“There’s much more to judging performance than just looking at the numbers.” That’s what one manufacturer emphasized in a recent phone call when the subject came to evaluating reps’ performance. The manufacturer admitted that he — just like so many of his peers — had spent years measuring their reps’ performance by just looking at sales figures.

“I’ve been the head of sales for more than 20 years and most of that time has been spent working with our outsourced sales staff. During the majority of that time our reviews were pretty standard. We looked primarily at sales figures from the individual territories. Once we had those figures, we’d match them up with our expectations for the year. Simple enough and that seemed fine for the time but then things changed.

“The lights finally came on for us when we began considering other matters than just sales. For instance, we learned the importance of the following:

• Anticipating and solving customers’ problems.
• How they performed when it came to new product introductions.
• Did they participate in trade shows?
• How were they when it came to training customers in the field?
• How effective was their communication not only with customers but with us?

“In all honesty, it was only when we threw some of these additional variables into the mix that we felt we had a true picture of how well they represented us. Looking back at our experience, I’d heartily recommend to other manufacturers that they look well beyond the typical numbers approach and look for other contributions from their reps.”

Keeping Eye on the Future

As he described his company’s efforts to bring a new rep on board after a long-standing rep firm went in another direction, a manufacturer emphasized how his company avoided temptation when it came to taking on a house account.

“There were several in our company — not to mention some non-competing peers — who advised me to convert more than $1 million in existing business into a house account when we took on a new rep. I ignored their advice primarily because of my belief in the new rep and in the possibility that my decision would fund new business moving forward. Part of my reason was that if turning over existing business would serve as an incentive, didn’t it make sense that holding the business back would serve as a disincentive? In addition, wouldn’t that actually harm the rep and the manufacturer — not to mention the customer?”

He concluded by noting that his decision proved to be the correct one. He’s now looking back at more than two years of increased — and still growing — sales with the rep.

Maintaining a Professional Website

Hot on the heels of an item that appeared in these pages earlier this year on the need for an agency to have a professional and well-written website, a manufacturer weighed in with his thoughts on that very subject.

According to the manufacturer, “One of the things we look for in a prospective rep is their presence on the Internet. All too often, however, too many times, especially with some of the smaller firms, they don’t put the proper effort behind their Internet ventures. When that occurs, we’re quick to get in touch with them and provide them with some suggestions on how to improve their online efforts.”

The manufacturer, with a long track record of working with reps, usually starts off by emphasizing how important it is to rely on trained professionals to get the job done. “Unless you’ve got someone really experienced on staff, don’t do it yourself. Following a quick and inexpensive path will get you somewhere in a hurry, but it’s not necessarily where you want to be. We’ve been proven correct in our philosophy when we ask firms that have done it on the cheap what their Internet traffic is like.”

The manufacturer concluded by noting, “We’re never going to point an agency in the direction of a specific consultant or Internet web page creator. What we will do, however, is to point them in the right direction to find competent assistance.”

Getting Results From Sales Meetings

Last month in Agency Sales, John Haskell (aka “Dr. Revenue) wrote an article on how manufacturers can and should get the most out of their sales meetings with their reps. As a follow-up to that, one manufacturer offered a couple of tips he’s followed over the years that have increased the participation and effectiveness of his annual sales meetings. Among the things he does are these:

• Make sure that each meeting participant has a lead role on at least one agenda item.
• Always make presentations interactive and be sure to avoid the typical “Death by PowerPoint” type of presentation where the presenter simply reads what’s already being shown on a screen.
• Emphasize how important it is to communicate in a concise, focused manner with the goal of avoiding long, complicated, involved statements.
• Provide frequent short breaks and stick closely to an agenda that has been circulated ahead of time.

Planning Pays Off With New Customers

One manufacturer communicated the steps it takes when beginning working together with his reps on a new customer. Accepting the principle that “If anything is going to go wrong, it’s going to go wrong at the very beginning,” this manufacturer described the steps it takes to carry it through the first-impression stage with a new customer.

“From the very beginning of our relationship with a new customer, we make every effort to emphasize the importance of our rep notifying us that this is a first-time experience. We do that so we can pay extra attention so everything runs smoothly. We’ll write a welcoming letter to the customer immediately following the rep’s notification. While we’re careful to see to it that everything runs smoothly, we’re just as careful not to do anything that we’re not going to be able to do on a regular basis. For instance, if we ship the first order in just one week vs. the normal three-week period, we can be sure we’ll be in trouble on succeeding orders. We’re careful concerning the service promises we make, and we’re just as sure to live up to our promises.”

The Strength of Lasting Relationships

If there’s a common thread among MANA manufacturers that boast of lengthy tenures in the marketplace, it’s that they have equally lengthy relationships with rep firms. It’s hardly unusual to learn from a manufacturer that they’ve been working with a rep firm or firms for 25 or even 50 years. One such manufacturer explained that “It’s been our practice to truly get to understand that our reps are our partners. I know others say the same thing, but we’ve made a concerted effort to involve our reps in our company and to keep them informed about our present and future plans. By doing this, we’ve been able to impress on all of our personnel that our success is directly tied to the success of our reps. That’s why whenever they have a question, need a quote, or help in solving a problem, we drop what we’re doing to help them. This has really paid off for us in the strength of the relationships that we enjoy with them.”

Succeeding in Succession Planning

Elsewhere in this issue of Agency Sales, MANA President and CEO Charley Cohon addresses the importance of succession planning. Just as important as planning for the future is for the rep firm owner so too is it for the manufacturer who works with reps. This point was driven home to one manufacturer who says he was caught off guard when one of his best reps decided to sell the agency. “I learned a valuable lesson when the rep sold without telling me ahead of time. Sure I was upset with his lack of communication, but I certainly bear some of the responsibility for the situation. The more I thought about what happened, the more I realized that I should have been better prepared. Why didn’t I ask him for updates on what his future plans were? Why wasn’t I more proactive?”

To solve what became a problem moving forward, on a yearly basis the manufacturer asks his reps to share their future plans with him. That process has been a huge help because in a couple of instances he’s been able to help make suggestions on a more effective succession plan. As a result, his future position in the territory is cemented.

Embracing the Benefits of Change

A manufacturer recently offered his view that doing things the same way isn’t always the best practice. When the company made the change from a direct to an outsourced sales force we continued with a policy of splitting a sales territory when sales in a given area reach a high level. Even after making the change to reps we continued with that practice. In the past we really never had any complaints since our salespeople were on salary and it didn’t impact their income. When I followed that same course with one of our reps, however, there was a great deal of push back. To our mutual benefit, the rep was a great communicator and he was able to emphasize his point of view without getting upset. Thanks to his communication skills we rolled back the plan and the benefits have accrued to both of us. His sales have skyrocketed and I’m not sure that would have been the case if we continued as we always had.”

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