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You earn a good amount of money representing manufacturers. You think you do a pretty good job at your job. But, how do you do at marketing and selling your own firm?

What goes into rep firm marketing and sales planning? The following article presents several key elements of rep firm marketing and selling. At the end you will have an opportunity to grade your firm’s performance in these critical areas of your business.

1. Profile* presentation.
2. Branch office services.
3. Personnel training.
4. Planning and coordination with principals.
5. Revenue development and market growth.

* Your profile is a measure of your level of marketing and sales capability for your firm. Most quality reps would not want to represent a manufacturer with no catalog or a very poor one. The same is true for a rep firm with no profile. How will a manufacturer feel about selecting you as their rep or continuing your representation of their products, if you don’t present yourself well?

The Profile is the most basic and most useful tool in the rep business. Rep paranoia is an established fact. One reason to feel threatened or weak is the lack of a good profile that aggressively and professionally presents your firm to all of the people who are involved with you. Your website is a continuation of your profile, but not a substitute for a solid, professional, written profile.

The most important people to influence are those who work for your principals. When a sales manager or executive of the principal works with you or meets you at a company function or an industry event, how is your firm represented? If you go to a meeting at one of your factories, what do you take along to introduce your firm to people there?

•   Branch office services are all of the tasks and responsibilities that your organization performs for your manufacturers. This concept for your business is absolutely vital to future success. Your office is the branch office of your principals in the territory you cover.

How do you tell your principals what the branch office does? What services do you perform as a matter of course? Is lead follow-up one of your services? Is troubleshooting part of the branch office service? Do you quote jobs? Do you provide a “lost business report”? What other support do you offer the manufacturer?

One of the most important parts of continually selling your firm — I call it backselling — is telling the manufacturer what they are getting for their commission dollars. There is always someone at the principal who questions the value of the dollars they pay out to you in commissions. The better you perform backselling, the fewer the questions. What do you do to confront these challenges head on?

• A University of Pennsylvania study asked customers who bought from reps and direct salespeople — “Who do you think is more knowledgeable and more helpful? A direct factory salesperson? A manufacturers’ rep?”

Unfortunately for you, the answer was overwhelmingly — the direct salesperson!

This is not good. The only way to counter this low level of approval is to make sure that the people that are calling on your customers are as good as, if not better than, the factory people.

The only way to do this is through aggressive, highly professional training.

Is your continuing training good enough to convince your customers that your people are as good as direct people?

• As the branch office, do you take full responsibility for building an annual sales plan for each of your key lines and sharing that plan with the principals?

Do you provide a quarterly outlook to your key principals? Are your principals continually aware of your plans for their line with the most significant customers in your territory?

This kind of branch office information is key to making your relationship work with your major principals. Are you truly earning the portion of your commission that pays for planning?

• What is happening in your market[s]? How are you backselling your results to your manufacturers? How are you making real progress to increase revenue and market share?

This is the bottom line: There is no way to prosper for the longer term in the rep business unless you are getting real, measureable results for your major principals. Do you get the results you are paid for? How do you address “issues” when you aren’t getting the results you want?

Summary

Now, test yourself. 20 points for each category.

20 = We are perfect
15 = Above average, but could do much more
10 = Average
1 = They should fire us!

1. Profile presentation _____
2. Branch office services _____
3. Personnel training _____
4. Planning and coordination with principals _____
5. Revenue development and market growth _____

Total _____

If your score does not add up to at least “80” you have real reason to be concerned.

Looking at these key elements of how you sell your rep firm can pay huge dividends. By assessing your current status you can prioritize what needs to be done and get to work on your business.