“Always do what’s right.”
Those four words crop up time and again in even the shortest conversations with Murray Percival Jr., when he speaks about the independent manufacturers’ rep agency he heads.
Left to right: Matt Percival (Murray Jr.’s son), Murray Percival Jr., Mark Percival Sr., Murray Percival III (Murray Jr.’s son), and Mark Percival Jr. (Mark Sr.’s son).
Percival, who succeeded his father, Murray Sr., as president and CEO of the Murray Percival Company, Auburn Hills, Michigan, explains that “My father always said that if you follow those words, you will win 90 percent of the time!” If continued time in the territory can count as winning, those words are true since the company is celebrating its 57th anniversary this year. Percival, who maintains he was “almost born here,” can count 40 of his career years with the agency.
Prior to joining the agency, which serves the electronics assembly market, Percival explains that following college “I had no clue as to where I wanted to go or what I wanted to do. It was agreed that I’d take a job in the engineering department with one of the agency’s customers. I actually used some of the equipment that my father sold to them.”
A Job Offer
Shortly after that came a job offer from the rep agency, but first Percival asked the expected question of his father: “Why should I come to work here?” According to the younger Percival, “My father came back with the right answer. He explained that he was in place to support the families that work for the agency. It was a great opportunity, a great place to work and a chance to get in on the ground floor to make things work.” He added that it was also “an opportunity to earn a good clean living with the opportunity to be my own boss.”
Armed with those answers, Percival began his career with the agency as stockroom manager. “When I joined the agency there was just me, my father and an administrative person. We only had two lines. I did all the inside stuff, taking orders over the phone, shipping and receiving, loading and unloading trucks.”
Compare that beginning to a personnel profile of today’s agency and the differences are striking. “I’m obviously from the second generation of the Percival family. My brother Mark is my partner and our sister Pam is the agency controller. On top of that, we now have the third generation with the company. That group, which calls itself ‘3G,’ is comprised of two sons and a nephew. Altogether we’re 14 strong and working on adding several new employees.”
When he describes the dynamics of different generations working together toward a common goal, Percival explains that “If anything, we’ve done a pretty good job of understanding who and what we are. Our experience has been that when a question or problem comes up, we’ll look at it, have a conversation with no one person taking an especially strong stance, and come up with a plan. Sure, there are generational differences. Perhaps the younger generation wants to get things done faster. But, call it dumb luck or whatever, over the years we’ve been able to avoid arguments and pull together as a family.”
Perhaps a testament to the family being able to work well together is the fact, as Percival explains, that “Every Thanksgiving we’re together watching the Detroit Lions play football.”
The direction that the family pulls together is in “supplying capital equipment, engineered materials, and most importantly proven solutions to clients who are:
- Frustrated — with manufacturing quality issues.
- Upset — with a high level of WIP (Work in Process), which costs them a lot of money.
- Disappointed — with their shrinking profit margins.”
To assist in meeting that three-legged stool of challenges, Percival says the agency’s in-house marketing department has come up with two sets of bywords aimed at customers — “We Know How” and “Just Ask.”
Addressing Frustration
Percival explains that “I’m well aware of the fact that customers today are frustrated. To address their frustrations, we have to provide them with solutions to their problems. In doing that we’ve learned that it’s not all about the machines they need — it’s about uncovering the real issues that they’re facing; and hearing about those issues from them. It’s not all about features and benefits, but rather how their problems are going to be fixed. If you listen long and hard and ask the correct 20 questions — as we do — then you’ll get to the bottom of things.”
Changing With the Times
As Percival and the agency have worked to get to the bottom of customers’ questions and problems, he notes that over the course of the 40 years he’s spent with the agency, any number of changes have presented themselves in the way the agency conducts business. “Where do I start describing those changes?” he asks.
“In the old days, you had a pile of notes on your desk. You worked your way through them and made the necessary calls and moved on. Today, not only with us but with our customers and principals, it seems like everyone is wearing two hats and doing more than they can really get done. Communications and expectations have changed so much. Now we have voice mail and e-mail. And there are any number of other outside distractions that serve as obstacles to building meaningful relationships. Even with all the modern tools we have at our disposal, it’s difficult to keep up with things.
