Prior to coming to work at MANA in 2000, I was a manufacturers’ rep. Recently, I spoke with a fellow rep who shared several lines with me. We talked about one of our mutual principals, one that had been a favorite of ours. The owner understood relationships. He took care of his employees, he took care of his customers, and he worked as a partner with his reps. That company led the market.

A year after I signed my agreement with the principal, he retired and sold the business to a large corporation. The new general manager recognized that the system worked, so he made no changes. I continued representing them until I changed careers.

I worked with several other principals who believed in the same philosophy; partner with each other, we are not adversaries. These were extremely successful companies and the success was mutual.

Do you have this type of relationship with each other? If not, why not? Is the trust level an issue? Or is it because of a belief structure that says these relationships are mythical; they really don’t exist? Is it lack of knowledge of how to work with each other? Whatever the issue, work on it to allow the relationship to evolve into a real partnership.

Repairing the relationship takes time and effort, but look at it as an investment that brings a huge return.

Compare working with each other to the alternative, where you don’t work together as partners. The results are different. You expend more effort and energy in protecting your turf and less in helping customers. Guess which approach creates higher success levels?

Which leads me back to that favorite principal of ours — the new general manager who led the company when I represented them retired. His replacement had the other philosophy, and the company is no longer the industry leader. They lost a number of their top performing manufacturers’ reps who now represent the competitors. They have also lost key employees. Please don’t let it happen to you — it’s not a pretty sight.