There are no real super star sales reps any more that have done and seen it all. The top salesmen of yesteryear were said to be able to sell snow to Eskimos. The current crop couldn't sell a canoe to a drowning man. It's not all their fault either.
The sales guy of today is young. They are short out of college and have degrees in psychology, marketing and history. The business, math and engineering graduates all end up in management. For the new breed it usually takes three to five years for them to figure out which end of a bulldozer is forward. If they are smart they keep their mouths shut for the entry time and let the customers talk themselves into a machine. They learn finance packages, customer perks, how to set up their schedules, how to read customers and generally everything that has nothing to do with operation, maintenance and repair of equipment. There are learned personnel to answer those kinds of questions. Ask one of the new breed about the cost per ton of material a certain machine can achieve and they will refer you to the performance manual. Ask them to do it for you and they make a phone call. Have one of them show you how to push a drive way with a D3 and all will make a wash board and try to back blade it smooth, hence knowing which end is forward.
I said it's not all their fault and I meant it. The hours are many and cruel. The rejection rate from those customers that have favorites will rip the soul out of any newbie. The problems with other parts of a dealership and all the rules and regulations that go with working with manufacturers are truly maddening. The money can be very good should the young rep be lucky enough to catch a whale that likes your stuff. On the other hand when you are starting out you get the crap of the customer list. All the dead beats that don't have any money, always have a bone to pick about a service job or something that happened two generations ago and will talk to the world behind your back is what you get to start with. If you don't make your quotas, your boss gets down on you. If you keep not making your quota, you are looking at working for someone else. And also, if you didn't make your quota, you didn't make any money either. Should the economy go bad you had better get your resume in order. If you are lucky there is a spot open at the competition. If not, you are selling or doing something completely different.
The gents that have been in for long time are entrenched like ticks on back of a wild pig. They have their trap lines set up. They have it made and they will undercut any newbie that has the audacity or the good fortune to end up with one of the his paying customers in a territory realignment. There are those with the egos that think the only reason a customer bought a machine is because they are the sale person. In reality that sale decision by the customer has nothing to do with the rep. He was only lucky enough to be in that territory and answer the phone. The real reason for a deal is always only set by money and manufacturer reputation.
In summary, the world has changed and along with it all the sales reps in all the businesses. If you have a good rep dealing the kind of iron you like, you don't go telling the world. All the sales reps will commit the sin of envy. You make some one a hero and you have painted a target on his back. The heavy equipment industry is just too technical now days for any one person to know every facet of every business type and how to handle every situation that smacks them in the face. Truth be told, every dealership I've worked at treated the sales force as fungible. There are many who would want to get into those jobs and many in the management structures think that anyone can do it. But then again, if all you have to do is answer the phone, who is to say they aren't right?
