"Nothing ever happens until somebody sells something."

"I love to sell...When you sell, you're the closest you can come to another human being--without protection." Robin Williams in Cadillac Man.

The Vice-President of Sales (VPoS) fills an extremely important function in the Company. Without a good VPoS, the Company has no revenue and, ultimately, no profitability.

The VPoS's job, in some ways works exactly mirrors the VPoM's job. Whereas almost all of the VPoM's duties take place during the regular Company meeting, the VPoS's takes place almost entirely outside the two hour meeting. Further, while the VPoM can see before his eyes almost all of the activity in the manufacturing function, the VPoS sees almost none of his and needs to rely on second-hand reports.

When the K-Business meeting begins, the VPoS will immediately ask those who made sales to report to him. In order to prevent a general confusion, the VPoS may simply go down the role in alphabetical order starting with the president and proceeding through the entire company.

The new company computers should greatly aid in this process. The VpoS may work in one of two ways. He might work directly at the computer. Alternately, he can take paper notes and immediately afterwards go to the computer to make an update.

Whenever he finds an individual who has made a sale, he'll call that employee over, receive the employee's cash, and make the appropriate entries in his sales log. For every employee, he'll have to update his master sales record. Then, once he went through the entire list, he'll need to give the money to CFO who, in turn, will write him a receipt for the appropriate amount of money, and he will also accept any returned (unsold or damaged) goods. The VpoS may well wish to have the MM assist him in this important book-keeping function of his job. After the VpoS updates his master sales record, he should make a second copy to take home. Every time he changes this record, he needs to save it under a new name, i.e. "sle_ms01" becomes "sle_ms02." When he gets home, he needs to copy from disc to his own hard-drive so that more than one copy exists.

After finishing , the president may well wish to discuss the Sales situation with the VP of Sales. During the meeting, particularly if sales lag, the VPoS may wish to meet with individual members of the sales force to encourage them or try to teach some new sales techniques. The two above functions tend to cancel each other out. A strong selling company involves a lot of bookkeeping to records the sales, commissions, etc.. leaving no time and little need to work on selling techniques. A weak selling company has few sales to report but lots of time to discuss poor sales.

The last few minutes form a particularly important time for the VPoS. While the VPoM tries to wind down the manufacturing function and complete his own records, the VPoS needs to determine which employee intends to take home the finished products. A good VPoS will make sure that every member of the company takes something home to sell! This means updating his master sales record again, but only the "iss" column.

This loss of time, 30 minutes at the start of the meeting and 20 at the end, may leave the VPoS with little time to manufacture. However, unless the VPoS does his job well the manufacturing may have little real purpose, so the VPoS needs to reserve his time and work slowly, if necessary, to train his work force and accurately fill out his records.

C. The VPoS in Product Selection and Pricing

The VPoS and VPoM should work together with the CFO in determining the feasibility of a product. The VPoM, through his records, can determine the fixed costs of capital and labor (salaries). He can also determine the VC/unit by determining the VC of materials and labor. The break-even point of a firm comes from the following equation:

BE = FC/ (sales) Price - AVC

The VPoS holds the remaining portion of the equation under his control, i.e. the selling price. The VPoS needs to determine how much consumers will pay for the projected item. The more that they pay, the quicker the company will break-even and, ultimately, the larger the profit. Also, he can add in the amount of commissions, i.e. an additional VC, if contemplated by the company.

Here, the Marketing Manager, if extant, can help the VPoS. He can try to research what people will pay for the product.

Ultimately, the VPoS needs to say "no!" to a product that the Company cannot sell in sufficient numbers at the market price to make a profit.

In fact, commonly the VPoS or Marketing Manager comes up with the product idea. Their already "buying into" the product often helps the sales force buy into it also.

VPoSs often mistakenly believe that their product must have one "price." Anyone who understands basic economics will understand that at a given price only so many units of a product will sell, and that this number may not equal that necessary to "empty the factory shelves."

More flexible Companies realize that the price may have to vary a bit. For example, one worker's output may look considerably better than another's. Also, at the end of the year, as the company approaches "liquidation," it may want to sell out its stock at any price rather than simply "write it off." K-Business sample forms purposely allow for some leeway in terms of recording sales.

At the end of the year in particular, the VpoS needs to think of selling everything at "any price." Better that the company "take a loss" on an already produced unit than to take an even bigger loss throwing it away.

When a company awards a "commission," it returns a portion of the sales money to the salesman. Some businesses, such as real estate or trial lawyers, rely almost exclusively on commissions. To the VPoS the benefits of commissions probably seem obvious: they get more product sold, but they also come at a price as they cut into the profitability of the product by raising the AVC (or lowering the "real" price).

Commissions come in two forms: percentage and flat-rate. The K-Business forms accommodate either form of payment. The percentage basis may encourage more sales of higher-priced items, but they complicate bookkeeping for the VPoS.

Different Companies will take different approaches to compensation, i.e. the total package of pay received by workers. In some companies, particularly strong-selling ones, workers may receive no commissions at all and receive higher salaries and wages. In other companies, particularly weak-selling ones, the Company may cut its wages and salaries, or even suspend them, and raise it commissions. This can have the effect of "jump-starting sales," but, as the VPoM will undoubtedly remind; it may lead to very lax standards of manufacture which will make sales harder.

The VPoS needs to understand, also, that paying commissions can severely skew the lines of authority of the Company. It may undermine the President if the Safety Director, who sells with abandon, receives double his monthly check. Some VPoSs will answer that the Safety Director gives more to the Company, but not all would agree to this.

