The way you run your business can make a big difference in how you are seen by principals, customers and prospective principals.
Managing your agency can be a powerful tool for differentiating your rep firm from others. The following elements can provide unique and powerful items to differentiate your firm from competing rep firms.
- Field sales management
- Call tracking
- Lead handling
- Customer tracking
- Product management and promotion
- Customer communication
Field Sales Management
How do you manage your sales force? Even if you are a small firm with only three to four salespeople, you need to demonstrate a management system to current and prospective principals. You are being paid to be the branch office of the principal. In this role you must think just as if you worked for the principal — you do!
Therefore, what system do you have for managing the sales force? How do you know what your team members are doing? How do you get the field reps and inside salespeople to communicate with you so that you can work with them to achieve success?
Call Tracking
CRM Systems can make a big difference. Customer Relationship Management systems like ACT! and Sales Logix are products that fit into the rep business very well. These software products can be used off the shelf or customized to work for your company.
The use of a tool like the “Call Guide” (available from me by e-mail to [email protected]) my version of the Jack Berman “Call Organizer” worked into the Sales Logix system makes it possible for every call to be listed with complete notes and action steps for everyone in the company to review.
The judicious use of Sales Logix gives the principal/owner of the rep firm a powerful tool to use to demonstrate the value of the rep group’s services. This tool gives the owner/manager the ability to extract reports on the number of calls, details of individual calls, issues for the manufacturer, and many other vital facts that emerge as the reps go about their daily business.
Furthermore, no information is ever lost. When the salesperson is making a call, the rep firm, and through the reps the principal, is getting full value from the call. The record keeps the facts available for management forever.
The loss of a salesperson does not mean the loss of data on a customer and the customer’s involvement with the multiple-line products represented by the rep firm.
Lead Handling
Depending on industry “leads” may be more or less frequently dispensed to reps for follow-up. Nothing is more frustrating to a manufacturer than to send leads from a show or other source and not get feedback from the field.
Advertising leads and show leads have a cost. In many cases the manufacturer pays $10-$100 or more for a lead. The principal wants to know what has happened to that lead.
Reps know that many, if not most, of the leads they receive from manufacturers are not valuable. The rep knows the territory and knows the potential customers. But for a rep to quickly say “the leads are useless” is a mistake — even if they are.
Most of the leads may be useless, but if only one lead is good, it needs to be followed up.
This is where many reps get in trouble. Because so many of the leads are useless, they let the one piece of gold slip through their fingers.
Every rep firm needs a lead follow-up system that delivers a “closed-loop follow-up” for its principals.
You do get paid to follow up leads! Reps are paid to follow up leads. Designating a specific part of the commission to lead follow-up may not be possible, but if, for example, we say 15 percent of all commission dollars are for lead follow-up, a line that pays you $ 3,000 a month is paying $ 450 per month for lead follow-up. Are you giving $ 450 value?
Qualified leads are better for field salespeople: With one rep firm we found that the field people did not do a good job following up leads. They just did not take the time to follow up no matter how much we stressed it. What could we do?
Inside support for the lead program: We determined that the only way to get the field reps to follow up was to reduce the number of leads they were assigned and to pre-qualify the leads.
Reps pay for pre-qualifying: But, there was a cost to have someone contact every lead and pre-qualify it for the reps. We ended up charging every one of the field personnel $100 a month against their commission. This was a management decision. There was no discussion. The field team had failed to deliver the level of lead follow-up demanded by management. They paid and a staff member was assigned to pre-qualify every lead from every manufacturer.
Do it or else: Once a lead had been qualified and a field salesperson was sent the lead to follow up, because the inside salesperson determined that the lead was “hot” there was no choice. The field salesperson was required to do the follow-up and provide a written (e-mail) report in five business days.
Backselling lead follow-up is important: As mentioned, the systems used by the rep firm are important to maintaining successful relationships with the existing principals and to landing good new principals. This lead qualification system helps the rep firm maintain its position with principals. The system demonstrates that the firm is earning the portion of commission that is for lead follow-up.
Customer Tracking
Knowledge of customers at all levels is critical to the branch office operation. Whether you sell distribution who then sells the end user or you sell directly to end users, the rep firm must have very good information about all levels of customers. Many reps are spending a large portion of their time working with the end user even though they don’t sell them directly. Principals have the right to expect that the rep firm will know all about every significant user of its products in the territory.
Product Management and Promotion
How does the rep firm work with the principal and distribution to create business? What does the rep firm do to create interest in the manufacturer’s products?
The principal needs to know what the branch office is doing — trade shows, meetings, seminars, demonstrations, newsletters and other types of communication to create interest in its products.
The rep can’t afford to sit back and wait for the manufacturer to develop marketing and promotional activity. The rep must be prepared to spend money and time to promote the products it represents.
Customer Communication
How does the rep firm communicate with customers? The principal needs to know and be constantly informed about how the rep firm is maintaining communication with customers. In-person calls are the lifeblood of the rep business, but it is harder and harder to get in to see prospects. What does the rep group do to establish a line of communication with customers? How do the field salespeople develop relationships with new customers and good prospects?
Success Sells
Every rep firm should be able to demonstrate success. Multiple-line selling is a powerful system for bringing products to market. The strong rep firm has a strong line card which enables it to get to most prospects. A strong rep firm has a foot in the door with most customers. A strong rep firm is selling most good or potentially good customers at least one line from its line card.
This is the key fact for a strong manufacturers’ rep firm — multiple-line selling works. This fact combined with the systems the firm uses to manage its business make it a very desirable partner for good principals.
