Simple is always better and simple is just the way Charlie Ingram describes how and what a rep council is.

Ingram, vice president, sales and marketing for Eriez Magnetics, Erie, Pennsylvania, maintains that a rep council “is put together for manufacturers and reps to exchange ideas on how they can work better together to serve their mutual customers. In a nutshell, it’s all about discussing mutual challenges and deciding how best to improve your business practices.”

That was just part of the message delivered by MANA Board member Ingram and MANA-member Kurt Jacoby, Dempsco, Inc., Dayton, Ohio, as they participated in MANA’s teleforum on rep councils.

The one-hour teleforum session, which included questions from listeners, was moderated by Nicki Weiss, Sales Wise Academy, which teaches selling and influencing for engineers and other technical professionals.

Tracing his and Eriez’s experience with the rep council, Ingram explained, “When I joined the company, I had some experience selling through distribution and we had a distributor council. When I came here, it was important for me to learn how business worked and how to enhance our relationship with reps. That’s why we initiated the rep council in 1995 — and we’ve had one ever since.”

Among the many benefits that rep council has offered Eriez, according to Ingram, is the fact that “It eliminates the ‘us vs. them’ relationships between manufacturer and rep. When that kind of strained relationship exists, it just shows you that your respective sales strategies aren’t aligned. The rep council allows us to get unfiltered information back from the reps. As an unintended benefit, we’ve found that rep members of the council have been able to learn from each other how to improve their business practices.”

The Rep’s View

From his perspective as a rep, Jacoby notes, “One thing I’ve learned over the years is that all things being equal, it’s always better to have a rep council than to not to have one. It should be emphasized that based on my experience with Eriez, a rep council meeting shouldn’t be confused with a sales meeting. The meeting could very well include information on new products or marketing programs, but it’s not the kind of ‘rah-rah’ atmosphere you experience at a sales meeting. The intended goal of a rep council is to have a fair exchange of ideas and goals.”

If the benefits of having a rep council speak for themselves, Ingram stresses that at the beginning, if it’s going to work, it’s critical that the manufacturer get “buy-in” from its upper management. “The major challenge from day one is that in terms of the cost and value of the council, you get that commitment from management. That’s not only my perspective, but it’s what I’ve heard from other manufacturers.

“That was true for us, and we had to ensure that the council was going to be much more than just an opportunity for reps to complain about things. To accomplish the council’s intended goals, the manufacturer has to have a ‘rep champion’ in place to communicate the value of the council.”

As to how to achieve that upper management buy-in, Ingram notes, “I’m an excellent salesman. That was my job and I did it. In reality, our company CEO bought in as I communicated to him what I wanted to accomplish; what we wanted to discuss; what the agenda was going to be. Looking back, perhaps he thought he was throwing me a bone and believed this was going to be a ‘one-and-done’ deal, but that turned out not to be the case.”

He adds that his company’s upper management support for the rep council continues to this day. “They look very favorably upon the council and one reason for that is that we’ve marketed the value of the council to both our personnel and to our reps.”

Credit to MANA

Ingram gives credit to MANA when it comes to starting his company’s council. “I participated in one of the association’s day-and-a-half manufacturer seminars with the specific purpose of gathering information about rep councils. A great deal of pointers came out of that meeting, and I still remember what I learned to this day. One thing I learned was the importance of putting together an operating charter. For us, this is nothing more than a page-and-a-half of stated objectives covering what that the council is to serve as an advisory group to provide ideas and strategic policies. It goes on to describe rep membership, length of terms, and operating procedures.”

Membership on Eriez’s rep council comprises six reps and five participants from the manufacturer’s side. Reps serve a three-year term with two reps rotated off each year and replaced by two new reps. Meetings are scheduled annually at an off-site location away from both the manufacturer’s factory and the rep’s place of business with the manufacturer covering the reps’ expenses related to attendance.

