While hardly planned or even expected, an early morning golf match provided a recently retired independent manufacturers’ representative with the ideal opportunity to share his thoughts on the contributions that manufacturers’ regional sales managers can or should provide for their reps — and their customers for that matter.

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According to this rep who came fully armed with more than 15 years of experience selling a full line of products through distributors, “The first thing you have to keep in mind about a rep is that he’s in business to make money. If whatever the regional manager does really doesn’t contribute to that goal then he’s of no value to the rep.”

Looking back at his own experience in the field, the rep continued, “If I’m making a call with a regional manager, and he sits there doing his own thing, not taking notes or not giving the impression that he can make a decision, they’re not helping the business. What they’re really doing is making calls with the rep to say that they’re out in the field. They’re just checking all the boxes and performing the activities that will please their boss.”

To counterbalance that view, he said, “Here’s what reps really desire. They want a regular guy who knows his stuff and can contribute to the process. He knows what reps do, but not only that he respects what they do. They understand what it’s all about.”

Positive Experiences

With a decade and a half of experience in his pocket on the West Coast, this rep offered some anecdotal background to the discussion. “On a definitely positive side, I can recall a time when we were making a joint visit to a major customer — a distributor. When the discussion turned to the subject of how we could jointly build business with the distributor, the regional manager jumped in and said, ‘If you can take these steps right now, I’ll guarantee that we can do this and that for you. But, you have to decide now and if you do, we’ll cement the deal immediately. That’s exactly what was done and we all left the meeting satisfied. This is what reps look forward to when working with principals. The fact is, however, that too many regional manager don’t have the power to make those kinds of decisions.”

Unfortunately, there can also be negative recollections. “Here’s something that happened years ago and it sticks in my craw to this day,” he said. “We were making an important presentation to an engineering firm in San Francisco. All together there might have been 10 to 12 people in the room including two from the manufacturer, including the local guy and the regional manager. During the entire presentation the regional manager simply sat there with his laptop on his lap doing his own thing. I don’t know if he was answering his e-mail or updating schedules, but it wasn’t productive for us or the customer. We conducted the meeting, stood up and shook hands and left, all with the regional manager contributing nothing.

“I was quick to let the local guy know that we couldn’t have the regional manager sit in on any more meetings. Thankfully, given that we’re a major player with that customer and in a strong position with the manufacturer, we (in the person of our agency’s owner) were able to pass our complaint up the chain and get the regional manager replaced.”

While the agency was able to achieve a measure of corrective action in this instance, the rep added that being able to do so on a regular basis can be a little “touchy.”

Strong Rep Performers

“There’s a couple of things that you have to keep in mind here. First, if you (the rep) are a major player with the manufacturer and in the market, chances are your complaint will get rapid attention. If you’re not in a strong position, however, you may not be able to affect a change. A second consideration has to be what happens if you have a bad experience with a regional manager, he gets replaced and moves on to another company that you represent? You’re going to be faced with the same situation all over again — and bad feelings can linger.”

Before finishing the 18th hole, the rep added two observations to the regional manager-rep relationship discussion. “I’d be remiss if I didn’t comment on the importance of attitudes and the need for careful planning and scheduling when working with regional managers.

Attitudes Are Important

“Considering the regional manager’s attitudes toward the rep is very important. As I already mentioned, you need for a regional manager to know and appreciate the role of the rep. Over the course of my career, I can recall some regional managers who approached dealing with reps from their own perceived position of power. Many of the regional managers come from positions where they’ve been managing direct salespeople. As a result, they operate from a position of being able to hire and fire people. That isn’t the case with reps. We’re independent businessmen and our goal is to make money.”

Asked if attitudes can change, the rep was quick to offer a resounding “Yes.” “I remember one regional manager who took on the job with no experience working with reps. The first thing he had to come to grips with was you can’t talk to a rep the same way to talk to a direct salesperson. He came in with the wrong attitude, but give credit to him, he learned very quickly and turned out to be one of the best regional managers we worked with. Bottom line, he wised up and got the message.”

In conclusion, the subject of how to schedule customer visits when a regional manager comes to town was addressed. “Once again, I’d refer to the importance of the regional manager knowing and appreciating how the rep works. If he’s simply coming here to show his boss he’s getting out of the office, then I’ll just take him on a ‘milk run’ of easy customers and we’ll fill the week that way. On the other hand, if he truly has something to offer and gives me plenty of time to schedule the week, we’ll go to the customers who need attention and we’ll get something done. Remember, it’s all about performing activities that allow us to make money.”

This unplanned golf-course conversation with the rep served as a starting point for a bit of research on the subject of manufacturer regional manager-rep relationships. A quick review of some past articles in Agency Sales reveal the fact that this conversation has been conducted before. For instance, a good 10 years ago, John Haskell (aka Dr. Revenue) almost predicted our golfing rep’s conversation when he wrote “…Regional sales managers seem to be devoid of knowledge of how a rep firm functions. When company leaders are questioned about the nature of their rep’s business, they are generally uninformed and unconcerned. Manufacturers need to ask themselves about the value of the regional sales manager function.”

And, just six years ago, here’s what one MANA member had to say about the contributions that sales managers can provide: “One thing that is important to my customers when I bring a sales manager into a customer facility is that the customer always wants to know ‘what is going on in their industry,’ in other regions of the country, or more increasingly in their global market. The customer hopefully knows their local regional market. Customers view sales managers as a knowledge base for what is going on in the bigger industry. When a sales manager is knowledgeable of industry-wide trends, or industry ‘movements,’ then he or she immediately adds value to the customer. That’s the sign of a real pro. They view the sales manager and sales rep as valuable resources — the orders then seem to naturally follow.”

That rep continued, “This is a huge consideration for me. I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t regularly cover the features and benefits of the product lines I represent. Likewise with someone from the manufacturer’s home office, when I bring them into a sales call and they provide input they’ve learned by traveling with reps nationwide, that’s huge value point for both of us.”

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