Ultimately, the VPoS needs to keep the entire question of commissions fresh in his mind. Judiciously used, they can spur a weak company into stronger performance. Used foolishly, they can lead to revolt and anger.

Many K-Business companies use an old strategy employed by American firms, the "Mall Sale." In these instances, the Company gets permission to set up a table in the middle of the large space of the mall or in the lobby of a company's workplace. This allows for a much broader audience to see the Company's product. A company may end up earning as much as 40% of its revenue at a mall sale.

Before undertaking a "Mall Sale," the VPoS needs to obtain permission to use the facilities for sales. In addition, he needs to set out a "selling schedule" for all of the hours of the mall's operation so that someone "mans the table" during the entire duration of the sale. In addition, he needs to arrange transportation of company members and their products to the site. Since the VPoS usually takes primary responsibility for the Mall Sale, he/she may end up manning the table alone at the least desired shifts.

Before embarking on a Mall Sale, the VPoS needs to decide, with the President and VPoHR, on the issue of hourly wages and commissions. Traditionally, Companies only pay commissions during Mall Sales and award each sale individually. However, the firm may decide to pay wages on certain less desirable shifts or award attendance bonuses; it may also decide to split all sales according to the shift rather than individuals. This latter strategy works particularly well when, during a rush, many sales take place. The VPoS needs to decide these issues before the Sale.

Certain parents in 2004-2005 objected to having their children attend a mall sale. While the new contract does not allow firing members over such matters, parents will need to agree that their children will sell in some fashion. This means that members unwilling or unable to participate must provide an alternate method of selling, even if that means their parents make a large number of purchases.

In the end, the most fundamental challenge to the VPoS lies in getting product sold. A VPoS with weak computer and recording skills can probably survive with assistance from his fellow officers, but not without sales. The VPoS who can't move product will not usually finish the year.

While entire books exist on the subject of sales, K-Business will offer the following suggestions to those VPoSs who need additional ideas.

The Sales Master record contains the most spreadsheet linked numbers of any record other than the CFO's records, so the VPoS must fill it out very carefully. The form currently contains "default information" which the VPoS needs to gradually replace. Before putting "zeroes" for everything, the VPoS needs to watch understand the underlying formulas beneath each square.

Each evening, as he/she completes the Sales Log, he will go through the list of Company personnel and fill in the various columns starting with the left. At the end of the evening, he will return to the central column. The left "initial" column indicates how many products the employee currently has in his hand. Thus, all employees should start with "zero" for January 9th. On the typical evening, though, most employees will start with some product out. As the VPoS calls the person's name, they will indicate home many products they wish to report as (a) sold "sld" or (b) return "ret". In the case of a "ret," they will physically give the product to the VPoS. For "sld" items, they will approach the VPoS and account for each sale. On the Sales Master, the VPoS will indicate only the TOTALS for that employee in terms of revenue, sales, and commissions. As the VPoS changes the figures for sales, this will alter the column marked "Bal" or balance in possession of the employee. The VPoS needs to manually correct these totals prior to updating them on his computer records, and he should confirm, "So then you have three at home, right?"

At the end of the evening, the VPoM will have completed more product. Again, the VPoS needs to go through the listing of the Company, asking "how many are you 'checking out'"? These he enters in the column marked "iss" for issue. Again, on the computer the total for "balance" should automatically change. At the meeting, the VPoS should orally confirm, "So now you have a total of five, right Abdullah"?

The alteration in figures for one week should update the following week's initial figures. However, the VPoS should, in case of doubt, manually cut and paste the figures from the "remainder" column of the previous week to that of the "initial" to the next week.

The monthly totals will provide all of the commission information that the VPoS needs to supply to the CFO. Again, however, a wise VPoS will manually double-check his figures. Again, however, a wise VPoS will manually double-check his figures.

The VPoS should update his spreadsheet each evening during the meeting and save a new version under a new name. The Master Sales Record can accommodate two different products, but a third product, while not advisable anyway, would require creating a second file or appending to the first one.

The Sales Log essentially takes part of the Master Sales record and blows it up. Whereas the Master Sales Record records sales as a total, per salesman, the Sales Log looks at each sale as relatively individual transactions.

When a salesman reports a sale, the VPoS will record the amount of the sale. Assuming that salesman sells several items at the same price, the VPoS can record the entire sale as a single item. However, in the event of selling several similar items at different prices, the VPoS would record each sale on a new line.

This system allows for a company to have some variation of pricing without forcing the company to create multiple Master Sales records. However, it means that neither spreadsheet will automatically figure commissions or total commissions per salesman. The VPoS should not pay commissions or allow salesmen to take their "percentage from the top." Instead, he should give the totals to the CFO who will subsequently pay commissions on a monthly basis. The salesman should initial the paper copy of the record as correct.

After the VPoS enters all sales, he must manually totally the sales, total revenue, and commission for each salesmen and enter them in the appropriate spots on the Master Sales records. The weekly (and monthly) sales, total revenue, and commissions for the company should match the totals from the Sales Log. If they do not, the VPoS must continue working with the figures until they do. The total units on the two records MUST add.

Remember that the VPoS only needs to report the FINAL totals of sales to the CFO for the evening, not every single sale.

The Sales log also contains a worksheet for the commissions. The VPoS, again, needs not report, salesmen by salesman to the VPoS. He should simply give a total to the CFO.

If forced to choose, the VpoS should fill out the master sales record. That would mean the loss of some accuracy in terms of reporting sales income, but it would satisfy the minimal record-keeping duties.

In the event a firm hires a marketing manager, he would maintain those records. Otherwise, the VPoS may complete them if appropriate.

Most of the changes in the new corporate code effect the VpoS in terms of generating revenue. Consider the first set of objectives.