TOB_Magazine

S ales can either make or break a product. No matter how great the marketing campaign may be, how charismatic the “face” of the brand is or how much money is spent on bringing the product to market, if the sales aren’t there, the company and brand won’t be around for much longer. When it comes to selling tobacco products, there’s no one- size-fits-all plan or blueprint that will work for every company. Each one has to figure out what sort of sales force it needs, what its message to retailers will be and what goal it must reach in order to compete effectively. These are all questions and topics that Jarrid Trudeau, Kristoff Cigars’ vice president of sales, must deal with on an ongoing basis. Before he began his tenure at Kristoff Cigars, Trudeau worked in the corporate world as an executive team leader at Target. It was a chance meeting at an in-store Kristoff event held at a local tobacconist that landed Trudeau on the radar of Kristoff Cigars’ president, Glen Case. Trudeau didn’t have a background in tobacco or cigar sales, but Case recognized his talent and enthusiasm for the product and decided he would be a good fit for the Kristoff sales team. After two years spent working as a sales manager, Trudeau was promoted to vice president of sales and charged with leading the company’s small team of salespeople and helping Case run the company. Since then, he has developed a unique approach that works well for Kristoff Cigars—and one that other tobacco businesses can use to improve their own sales efforts. Trudeau breaks down his strategy for success into three components: show up, don’t be a jerk, and always ask for something.” Here’s a closer look at how Trudeau applies these three rules to his sales approach and some reasons why you need to apply it to your own sales efforts. Good Representation The best salespeople aren’t just trying to get customers to buy a product; they’re helping them to solve problems. While Kristoff Cigars’ products are good and have the reviews and ratings to back up the claim, Trudeau doesn’t view the product as being the most important thing the company is selling. Instead, it’s the sales representatives pushing and promoting those products. “It’s important to have a good multichannel approach to get- ting in touch with the customers. The best advertisement you can have out there is your sales rep,” says Trudeau. “Obviously the cigars have to stand on their own, but the product we are selling is the rep. If we put a good sales rep out there who can sell the product, who will answer questions and who will do events, that’s going to do more to acquire customers than anything else.” It should come as no surprise that Trudeau spends most of his time ensuring that his sales reps are well taken care of, both in terms of having the tools and information they need to be effective on the road and in being rewarded for their efforts. Trudeau’s job as vice president of sales is proactive to the extent that he wants to be able to provide his sales reps with the information they need to be successful, and it’s reactive in that he tries not to micromanage his team. Instead, Trudeau spends his time creating and improving the company’s infrastructure and coaching the team. He confesses that his best days on the job are the ones when he’s trying to solve a problem for his reps, whether helping to close a deal, to manage schedules or to make sense of numbers. He sums up his approach to management as “what gets measured gets done,” meaning that being able to provide his team with numbers, reports and insights into what everyone is doing and how the com- pany is performing helps to bring focus and deliver desired results. “Selling our cigars is easy,” he explains. “We make a great prod- uct, it sells well, it stands on its own, and we market it well. ➤ THE PROBLEM SOLVERS Think sales is just about selling a product? Think again. Kristoff Cigars’ Jarrid Trudeau offers his tips for discovering what your customers really want and how you can get the most out of your company’s sales team. BY ANTOINE REID | PHOTOS BY DALE HEISE