crushing it, where is his forecast versus somebody that's struggling? So, it gives me a temperature, also, one, what the economy is doing. Other factors in that are elections, whether it's mid-term, whether it's the presidential election that plays into our industries being, with dealing with a lot of coal and oil and gas out of our region. So, when you get into presidential elections, how is that going to look for the next couple of years? Is that something that's going to hinder us, or is that something that is going to put a turn to where everything is better? So, a lot goes into it. So, as the sales manager, so you obviously, one of your key points of input is what your own sales force is telling you. Where else do you turn? How do you get a feel for your market? What else do you do? Myself, of course, paying attention to the news is critical. Talking with my operations within our location. We have 125 employees out of my location alone. So, being directly involved with my general manager, my service managers to where, are we losing business? If we are, why are we losing business? Is something happening economically that is slowing things down? So, are we growing as a location? Are we shrinking as a location? That plays in part too, into where, if we're shrinking as a location, how do we turn that around, and what factors are being involved in that? All right. So, again, to reinforce to our students, one of the other points that we talked about when it comes to sales forecasting is multiple points of input and trying to get as much information in order to make a business judgment as to what you think you're going to do. What you've heard Brian talk about is that he's, tries to put his finger on a lot of different pulses to get a sense as to what goes on.