If Ingram described the manufacturer’s responsibility in terms of establishing and running the council, Jacoby notes that each of the reps on the council is considered a team leader in that they are responsible for communicating with other reps working with the manufacturer. Jacoby is considered a “team leader” reporting to 10 other rep firms. “I’ll receive an agenda for an upcoming meeting. I forward that to my team and ask for their input. We’re open to their ideas, and those ideas don’t have to be strictly related to the agenda.”

Describing his time commitment for council activities, Jacoby says, “If I’m doing my job correctly, I’d say my prep time for a meeting is in the range of three or four days. In terms of attendance, I need to commit a day to fly in for a meeting, one day to attend, and then one day to fly out.”

Follow-up Is Key

There’s more to having a successful rep council than just planning for and conducting the meeting, however, and both men emphasize the importance of the meeting follow-up process. “Follow-up is something that Charlie and his team do extremely well,” maintains Jacoby. “It’s in that follow-up that reps learn what was discussed and that their input was important.”

Ingram notes that two things usually occur in the follow-up to a rep council meeting. “First is that as the host of the meeting, it’s the manufacturer’s responsibility to write up the meeting minutes, and we’ll provide several pages of information including any decisions that were made and any subjects that were tabled. A couple of months later, we’ll send something out to the field covering what actions are being taken as the result of a council meeting. The outcome is that you have an ongoing discussion. If you just attend a meeting and don’t communicate after the fact, it’s really just a waste of time.”

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Rep Council Checklist

MANA’s teleforum on rep councils detailed the personal experiences of one manufacturer and a rep member. Over the years, Agency Sales has published any number of articles providing reps and manufacturers with guidance when it comes to establishing and running effective rep councils. Among the suggestions that have been offered on that subject are these:

Communicate Goals — In order to ensure that plans for creating and operating a rep council don’t proceed in a void, it remains critical to communicate its value to both manufacturer and rep members. Communicate with every person who will be involved. As to what should be communicated, start with the goals you hope to accomplish. At the same time, let all who will be touched by the council know what your role in the process will be. Once that’s accomplished, there won’t be any surprises as the process continues to evolve.

Selecting Membership — As described in the accompanying article, Eriez conducts its council with a mix of long-standing and relatively new reps. On the other hand, some manufacturers choose reps that have been with them the longest. The thinking with that approach is that reps know the manufacturer, his product, his personnel, and the marketplace better than anyone else. In addition to the knowledge that length of service provides, their tenure provides them with a willingness to participate in the process with a high level of candor and objectivity.

However, the feeling is that newer or less-experienced reps should not be excluded from the process as they can provide an entirely new perspective to the experience.

Council Size — No one size fits all. The major considerations when determining size, however, should be function and representation. Keep in mind that if the council is too large, it becomes cumbersome and very difficult to accomplish tasks. When thinking of size, consider what it is you want to accomplish and then decide what number would be needed to get the job done.

Length of Service — As Eriez’s Charlie Ingram noted in his comments, three-year terms fit the needs of his council. In general, length of service might be tied to how long it takes to get something done. Given that a manufacturer’s council will meet once or twice annually, it would appear that a one-year term is hardly desirable. Several manufacturers lean more toward a two- or three-year term.

Expenses and Location — Since manufacturers acknowledge the fact they are taking their reps out of the field to serve on a rep council, it’s more than appropriate that they pick up council expenses for the rep.

Follow-up — There’s no sense in conducting a meeting that looks for input from reps unless there is some sort of “call to action” following the meeting. That’s why it’s so important for notes to be written and circulated among manufacturer and rep personnel. And more to the point, if some action is called for on a specific matter, a deadline should be affixed and responsibility delegated for the action to be taken.

Marketing the Council — Just as the success of any manufacturing venture can only be achieved via a comprehensive marketing effort, so too should the operation of the rep council. That’s why it’s so important that once it’s up and running, the council should be constantly marketed to the entire representative and manufacturing sales force.

Continuity — It makes no sense to adopt a “one and done” approach when it comes to operation of a rep council. If the council meets only once or twice a year, that doesn’t mean that’s all there is to the job. Before and after the formal meeting, the council should still be operating, whether it’s planning, communicating, or implementing new plans.

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