“Added to that there’s so much online buying today. It’s tough to get in to see your customers face to face. If you’re lucky enough to get to them, by the time you get in there, they’ve done all the homework needed and already picked their suppliers.” To meet that challenge he says the agency’s website (www.murraypercival.com) encourages online buying.
If voice and e-mail, not to mention online buying, serve as examples of some of the many changes the agency has embraced when it comes to doing its job, there’s more. “We’ve got our own marketing department and that’s not an inexpensive effort. We found that there was a need to drive people to us. We’ve purchased software that will measure the number of people who visit our website and scores them on how long they visit. That provides us with a meaningful number of good leads — more than we’ve been getting from our principals.”
Then there’s the subject of social media. “Our marketing people tell us we have to be out there on all fronts — Twitter and LinkedIn — to research and build our customer lists. All of our videos are connected to the Internet and they get more hits than anything else.”
And then, there’s the somewhat omnipresent challenge that most reps face today, that of how to work with pioneering lines. “That’s something we’re constantly struggling with,” says Percival. “Naturally when it comes to product lines we’re looking at new technology all the time. It’s critical for us to learn what’s coming next. As an example we recently signed on with a company that makes materials in the circuit board assembly business. They’re a successful company with a well-oiled marketing machine, but they’ve got no business here. Working with them is going to be a huge uphill battle.
“In general, manufacturers haven’t done a good job when it comes to making arrangements to support the rep’s efforts in pioneering. It’s a constant struggle. I continue to tell the story that Agency Sales magazine always tells. I’ve even proposed having subscriptions of Agency Sales sent to them. Bottom line, it’s a constant educational process as to why it makes sense for them to work with reps — and to support the reps’ efforts.”
Why MANA?
When he speaks about his agency’s continued membership in MANA, Percival notes, “One thing I’ve learned about this business is that you always need coaching and advice from the outside. I count MANA as one of my most valuable trusted advisors.
“We’ve been members of the association since 1987 and I can’t say enough about their contributions to our success. Among the many areas where MANA has assisted us has been providing legal direction, especially with respect to sales compensation questions; succession planning, which is so important to us; information on transcending manufacturers that don’t really understand how to work with reps; and providing information on the value of rep councils. In addition I love it when Agency Sales magazine shows up in my mailbox. I’ve shared many of the articles with members of my team and also copy several of them to our principal managers. In short, I’d recommend MANA membership to every rep and principal that I speak with.”
As he looks back over the more than 40 years that he’s been a rep, Percival notes that “My father was right when he told me this was a great way to make a ‘good, clean’ living. That’s exactly what it’s been for me.
“As I look forward, perhaps I’ll never retire. But in the future, it’s going to be up to our family’s third generation to make things work. They’ll be the ones who have to look at and evaluate risks. And that’s fine with me. But if someone comes back and visits us in a few years, I’m sure they’ll find us to be a bigger, stronger, smarter organization. One that’s operating with a well-thought-out five-year plan that aims to double sales in that period of time. And, that will be fine with me.”
The Murray A. Percival Company Story
The independent manufacturers’ representative company was founded in 1960 and subsequently incorporated in Michigan as the Murray A. Percival Company. Shortly thereafter, Murray Sr. was approached by the Electrovert Corporation, a company that the agency still represents, to sell their printed circuit board wave soldering equipment. At that time, the use of PCBs was still relatively rare, and the foresight to enter the business was not without risk: the industry had yet to emerge. Today, circuit boards are crucial components in everyday life, used in automobiles, medical and military equipment, avionics, communications, computers, appliances and entertainment products. Electronics are ubiquitous, increasingly mobile and growing every day.
The agency is now a leading supplier to the Midwest’s electronics industry and offers literally thousands of products, many of which can be purchased directly from the company website.
The company is today managed by Murray’s three children, Murray Jr., Mark and Pam. Now representing a third generation are Murray III, Mark Jr. and Matt.
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