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We’ve all seen pharmaceutical ads where the side effects are worse than the disease that the new miracle pill can cure. “We’ll cure your athlete’s foot,” says the pill manufacturer, “but you may experience double vision and extreme gastrointestinal distress.”

But sometimes side effects are beneficial. The same aspirin tablet that cures your headache may also have a role in heart health.

Manufacturers who sell through manufacturers’ representatives enjoy a beneficial side effect just like the aspirin user: a reservoir of highly skilled sales professionals who are intimately familiar with your products, your business practices and the markets you serve.

How do you take advantage of that expertise? With a Representative Council.

When you form a Representative Council you bring together four to six of your representatives, usually at your facility, to discuss the things you do well and the things you do “not well.”

What do you get? Insights that a top 10 consulting firm would be hard-pressed to replicate for tens of thousands of dollars, because a top 10 consulting firm would have to spend weeks “on the clock” learning your business and your customers, information your representatives collect every day as part of their routine sales calls.

What does it cost? In most cases just a half dozen plane tickets and the hotel and meal expenses of your representatives while they are at your facility helping you.

Interested in learning more? MANA members enjoy free access to MANA’s “Nine Steps to Being a Quality Principal” program. Step Five includes everything you’ll need to start a Rep Council, including these items:

• Open Doors by Building an Effective Rep Council ∙ Special Report
• How to Establish and Benefit From Rep Councils ∙ Teleforum
• Agent Council Operating Charter ∙ Guideline

Or call MANA with your questions — we’re here to help!