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The principal’s foundation for rep success is reverse backselling. There are questions that manufacturers should be asking and questions that reps should be suggesting their manufacturers ask themselves.

Remember your independent reps work for you. They make a lot of money. So why should you be worrying about them and their feelings about your company?

Why should you care about the rep’s thoughts and feelings about your personnel? After all you are “the boss” and they’d better do a good job or they are gone — with 30-days’ notice.

That is often the attitude of a manufacturer about their reps. It is clear — we pay them, the rest is irrelevant!

The relationship between the reps and the principal is vital to successful development of an effective, productive sales force.

Key Questions

• How much do your personnel know about the rep business?
• Do they have a clear understanding about your company’s relationship with the reps?
• Do the people who deal with the reps know what “multiple-line selling” is?
• Do they understand the rep’s compensation-commission relationship with your company?
• Do they know what the rep contract is all about?
• Do they know how the rep’s business works?
• Do they have an understanding of the rep’s cost of doing business, expenses, systems and other key facts about being a rep?

School for Manufacturing Personnel

These are only some of the questions that a manufacturer should be concerned about when evaluating the rep sales force and the relationship each rep firm has with the company.

• Does the company have a program for educating the inside personnel about the reps?
• Does the company stress the importance and value of the relationship with the reps?
• Has the company involved the inside personnel in working with the reps as partners to build the business?
• Are the employees kept up-to-date about the results the reps are getting for the company?

Working Together Makes a Difference

• Does the company have a program for bringing the reps together with the inside personnel who work with them and others who influence the rep’s world?
• Have programs been put in place to get employees and reps together with customers?
• How often do employees communicate with reps?
• Is the communication between employees and reps monitored by top management to insure quality and constructive communication?
• Does the company monitor the employees’ knowledge of the rep’s business and the employees’ involvement with the reps?

Outside-In Communication

• Does the company solicit the rep’s feedback on the performance of the inside personnel?
• Are the inside personnel aware of the fact that rep personnel are asked about their performance and attitude?
• Is it clear to all of the inside personnel that the reps are held in respect and that their jobs are dependent in large measure on how the reps feel about them?

Yes, the rep’s relationship with the company depends on how the employees and top management feel about the reps. It should definitely be a two-way street.

Reverse Backselling Pays

There are hundreds of questions that the company needs to answer about the relationship with the reps. The depth of this analysis and quality of the company’s development of its program for working with the reps are a vital link in the relationship. The clear emphasis is on understanding and communication.

The quality of the relationship has an obvious and dramatic effect on the sales results the reps obtain for the company. The development of a strong, positive, cooperative relationship inside-out can produce outstanding results for the company.

The “Love a Rep!” approach pays big!

MANA welcomes your comments on this article. Write to us at [email protected].