A manufacturer passed along news of success he’s had by employing a practice that probably every human resource department uses.

According to the manufacturer, “Just as most companies in this country, we’re always conducting employee evaluations. Not only does the supervisor in our company fill out a form evaluating strengths, weaknesses, goals, etc., but so does the employee. Not to let a good idea get wasted, we’ve made use of this with our network of independent manufacturers’ reps. We regularly have our regional sales manager complete the same exercise with the reps in his territory. This simplified and short form addresses the expected areas of rep performance. We have both the regional manager and each of his reps complete the form prior to an annual evaluation meeting. Then at that meeting they share what each of them has written.”

The manufacturer noted that over the course of employing this evaluation practice there hasn’t been all that much divergence between what the manufacturer and the rep think of the rep’s performance. “What has happened, however, is that there have been several valuable opportunities where their views differ enough that we thought they ought to be discussed more fully. I’m a firm believer that conversations such as this act as a deterrent to more serious problems down the line. And, from what I’ve heard from our reps, they agree with me.”

Telling the Rep Why You Need His Time

Earlier this year, Charley Cohon, MANA’s President and CEO, opened a discussion on the association’s LinkedIn discussion page entitled: “Unfair Advantage: How To Get 20 Percent of a Manufacturers’ Rep’s Time Even Though You Are Only 10 Percent of Their Income.” He followed that up by posing the question: “What has a principal done to get much more of your time than the income from that line really justified?”

In partial answer a manufacturer offered the following: “It’s happened quite frequently that I’ve wanted/needed more of the rep’s time and attention. When that occurs I always make sure that I let the rep know that I have a pressing need for his time. A not uncommon example is that I’ve got a new product that we’re introducing. Rather than just sit back and complain about the fact I’m not getting enough of his time, I’ll communicate with the rep and let him know why this is so important for the company, why it’s important for him, and how it meets the needs of our mutual customers. By employing that approach, I’ve found that this type of one-on-one communication does wonders for me, and the reps — not to mention how it benefits our customers.”

The Basics of Finding Reps

“Relationships and length of tenure.” Those were the few words that a manufacturer responded with when asked what his thought process was when searching for new reps. He went on to explain that “Replacing existing reps is hardly one of our major concerns. We’ve got reps going back as long as 45 years and I’d estimate that the average length of service with us is around 25 years.”

However, there are those rare occasions when a rep retires, sells the agency, goes out of business, or there’s a line conflict. That’s when the word “relationships” becomes so important.

“When those fairly rare occasions crop up,” he continues, “we ask our remaining reps if they can recommend someone in the territory in question. That’s why our long-standing relationships are so important. We’ve found that through our reps’ networking activities over the years (i.e., attending national sales meetings, and rep council meetings) that the reps get to know each other and can recognize the qualities that will make them effective.”

If that doesn’t work, “We access the rep locators that MANA and our industry-specific rep associations provide. There’s two reasons for this approach:

• First, if we find that we’re not satisfied with the recommendations that we’ve received from existing reps, we’ve obviously got to look elsewhere — and these rep locators are an excellent source.
• Second, it’s fairly common that we can confirm the recommendations that we’ve received by finding a prospective rep in the locator. The very fact that an independent rep is a member of a rep association shows us that they are among the more professional in their industry and that serves as a recommendation all by itself.”

The Value of Lengthy Tenure

Pride bordering on boasting came through loud and clear when a manufacturer pointed to the lengthy tenures he enjoyed with a number of reps nationwide. The manufacturer was very much aware that these longstanding relationships were one of the major reasons why his company had been so successful over the years. He continued by pointing to a couple of reasons he thought would be good to keep in mind when considering the value of strong relationships:

• “We and our reps have worked long and hard at sustaining relationships. It’s a little like a marriage. If the little things go wrong and you start picking at each other, then those little problems become big ones and everyone suffers.”
• He continued by pointing to the importance of mutual response to each other’s questions and appreciation for each other’s problems; effective two-way communication; personal contact; and a true sense of partnering.

In Praise of the Manufacturer-Rep Relationship

It was refreshing to overhear the conversation of four reps during a rep convention earlier this year. It would appear that each of them relished the opportunity to compliment the standard practices of their top principals. Among the comments that were made in praise of manufacturers were:

• “My best principals never expect anything to happen overnight; instead, they allow for plenty of time for planning, marketing and sales efforts. Their philosophy is that this approach is the best way to produce realistic results.”
• “My top two lines excel when it comes to communication. They promptly answer my requests for information and assistance and always make sure that I’m included in the informational loop.
• “In general, the principals that I go to market with have made an exceptional effort to understand how I operate and they show me that they appreciate the demands I have on my time. What results from this type of relationship is that they don’t expect me to be selling just their products exclusively all the time.”

Tell Me What I Need To Know

When two manufacturers were asked to react to the words of a rep concerning his claim that he never submits call reports to principals, they were quick to respond. To begin, here’s what the rep said: “I’ve currently got 15 lines and I don’t provide any of them with call reports. What I do, however, is proactively and regularly let them know exactly what’s going on in the territory. In these days of instant communication, there’s no reason for me not to let them know anything of importance. What is important to them — and here’s where I truly deliver — is the bottom line. They see my numbers and they know the job is getting done.”

Now on to what the manufacturers think.

“There’s absolutely no reason for the rep keeping me in the dark,” maintains the first manufacturer. “I don’t need anything formal, but I expect e-mail, fax, phone or even something in writing to bring me up to date.”

The second offered the following in agreement: “I don’t want, need or require call reports just for the sake of someone producing some paperwork. And, let’s be honest here, often that paperwork goes unread. On the other hand, when there’s something to report — activity that demands my attention — I expect the rep to contact me immediately.”

The Value of Time Spent on the Other Side of the Desk

A manufacturer recently wrote to Agency Sales describing the success he’s enjoyed by searching out independent reps who had spent time earlier in their careers as manufacturing sales executives. “After more than 30 years of working with reps, I’ve found that the truly successful rep is one who possesses an entrepreneurial spirit. Reps are independent business people because they have that drive. These are usually people who for some reason felt unfulfilled and couldn’t reach personal goals while working under the constructs of rigidly run larger businesses. And, often those businesses were ones that they presently work with as reps.”

Getting Feet on the Street in a Hurry

A long-time manufacturer member of MANA recently reflected on some of the reasons why his company made the move from a direct to an outsourced sales force more than 15 years ago. According to the manufacturer, “We had reached a point in our corporate planning where our goal was to grow our business as quickly as possible. As we considered how we were going to meet that goal, we scrutinized the cost and timeliness involved in putting a direct or a rep sales force in place. In considering a direct sales force, just trying to find talent remained a chore. Once you find the talent, then you have to make sure they are all degreed engineers and then you enter the lengthy training process. After your people are trained, your sales force is faced with the task of developing relationships in the field. This latter point is crucial because whatever field sales engineers you put into place are only going to be successful if they develop the proper business relationships with potential customers. Considering the entire process we are talking about, we’re looking at a period of two to three years. We just didn’t have the time to wait that long. The answer for us was an independent sales rep sales force.”