Principals and reps agree that being able to put a face to the voice you hear over the phone can be critical in a business relationship. That’s why one principal reports that among the first steps he takes after signing on a new rep is to arrange face-to-face meetings with not only his company’s management team and inside support staff, but with the other independent reps that work with the manufacturer. “Before I joined this company,” the manufacturer reports, “I spent close to 20 years in the field as a rep. If I learned nothing else in all those years, it’s the value of having a personal relationship with the people I work with and for. That’s why once the rep has placed his name on the dotted line, I bring him into our headquarters for a couple of days’ orientation. As a part of that orientation, I put him together with all of our people, whether it’s in informal meetings or a lunch or dinner. I can see the relationships building before my eyes.”

The manufacturer isn’t done yet. “Once a year we either bring all of our reps into headquarters or we conduct a national sales meeting at one of our industry’s annual conferences. It’s there that we make sure all of our new reps have an opportunity to network with their peers — without me looking over their shoulder. One of my reasons for insisting on this is that I learned long ago that there are no new problems faced by reps. If any individual rep has a problem/concern/challenge, chances are one of his peers has already solved it. I’ve seen that happen with regularity.”

Letting People Do Their Jobs

“I’ve learned something important about dealing with people in my office that has been very helpful in my relationships with reps,” reports one manufacturer. “When I was a younger manager climbing the ranks in my company, I had the very bad habit of assigning a task to someone in the office and then literally looking over their shoulder as they completed the task. Naturally, it was impossible for me to keep my mouth shut as they attempted to complete the task to my satisfaction. Finally, one day someone said to me: ’You assigned the task to me, right? Then leave me alone and let me get the job done. It will be completed a lot better and faster that way.’ I’ve never forgotten those words — especially as I’ve crafted a long and successful career of working with reps.

“If I trust a rep to represent my company’s line, then I trust them enough to do the job correctly. Once they take on the line, my job and the job of everyone at the factory is to provide them with all the support they need to be successful. Then it’s my job to get out of the way. They’ll let me know when they need something.

“This is a philosophy I’ve subscribed to for years, and it’s an understatement to say that my reps and I couldn’t be happier.”

Sales and the “No” Word

Over lunch recently a manufacturer let us know about something he saw on a television show that served as an example of an attribute he requires from the reps he works with. The popular NBC show The Office had a scene where a salesman was entertaining a prospective client on the golf course. He wasn’t having much luck closing the deal until he saw the prospect taking several strokes to get out of a sand trap. At one point the salesman said, “Why not just take a double-bogey and put the ball on the green?” The prospect responded, “No, I’ve got to keep at it to show that I can do it.”

At the end of the scene — still not having closed the sale — the salesman took that lesson to heart as he stood in front of the prospect’s car, not moving until the prospect made a commitment to buy from him.

According to the manufacturer, “Keeping in mind that this is a comedy, I’m certainly not advocating anyone be impolite or put themselves in danger, but what I want from my reps is persistence. Learn that ‘No’ doesn’t necessarily mean ‘No’ forever. It’s just a temporary setback. Keep at it. That’s what I expect from my reps, and luckily that’s what I’ve experienced over the years.”

Sharing the Cost of Fuel

More than just sympathizing with their reps who are feeling pain at the gas pump, E-Mon has decided to do something about it. The Langhorne, Pennsylvania-based manufacturer of solid-state electronic meters has initiated a program whereby reps receive gas cards for calls on new customers.

The fact that this effort has resonated with reps is evident in the communication from one rep: “E-Mon is a company that ‘gets it.’ They have put together a rep salesman promotion that is right on target. Here’s how it works — for every two new end-user or specification calls that are completed, the salesman fills out an online form and receives a $25 gas card. There is no limit to the number of cards the agency can earn. This is simple and to the point and certainly serves as a motivator to make those calls for E-Mon.”

According to Heather Cottrell, vice president of sales & marketing for E-Mon, “There were a couple of reasons we settled on this promotion. We’ve been having a very good year and we appreciate the efforts our reps put forth on our behalf. At the same time, we’re very much aware of how much it costs a rep to make a sales call and we know that because of rising gas prices, it’s costing them more all the time. Finally, we want our reps to not only know we feel their pain, we want to do something about it.”

Cottrell continues that E-Mon’s approach to this promotion was very straightforward and all reps understood the effort and reacted positively. She notes that reactions from reps such as the one cited above were typical. “We’ve received an excellent response and have already given out quite a few of these gas cards. Describing what a rep has to do in order to claim the gas card, Cottrell says, “It’s all up to the rep to let us know that he’s made the calls. We don’t do any follow-up to verify what the reps say. We’ve worked with all of our reps for a long time and a great deal of trust has been built up between us. We do, however, ask for the customer’s contact information — individual’s name, city/state and contact information. When all is said and done, we certainly hope this promotion gains us some additional attention from our reps. We were anxious to let them know we understand what they’re facing and we wanted to support them in their efforts.”

An Option for Face-to-Face Meetings

A somewhat different — yet still supportive — response came from another principal who read the article on increased gas prices in last month’s issue of Agency Sales. “We’re well aware of the fiscal problems the increased cost of gas and other travel-related expenses exact on our reps. So far there haven’t been any problems for us in getting the coverage we require — but that’s primarily because of the professionalism of our reps. We’ve always been lucky with the reps we work with, so what’s happened really shouldn’t have come as any surprise to us. What we’ve been experiencing is a great deal of more-detailed communication from our reps concerning what they’re doing. First of all, they’ve let us know the toll that increased costs have taken on their businesses. At the same time, they let us know what they’re doing in the face of these rising costs.

“In cases where some of our reps report they’ve cut back some of their customer visits, they let us know the customers’ reactions — which for the most part has been very understanding — but they’ve shown us a record of phone, fax, email and even teleconference contacts that have more than made up for any loss of face-to-face contact.

“At the same time, as a group they’ve all shown us that when the customer needs something, whether a sit-down meeting or some sort of troubleshooting effort, the rep drops what he’s doing and is there in a flash.

“Perhaps more important than anything else, we’re having a pretty good year — due in large part to our reps’ coping abilities. The bottom line is that at the end of the month, our figures have looked good for the entire year.”