© Konstantin Chagin | Dreamstime.com

There’s a ton of information about everything to be found on the Internet — some of it good, some bad. Among the good was an article that appeared on a website entitled “State Start Up Nation.” It not only caught our attention because MANA was mentioned, but it also pointed out some fairly basic steps to follow in order to locate and sign independent manufacturers’ reps:

• Be Impossible To Forget

Simply signing some sales reps to sell your product doesn’t mean they’re going to devote full attention to it. “Your job is to make sure you stay top-of-mind,” says Jayne Smith, a sales consultant and author of Creating Competitive Advantage: Think You Know Your Company’s Competitive Advantage? Think Again. That means staying in touch with your reps monthly, even weekly, and doing such things as assigning in-house staff to provide support. And you might think about tying compensation to volume as an incentive.

• Monitor Results

The biggest downside to hiring sales reps is that, because they aren’t on staff, they’re probably harder to supervise than regular employees. For that reason, you must stay on top of their performance. That means setting expectations ahead of time, and regularly checking with customers for their reactions.

This sounds much like the advice MANA has been providing for years.

Advice Learned On the Basketball Court

Several years ago former NBA basketball coach and current president of the NBA Champion Miami Heat wrote that “Avoiding the solution of tough, miserable, volatile problems is not discretion. It is cowardice. And it is robbery. Because as long as a serious problem goes unsolved, no team, no person can expect its full potential.”
A manufacturer recently mentioned that quote when he explained how and why he had to sever his relationship with a newly signed rep. “I signed a rep a little over a year ago after conducting what I considered due diligence. I had conducted the expected interviews, checked his references, asked non-competing manufacturers about him. Having done all that, however, it didn’t take me long to realize I had made a mistake. We just weren’t clicking and the results weren’t there and they weren’t going to be there. Keeping the words from that book in mind, I was determined not to let the problem fester.

“Sometimes it’s just not a good fit and no matter how many adjustments you make, it’s not going to fit. I moved on, conducted my due diligence once again, and next time hit a home run with my decisions.”

The Value of a Written Contract

A dissenting view was quickly offered when the following words were spoken in conversation between two manufacturers: “A handshake agreement between principal and rep is preferable to a poorly written contract.”

“That’s not the way we operate,” said one manufacturer. “We invest a good deal of time, money and effort when it comes to choosing the reps we go to market with. Once we both decide we’re a good fit, it’s our desire to formalize or memorialize the relationship. That effort provides the guidelines for the relationship and protects each side. It draws the parameters within which each party will operate. In addition, if a rep ever approached me and said that a handshake agreement would do the job, I don’t think I’d take him all that seriously. Reps are professionals, just as we are. As a result, I think it’s important to treat the relationship professionally, and nothing does that better than crafting a contract resulting in a win-win for each side.”

Listening — The Key To a Good Relationship

“I like reps who listen.” That’s the simple answer one manufacturer offered when he was asked, “What’s the most important trait you value in a rep?” He continued that “I can spot the rep’s ability to listen the first time I meet him — that is, when he’s first trying to sell himself to me. Instead of telling me all about himself and his agency, he asked about my company and what our needs are when it comes to sales and marketing. Some of the better ones I’ve met — and ultimately signed with — are those that say the least initially. They pepper me with questions. Once they find out all they need about me, then they offer solutions to my problems. It’s not until we’re about three-quarters of the way through an interview that they begin to let me know about all their agency’s marketing and selling skills.

“It’s funny, but when I travel in the field with these reps, they usually exhibit the same skills in front of the customer. It’s not all about them, it’s about the customer and meeting the customer’s needs.”

Treating Reps As Family

When a manufacturers’ rep recommended his longest-standing principal for the positive way that the manufacturer interacted with his reps, the manufacturer was asked why he was held in such high esteem. The first word out of the manufacturer’s mouth was “culture.” He went on to explain that from the beginnings of the company’s relationship with reps, “We decided the best thing we could do to make this process work was to involve the rep in our company culture. By that I mean if we treat our in-house employees one way, why would we treat our outsourced reps in a different manner?”

He went on to explain, “Our workings with reps go back 45 years. Before that, our family-owned business strictly used factory-direct salespeople. As we grew, however, we felt we couldn’t stand the expense and what we determined was a lack of productivity by our sales force. Once we lined up with a network of reps, we were faced with what we felt was a different management challenge — that is, how do we direct, communicate, educate, etc., a team of salespeople that was not directly under our control? Our answer to the question was — the same way we treat our own salespeople.

“In viewing how we treated our own people, we focused on the fact that we always paid them accurately and on time; we involved them in product marketing and sales strategies; we provided them with sufficient inside sales support including product samples and literature. With all those thoughts in place, it was really quite easy for us to work with our reps.”

He adds that to ensure that relations between reps and the manufacturer remain smooth over the years, “We’ve implemented a rep council that meets at least twice a year. Among many benefits that the council provides is the ability to head off potential problems before they become major hindrances.

“It really all comes down to treating reps as you would treat a member of your corporate family. They’re our eyes and ears in the field. If we want them to see and hear what’s going on out in the field, you’ve got to embrace them just as you would someone who reports to the factory every day.”

Looking For the Extra Talent

Admittedly not every rep is an adept merchandiser, and truth be told there’s not necessarily a need for every rep to be an expert in that field. But, according to one manufacturer, he’s grateful that the reps he has can get the job done. “The ability of my reps to merchandise our products is high on my list of criteria to consider when I hire a rep. Since merchandising ability is so high on my list of priorities, I generally check with my distributors to see whom they would recommend. Then I make a visit to the distributor’s counter area to see for myself if their rep does a good job. Finally, when I conduct interviews with a rep, I’ve got an entire list of merchandising questions/problems that I ask him about. I’ve followed this process for the past couple of years and haven’t yet made a decision I regret. All of my reps are among the best when it comes to merchandising.”