“We’re not paranoid — We just know they’re out to get us!”

That line always gets a laugh, but unfortunately it is all too true.

The expression, “When in doubt, blame the reps!” is just as true.

How many very successful reps wake up every morning with a nervous burning in the stomach and shaky outlook? An educated guess says well over 50 percent. One rep friend says my number is way low; he says 99 percent. You tell me.

One highly experienced rep said he once woke up at 3 a.m. and started to call his salespeople when he realized that they would be sleeping like babies. He thought, “They can always get a new job — I will have trouble replacing this principal!”

Why Do Reps Feel This Way?

Because the middle position that reps are in between principal and customers is very nervous-making. Being in the middle is not comfortable for anyone. And, with the number of variables in the rep-principal-customer equation there is reason to be nervous.

How Can a Rep Reduce the Paranoia?

There are basic elements to the rep existence which can minimize paranoia. It all comes down to using information to take the high ground and manage the relationship with the principal.

Keep Your Sales Up and Growing

Duh! Nothing is more important than sales. When you have them they love you. When you don’t you are in trouble. There is no substitute for revenue as a tool for happiness.

The problem is that there is more to sales than just today’s orders.

The rep firm that wants to minimize its future paranoia has to do it with a “selling system.” We have read articles recently in Agency Sales about selling systems. The key is to not only have the system but to use it as a tool with the principals.

Your system is of very little value if your principals don’t know about it. Your principals must understand how your firm is organized to sell.

The rep firm that keeps the information flowing and keeps the principal in a receptive, appreciative mode wins.

We have consistently referred to the rep firm as the Branch Office for the principal. The rep firm must produce in the same way a company office would.

That means regular reporting and forecasting. A mid-sized rep firm in the utility business recently embraced the concept of scheduled, organized, professional reporting.

I was delighted to receive a call from the owner of the firm on his way back from his first quarterly meeting with one of his major principals. He was on cloud nine. What happened? The principal’s people, including a regional manager who had been giving them a very hard time, were unbelievably impressed.

The rep presented a simple Power-Point that reviewed the past few months and then set out a 90-day action plan which had been developed from a carefully structured reporting system for each of the field sales reps.

Salespeople Hate Paperwork

Unfortunately information is the weapon of the future. The rep firm that keeps the information flowing and keeps the principal in a receptive, appreciative mode wins.

That is the bottom line. The Branch Office has to control the information. In order to do this the individual reps must be tracking their activity and providing an organized pattern of feedback to their “home office.” The owner/general manager builds the action plan that lets the principal know what is going on and what to expect during the next 90 days.

Once this rep saw the effect his report had on his principal’s personnel, he resolved to have a similar session with each of the other six lines that combined with the first one represent 85 percent of his commission income. The key is the commitment to consistently control the information. He must be out in front of his principals.

The rep resolved to be on the offensive. As a result, we designed a new simplified master reporting system. In this program each salesperson is required to organize his/her report in the exact same way. This formatting requirement makes it easy for the rep principal to cut and paste from each salesperson’s report in order to create the PowerPoint for the 90-Day Action Plan.

Your system is of very little value if your principals don’t know about it. Your principals must understand how your firm is organized to sell.

Once a year, for the new year’s plan, the sales reps report on the following:

• Customer status — Only for customers who provide 5 percent or more of total commission

• Opportunities — Where is there opportunity to build business?

• Competition — Who are the key competitors and what share of   market does each have?

• Threats — What significant threats are in the market?

• Issues with principals — What is going on that might be a problem?

• 90-day action plan.

This is one report that has a listing of every key line in exactly the same order for every salesperson. There is no freelancing! This way the manager creating the PowerPoint has everything organized and structured to build the presentation for the company as a whole.

This formatting and structuring reduces the amount of time necessary to put the PowerPoint program together.

It is not necessary for any of the salespeople or the owner/general manager to become a PowerPoint expert. There are hundreds of graphics people readily available who are very good with the software. Their graphics person provided a fixed price per slide to create the slides. Previous experience with this resource assures that he will deliver quality product in 48 hours or less. All the manager has to do is send a Word document that gives the slide content and number.

This rep learned that by controlling the information and bringing it to “the boss” he kept control and reduced his paranoia. Information and organization made him more valuable to his principals with less acid stomach. The regional manager who had been causing a problem was disarmed. The sales manager was impressed and excited, and other members of the principals’ management were immediately put on notice that this rep firm was functioning as a “Branch Office.”

In future articles we will discuss other tools to reduce rep paranoia. It makes the rep business a lot more enjoyable.