When a panel of manufacturers was bemoaning the fact that they regularly encountered a push back when they requested their reps to conduct market research for them, one manufacturer described a different experience.

According to the manufacturer, “I’ve had some luck when I’ve been less-than-demanding with my reps. For instance, if the rep and I agree that the gathering of information can be done in the normal course of their regular sales calls, I don’t think I’m out of line to expect they can do the job for me. In addition, if it’s something I think can enhance the relationship between me and the rep, I won’t shy away from asking them to do the job.

“On the other hand, however, I’ve been consistent when it comes to major market research undertakings. If the information I need is a little out of the norm and I feel it’s going to necessitate a fairly major effort by the rep, then I won’t hesitate to raise the subject of compensation myself. This is something I’ve done from the very beginning of my relationship with reps.”

Learning From Failure

When a rep fails to get the order, he and the manufacturer aren’t going to be too happy. One manufacturer that contacted us recently let us know how one innovative rep turned a negative into something that was somewhat positive.

“Thankfully this doesn’t happen too often, but one of our very best reps has made it a practice that when he fails to land an order we were anticipating, he goes through a formal process to determine why he didn’t land it. His feeling is that this is the best way to determine what he did wrong and to learn what steps to follow in the future to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.

“In addition, he determines for himself and communicates to us what he’s identified, and then he details what steps he’s going to take to better identify and anticipate the needs and demands of the marketplace.

“I emphasize that he’s done this all on his own. For our part, we haven’t dropped the ball. When he communicates this information to us, we put our heads together to determine how we can best support his efforts in the field.”

Proof that this effort breeds success is the fact this rep is one of the manufacturer’s top performers — and he’s just entering his second decade of partnering with the manufacturer.

Finding the Right Rep

A manufacturer patiently listened as two of his peers detailed their lack of success in locating reps they were 100 percent satisfied with. Finally a chance presented itself for him to break into the conversation, and he offered a description of what he’s done to increase his chances of success when it comes to lining up with reps.

“Just as others, we suffered through a slew of bad choices,” he explained. “What we eventually did was to sit down with one of our best reps and ask them what they were looking for when it comes to contracting with a new principal. Here’s what they told us:

• ‘When a prospective principal approaches us, we’ll only respond to them after we’ve closely looked at their company philosophy and determined what their expectations are of us.
• ‘Right out of the box, we’ll ask for a list of their customers that they presently sell to, and we’ll check throughout our territory to determine if there’s any real potential for them there.
• ‘We would never take on a principal without carefully looking at their facilities and getting acquainted with the management team. Our belief is that it’s really difficult to call on a customer and let them know we’re taking on a new principal if we haven’t been there, seen what they do and learned how they do it.
• ‘Finally, since we already have a group of high-quality principals, it makes no sense for us to be anything less than selective in taking on a new line. A poor performer can damage the credibility we’ve worked hard to establish.’”

The manufacturer continued that he has been proactive in taking this approach with prospective reps. If the prospective rep doesn’t ask for all the information the aforementioned rep does, then the manufacturer offers it up front and asks the rep for a response. “Thus far, it’s worked well for us and our rate of success after we’ve signed up new reps has increased appreciably.”

Getting and Keeping the Rep’s Attention

Getting a fair share — if not more — of the rep’s time in the field remains a challenge for manufacturers. At least that was the consensus after half a dozen manufacturers were queried in phone interviews. Typical responses to the question of what’s your major concern with working with reps were:

• “If we’re going to represent 25 percent of his income, then we want a quarter of his time in the field.”
• “We want to know that we’re high on the rep’s line card and that he spends the right amount of time on our line.”

When these responses were run by some reps, here’s how they recommended that a principal could be sure reps were spending as much time as possible on their lines:

• “There’s hardly any one-size-fits-all answer to that question. I’d begin by advising a manufacturer to let the agent manage the territory. Give him the territory and get rid of all talk of house accounts and other games that typically are played. If the manufacturer says, ‘Here’s the territory, but I’ll hold on to the major accounts,’ then you know he’s hardly serious about working with you. And, if he’s not serious, how much time are you going to spend on his line — that is, if you even take on the line?”
• “Next up is the matter of commissions. If you, the manufacturer, want my attention and my time, always, always pay commissions accurately and on time.”
• Then there are joint sales calls. One rep offered, “I know joint calls in the field take a lot of a manufacturer’s time, but it’s the manufacturer who will make that effort to work with us in the field that will get the majority of my time.”
• And finally, another rep volunteered, “Manufacturers must be honest, open and willing to share information with their reps. They should make every effort to communicate with their reps just as if the reps were members of their staff.”

Assigning Rep Council Tasks

After a number of false starts with its rep council, this manufacturer settled on a plan that turned things around in a hurry. “What was happening,” he explained, “is that we’d have our meetings and then nothing would happen afterwards. Both us and our reps were getting frustrated and convinced that we were wasting our time.”

Here’s how he turned things around. “We began assigning specific goals to each council member and to the council as a group. In agreeing on these goals, we made sure there was plenty of time to accomplish them. In addition to finally getting something done, we also interjected a sense of accountability to the tasks assigned. All of our meetings became much more meaningful.”

Hiring a Rep as a Consultant

It’s not completely unheard of that a manufacturer that is new to working with reps will contact us looking for some advice on how to smooth the waters in the new relationship. When that happens, we often cite the experience of one manufacturer who developed a formalized plan for working with his reps. Here’s how he explained it: “After getting as much information as I could from MANA, I then approached the first rep that we had begun working with to act as a sort of consultant for us. This could have been a mistake if the rep hadn’t turned out as well as he did, but as things turned out, we hit the jackpot.

“This rep alerted us to the fact that we needed to have in place some sort of a consistent plan for working with reps. He then proceeded to help us develop the plan. Looking back over our experience, I’d advise other manufacturers to follow a similar course. What this has done for us is to point to several elements in the relationship where we need to strengthen our efforts.”

Learning From a Mistake

Prior to the switch from direct to an outsourced sales staff, a manufacturer should have trained its inside staff on how to work effectively with reps. That’s the conclusion reached by one manufacturer — unfortunately he realized it after the fact.

According to the manufacturer, the company’s initial efforts were focused in the area of educating and training the reps on the product line and the products’ applications. “What we failed to do, however, was let our own inside people know what it was going to be like working with reps. The greatest problem we faced was they didn’t really appreciate the fact that reps were multi-line salespeople. As a result, they were hardly able or willing to drop everything they were involved with and do the bidding of our inside people. Since that faulty start, we’ve rectified the situation, but if we had provided training prior to the switch, the transition would have gone a great deal smoother.

“Once the inside people understood the differences and what would be expected of them, there’s not a great deal of corrective training that has to be undertaken.”