Communication, training and education make up three corners of a triple play which — if successfully executed — will give the independent rep a valued relationship with their principal, architect and purchaser.

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That view is supported by consultant Bob Cangemi, president of Straight Up Consulting, Washington, New Jersey.

Straight Up Consulting (www.straight-upconsulting.com) specializes in sales training and procedures designed specifically for domestic and international manufacturers of commercial building products. The firm’s clients are those who are unsure how to implement in-house sales protocols so the entire office staff is aware of how the selling process works for their organization. It also stresses the pressing need for ongoing “street smart” training that focuses on strategies that the representative and principals can develop together. “This is very general, of course,” says Cangemi, “but if these efforts are combined and everyone buys into the process, what can result is the generation of more meaningful specifications and relationships, and reps find themselves in a better position to close the job.

“I believe salespeople (sales managers included) reading this article feel they want and need more training but not the pep-rally training and not training from someone who is stuck in an office all day with no ‘touch’ to the outside world. They want training from someone who understands what goes on in the real world. Someone who can speak the language and knows the joys and pains of being a salesperson.”

Just Another Salesman

When he started his own independent sales representative business in 1997, Cangemi was concerned about being labeled as “just another salesman.” To counter that perception he learned everything he could about the business and his products, in spite of their very technical nature. Over the years, the business model changed significantly in the commercial building products industry, and he changed with it.

After years of perfecting his skills in selling commercial construction products, his efforts began to pay off. He realized that his clients no longer viewed him as a salesman, but rather as a valuable trusted resource for understanding the business of commercial construction products, with a “straight up” honest and practical approach. Manufacturers sought his advice to assist them in creating detailed strategic plans and training to market their products and strategize on individual high-value projects.

According to Cangemi, “We are taking what we learned from our independent sales representative business over the last 18 years (both good and bad experiences) and turning it into training procedures for manufacturers. Hopefully our clients can see our unique value-add and how it can shorten the learning curve immensely, help recoup their overhead faster and last, but not least, be a better value to the architectural community.”

Cangemi is a believer in the fact that while his experience is primarily with commercial construction products, what he’s learned there can be posited to other industries served by independent manufacturers’ reps.

The Salesperson as Athlete

“For some reason our industry (sales) thinks we are better than professional athletes,” he says. “Does this sound familiar? A new salesperson is hired; they’re given three days of product training. Then they’re set free and years go by without in-depth sales training, role playing, or even strategy sessions.

“Think for a moment about professional tennis players. After playing the game since they were four-years-old, after turning pro, after making millions of dollars, and even after becoming number-one in the world, why do they have coaches and trainers? I could only surmise that they understand that in order to be the best they need to constantly fine tune their skills, their equipment and their strategies with someone who has the experience. They understand it cannot be done alone.”

According to Cangemi, in an ideal world the responsibility for seeing to it that salespeople are trained and educated is a joint one shared by reps and manufacturers. “The ideal recipe for success here is one that calls for a culture where the representatives notify the principal of market changes or trends and the principal incorporates that information into training and even research and development. This intense training should be added to corporate budgets (only if they’ve done their research on the instructor) which could reflect in noticeably fast results.”

Training Benefits All

“Interestingly enough,” says Cangemi, “your training will benefit your customer’s community as well. Supporting this point, Straight Up Consulting interviewed architectural firms in New York City and each one concurred that only about 20 percent of the reps they see can provide a value-add. This is quite disappointing because every manufacturer knows that New York City is one of the largest specification markets in the world. As you would imagine, that’s where manufacturers place their ‘A’ teams.”

Cangemi believes manufacturers do have their “A” teams in place there, but “perhaps those ‘A’ team members are lacking the well-rounded knowledge of the business. They know their products, but many don’t understand overall needs of the architect or end user. For instance:

• How does their product interface with the adjacent construction?
• Is the rep familiar with the typical products that interface with theirs?
• Is the end user experienced?
• Does the rep visit the national trade shows to stay abreast of new products to share with the territory?
• Will your product add maintenance cost to the client?
• Is the architect picking a high-end product just because it looks good in the catalog?

“The list goes on and the good news is generally that manufacturers have this information tucked away in their offices. It’s just a matter of extrapolating it from the various departments and putting it into the hands of the salespeople (e.g. reps).”

Communication as a Conduit for Change

Just as training (of the rep) is a shared responsibility, Cangemi doesn’t place blame for poor communication in the channel in the lap of the representative or the principal. He maintains it’s just the way it is and both sides ought to be working to correct the situation. He offers suggestions for each side, none of which sound too revolutionary.

“In an ideal world, filled with ideal reps and ideal manufacturers,” says Cangemi, “a manufacturer’s sales manager should make it a point to at least quarterly visit his or her reps in the field and go on calls with them. The invaluable information that can be obtained from such efforts is the basis of keeping ahead of the curve and allows the manufacturer to identify commonalities among different territories. Efforts such as this inherently help foster better relationships with reps. When the sales manager fails to make this effort, how can they realistically understand the feedback from reps and provide them and customers with assistance? Then the frightful scenario comes into play — the sales manager and rep don’t understand each other, the training is off the mark or nonexistent, the architects (customers) don’t see value in the rep, sales start to suffer and another New Year comes and goes without improvement.”

Failure in this case doesn’t reside solely in the lap of the manufacturer, however. “Reps have to be on their game just as much as their manufacturers,” he maintains. “Reps who take the position that they’re going to be proactive when it comes to letting manufacturers know about matters of importance occurring in the territory are in a great position to stay abreast of important matters. Speaking specifically from the industry I’m most familiar with, there’s no reason why the rep can’t let principals know about any new design trends from either the architect’s or owner’s perspective. Given the perfect or ideal world we’d all like to work in, the rep would relay this information back to the manufacturer and the manufacturer (because his sales manager understands the business) should be quick to react. That’s the way it should be.”

In order to arrive at a point where manufacturers and reps would be considered “ideal” marketing partners, Cangemi urges reps and their principals to carefully consider all the variables that have been mentioned in this article that come into play, allowing both sides to complete that desired triple play. He adds that the rep and principals have to arrive at the point where the rep is considered more than just someone who makes calls and follows up. “Instead the rep and the manufacturer should do all they can to learn and understand the other’s business and jointly plan to better meet the needs of customers, no matter what industry they serve.”