When a manufacturer asks reps for some advice as he is about to put together a staff of inside sales support people for his reps, there’s no shortage of feedback. Here’s how the discussion progressed.

Here’s the question as it was originally proposed: “What are the three most important aspects of your relationship with your principal(s)? I am building a team of ISRs and want it to be a real win-win for us both.”

Wasting no time coming up with a response, one rep offered the following: “Having been both a rep and on the manufacturer’s side of the desk, I can tell you the single most important factor in developing successful (profitable) relationships is trust. One problem with that is that trust is hard to sell. Unless you have an ongoing reputation as being a trustworthy manufacturer, it will be difficult to convince a rep that you will honor your word and your contract for representation. You’ve got to build trust into your contracts — stay true to your word.

“In my opinion, trust happens to have the dubious distinction as the easiest thing in the world to develop, but once broken, it is the hardest thing to repair. Think about that for a second — all you have to do is honor your word.”

If trust was the starting point for the creation of a strong relationship for one rep, then another lends his weight in the direction of communication.

According to the rep, “Communicate with your reps. Tell them what you expect from them and what they can expect from you. And tell them what is going on within your company. Be sure to include the good and the bad. If you are having a banner quarter, tell them. If you are having delivery problems, let them know! Remember we (reps) are your partners.”

Seconding that view was another rep who volunteered that “Communication may be the most important of the three aspects for all of the reasons stated above. Beyond that, I believe that respect is next. By that I mean you’ve got to have respect for each other because you are still a business with all of the challenges that businesses face. Partnership is the next aspect. Principals too quickly change commission structure, territories, reporting and forecasting requirements. Partners understand each other’s business and work together to achieve mutual goals.”

Training and education were covered by another rep who asked: “Have your inside sales and support staff (applications, engineering, service, accounting, etc.) been educated to any degree on the role of the ISR? Some adjustment and education upfront can be a real life saver when first starting out in this new relationship. It’s not rocket science, but a small tweak here and there will result in huge payoffs.”

The education theme was continued by another rep: “The inside people are sometimes jealous of the rep’s commission. They see the rep getting these big checks and they don’t fully understand that the money goes to pay our operating expenses, health insurance, employees, taxes, etc. All they see is the rep making all this money and they are not. It can cause tension and resentment if not addressed and handled by the principal. Principals should instruct their people that they have their jobs because the rep brings in the business.”

And finally, an industry veteran offered the following: “You must also conduct an internal selling job on top management and staff so that they understand the importance of what it means to be working with your reps. Sometimes resentments will develop if you don’t constantly stress to your internal team that the reps are also on the team.”

Attracting the Manufacturer’s Attention

When a manufacturer was asked how a rep firm can get his attention when it comes time to hire a new rep, the manufacturer ticked off a list of things he looks for when he has to fill a hole in his territorial coverage:

• “First of all, do I even know he’s there? Has the rep established his brand in the territory? How long have they been in business? Do they communicate what other lines they represent?”
• “Does he have a fairly well-visited website? Do they publish a newsletter for their manufacturers and customers? Do the customers know the agency?”
• “What’s the agency’s reputation in the territory? What do my non-competitors say about him and how about customers that I already sell to? Do they know of the agency?”
• “Has this agency been a presence at important trade shows that I attend? Have they ever sought me out at any of these trade shows?”
• “Do they participate in any industry seminars that tackle important industry questions/problems?”
• “Have they been featured in any industry trade publications?”

He concludes by noting that “It all comes down to letting others know that they’re in business. If they haven’t performed the rudimentary steps of communicating in the marketplace, chances are they won’t do a very good job for a prospective principal.”

Keeping An Open Mind

When a manufacturer was going through the process of switching from a direct to outsourced sales force, he went the extra mile when it came to communicating to his regional managers how reps were going to provide the company with a much different dynamic. According to the manufacturer, “For the most part, my sales managers hadn’t worked with reps before. I wanted to make sure they kept an open mind and were appreciative not only of the fact things were going to be different, but also that there was much reps could do for us.

“At the outset, I let these sales managers know that we had to be comfortable working within a framework of an effective feedback system. Reps were going to be our conduit to the marketplace. As such, they are in the ideal position to advise us on a variety of product and service needs. As such, we had to do away with any type of ‘ivory tower’ thinking and be open to what they had to say.

“Operating within that feedback system, it was incumbent upon us to gather all the information they had to offer and craft that into an effective marketing plan.

“Thankfully, my sales managers heard that message. As time went by, they were able to gather the information from reps and they put together a plan full of clear objectives and detailed programs that allowed us to work effectively with our reps.”

The manufacturer recalled this experience during a time when the company was recognizing its 20th anniversary of working with reps. “I’ve got to admit, we were a little wary of making that decision so many years ago. Looking back, however, we probably should have done it earlier.”

No One Size Fits All

When the subject of contracts (or the lack of written contracts) with reps was raised earlier this year during an industry conference, one manufacturer stepped forward with the view supporting a rep’s insistence on a written contract that wasn’t necessarily of the boiler-plate variety.

“Just as so many other manufacturers,” he said, “we’ve got fairly standard contracts that we use with our reps. We’re finding more and more, however, that reps are balking at accepting these contracts as is. While at the beginning we might have been a bit resentful of this reaction, we’re finding that no two reps are necessarily the same. As a result, their requirements and needs are going to be different.

“For instance, one of the greatest differences occurs when there may be no existing business in the rep’s territory. Obviously, we’re looking to develop business there but we’d be foolish to think the rep is going to sign a contract that’s the same as one for a rep in a marketplace where there’s a ton of business.”

He concluded that there are a couple of developments he’s become fairly appreciative of. “First, is the existence of MANA’s standard contract. We’re finding that this can be a good place to start with a rep. Second, is the growing trend among reps of having their attorney look over the contract. We’ve found that’s not always a negative for us and as a matter of fact, it’s even developed some good win-win situations for us and our reps.”