Last month, Agency Sales began a series of articles that examine the traits needed for an independent manufacturers’ representative to be successful. The traits are borrowed from a book entitled Ten Traits of Highly Effective Principals: From Good to Great Performance, by Elaine K. McEwan. The first traits we examined were culture builder and communicator. We follow this month with a study of the rep as both a producer and a facilitator.

The Producer

If the independent manufacturers’ representative plans on being a producer, he needs a few attributes that will assist him in reaching that desired goal. That’s the view of consultant and business coach Jay Henderson.

Henderson, a professional business coach since 1995, is the founder of North Carolina-based MyRepCoach (www.myrepcoach.com). He coaches clients on executive leadership, management, hiring and motivation, traditional and Internet marketing, competitive sales strategies and high-leverage alliances for fast-growing sales companies and entrepreneurial businesses. Corporate clients include manufacturers’ rep firms and their sales teams.

According to Henderson, the rep who sets his sights on producing anything, be it sales, relationships, profits or success, will be sorely challenged unless he can show that he has the following traits.

Ego driven — “We all work in a very competitive world and it’s getting more competitive all the time,” Henderson maintains. “And, in order to achieve any level of productivity, the rep must possess a sense of drive. On a daily basis, the rep has to ask ‘Why do I get up every day to do what I do?’ If he can’t answer that question — even by offering the simple ‘I want to be rewarded for what I do’ — then chances are he doesn’t possess the ego drive necessary to do the job.”

Empathic — By stressing that the rep needs to possess a sense of empathy with his customers and principals, Henderson notes, “The rep has to be able to position himself in the other person’s world. You’ve got to be able to read and understand where other people are coming from if you hope to have any level of success at meeting their needs. Possessing empathy will allow the rep to effectively work with the knowledge of where the client is, so he can anticipate and meet their needs.”

A solution provider — Those first two attributes lead directly into the rep’s ability to be a solution provider, Henderson maintains. “If the rep possesses empathy and is ego driven, the path he follows toward being a solution provider will be much easier to follow. He’ll be able to anticipate and meet his customers’ and principals’ needs on a regular basis.”

Flexible — “Unless a rep is able to move with his customer, he’ll face difficulties in getting the job done. Many intelligent salespeople find that it’s hard to get out of their own worlds and into the world of their customers. Too often they’ll get stuck in the midst of their 10-page presentation. They fail to read the buying signals that the customer has given off around page five. The rep has to be able to change what he’s doing in the midst of a presentation if he wants to close the deal.”

Results oriented — According to Henderson, “The rep must always keep in mind why he’s there. The importance of the skill of being oriented in the ‘now’ is critical. You can’t be so empathic with the needs and desires of customers and principals that you forget your reason for being there in the first place. All this doesn’t necessarily refer to being a hard closer. More importantly, it means staying focused on why you’re there and being attuned to buying signals.”

When he’s asked if being results oriented is all about getting the order, Henderson is quick to note, “It all depends upon where you are in the process. If you’re at the very beginning of developing a relationship with the customer — a relationship that you hope will last a lifetime — then no, it’s not about getting the order.”

Automated — “The fact that the rep must be automated is very important. Automated processes allow the rep to multi-task, and drive a lot of productivity-focused action whether they’re personally involved or not. It’s critical that the rep be as automated as possible. This allows him to look at their databases, determine who are the best clients, and focus clearly on the efforts that must be taken to be productive.”

As he considers all the attributes he’s included for the rep to be successful, Henderson concludes: “It’s all about looking in the mirror and measuring the extent to which you possess these talents. That exercise will go a long way toward determining how productive you will be in your profession.”

The Facilitator

When the manufacturers’ rep does his job properly, he’s not selling; he’s helping the customer to buy. That’s how Nicki Weiss views the rep’s role as facilitator.

Weiss, a certified professional coach, master trainer, and workshop leader, who has conducted a number of teleforums for MANA, maintains that the facilitation process is one “where a neutral party seeks to assist an individual and other parties to discuss something constructively. That fits perfectly with the rep’s role.”

Expanding on the rep’s role as a facilitator, Weiss (www.saleswise.ca) continues, “Since only the buyer knows his needs, then only the buyer can actually work their way through to a decision. The rep, however, should do all he can to learn about the customer’s needs. He must examine all the variables that have to be included and anticipate solutions to problems and concerns. A good rep will facilitate those conversations needed to resolve any problems and to avoid chaos in the buying process.”

An important ingredient in those conversations, according to the consultant, is something she refers to as the Social Contract. “This is hardly a legal document. Rather it is an agreement between rep and customer — and principal, for that matter — that spells out exactly how the parties will work together. For instance, let’s consider the case of a rep working with a new customer. It’s critical that they agree ahead of time how they desire to work together in the future. Ask questions such as:

• Is there anything that would cause difficulty in our working together?
• If I don’t hear from you regularly, what should I do?
• What is the most effective means for us to communicate?
• How do we work out what results from bad news?

“Good reps will ask these questions right up front and they will facilitate the conversations that result.”

Not all reps have the facilitator talent at the ready, so the question remains how does the professional outsourced salesperson get that talent firmly positioned in his sales toolbox? “Training, training and more training,” is Weiss’ immediate response. “If you want to facilitate action, continuous learning is the answer. Start with MANA or your industry-specific rep association. There’s also the training that I offer, not to mention what’s available from MRERF (e.g., CPMR and CSP).”

Once a rep is exposed to the type of training that’s available, is this a difficult tool to master? Weiss maintains, “Reps are quite sophisticated. As a result, intellectually I don’t think that facilitation is difficult to master. However, putting it to use in real-world situations might be difficult.

“Let’s take a sports analogy. If you watch a hockey game, it’s easy to understand. But to play the game well is quite challenging. So too is mastering the art of facilitation. You may understand what you’re supposed to do when you’re in front of the customer, but just as in a hockey game, situations present themselves and you may get excited, not manage yourself as well as you should and you ultimately fall back into bad habits. This is really about the human dynamic and being able to manage yourself.”

She continues that when the aforementioned happens, “The rep shouldn’t get too attached to the outcome of their customer call (i.e., getting the order). Rather they should unhook themselves from getting the order and concentrate on being the facilitator. Of course you want the sale, so you need to do a good job. But doing a good job can take all in your power to facilitate the conversation and ask pertinent questions so that the buyer has faith in you and in your ability to figure things out for him.

“The buyer may not even decide to buy from you at that time, but that’s okay. If you unhook yourself from that need to get the order at that time and not take rejection personally, then you’ll be just fine.”

Longer term, if the rep isn’t getting enough orders, he may have to examine why he’s not achieving the desired level of success. “You may be pitching to the customer, but the customer is defending against your pitches. Ask yourself if you truly understand what the customer needs. If you’re honest during the course of this process, perhaps you haven’t asked enough questions, or asked the right questions. Perhaps you haven’t facilitated the conversation.”

Weiss concludes that a good rep facilitator “Anticipates and exercises good business practices. It’s their job to educate everyone — customers and principals — on trends, on various ways of conducting business. Sure, business is transactional, but all it’s really about is what goes on between two people. If the rep is an effective facilitator, then what transpires between him and his customers will be satisfactory to both.”