Your job is not to make it easy for the buyer

As a wine sales rep, the temptation is to make life easier for your buyers.

You run that will call.

You put up those shelf talkers.

You pick up the 10pm phone call, or respond to the 1am email.

You train their staff.

You figure out the industry trends for them.

You do the work, they get the glory (and you both get the money).

It’s a trap to think in these terms, for your job then becomes one of reaction, of putting out fires, and of constant appeasement and hopeful compliments. This is the world most sales reps live in, because they defined their job early on as one of making life easier for the buyers.

Try this instead: your job is to make your buyers better at what they do.