Hank Bergson
Uniquely positioned to offer his thoughts on how things change — yet remain the same — is Hank Bergson.
For several years Bergson has moderated MANA’s manufacturer seminar, “Best Practices With Reps, Planning With Intent.” The day-and-a half session is aimed at educating manufacturers as to the most efficient ways to work with independent sales reps. In addition, he comes well-armed to advise manufacturers on the ins and outs of working with reps given his years of service as the president of the National Electrical Manufacturers’ Representatives Association (NEMRA).
Bergson, president, Henry Bergson Associates, LLC, maintains that “the number-one thing that has stayed the same with this subject is couched in a basic question that we begin each seminar with: ‘Have you (the manufacturer) made a corporate decision that you’re going to use a direct or an outside independent sales force to take your product to market?’
“Irrespective of changes in technology, communications, order processing, etc., that question remains the same today as it’s ever been. If in answer to that question your decision is to go face-to-face with a direct sales force, then that’s the path you’re going to follow. Likewise, if your choice is to go to market with an outsourced sales force, that’s what you’re going to do. On the other hand, if a manufacturer is going to be reliant on some sort of ESP (i.e., online ordering, Amazon, etc.) to take their product to market, then you’re not interested in providing the customer with the personal relationships that they need, and you’re not the right person to be in attendance at this seminar.”
Impersonal Selling
Acknowledging that while there are several manufacturers that have opted to sell their products digitally from a website, Bergson agrees that if anything, that choice would be considered a major change. “Certainly a portion of business has moved to an impersonal selling model where customers buy online. I don’t know if that’s just another trend that will overwhelm the need for personal selling. On the other hand, other manufacturers continue to believe that to be successful you need the personal touch and that creates the need for establishing personal relationships with customers. As long as that approach continues to exist, the pressing need for reps remains the same.”
Returning to what’s regularly included in the MANA manufacturer seminar, Bergson notes, “Something else that hasn’t changed is that we know that manufacturers need a sales force. That’s the subject matter that seminar attendees are looking for. In addressing that need we’ve got to answer the questions: ‘How do we find and evaluate reps to sell our products?’ How do we manage and expand that sales force?’”
Effective Communication
Part of the answers that are provided will acknowledge that there have been any number of changes in how reps and their manufacturers communicate. “As we conduct business, how do we communicate today, as compared to the past? There have been technical changes in the way we enter orders, pay commissions, follow up on opportunities and the way we present ourselves to customers. To successfully negotiate those changes, it’s important to develop new skill sets and our organizations need to be much more sophisticated in the way we conduct business.”
If anything has to be added to this discussion of change, it’s the impact that international trade has had on the relationship between manufacturers and reps. “There’s a whole series of concerns in this area including how opportunities are tracked. How does the rep get properly compensated for creating the specs for sales? On a smaller scale, all the business sales are not as local as they used to be. This raises the question of creating and tracking national sales, splitting commissions, and determining where a sale is ‘speced,’ where it’s sold, and where it’s delivered. These are all facets of the relationship between manufacturer and rep that are simply much more complex than they’ve ever been in the past.
“All of this fits into the need for reps to become more professional in the way they run their businesses,” Bergson says. “Look at the business landscape and consider the companies that were once with us and no longer exist. They’ve all been eclipsed by changing methods of conducting business. Reps and their manufacturers had better be willing to change with the times when it comes to developing those needed skill sets to properly address their customer base. In doing that reps have to keep in mind that they’ve got to meet the needs of two customers — their principals and the end-user customer. It’s the former who pays the rep’s salary and the latter who buys the product lines the rep represents. Too many reps lose sight of this as they continue to negotiate change.”
Looking to the Future
What does the future hold in the face of some things changing and others remaining the same? In answer to that question, Bergson notes, “It’s been said before that change is a reality. There’s the old saw of ‘Embrace change and move with it.’
“Keep in mind that the marketplace is dynamic and over time you can’t continue your old ‘tried and true’ methods of going to market. Your well–traveled formulas of the past simply won’t work forever. What you’re doing may work over the course of your individual career, but we’ve seen in this world that the rate of change continues to double ever X number of years. If you think you can survive without keeping up with change in this technical marketplace, you’re in for a nasty awakening.”
Finally, he adds that if anything was true in the past and still true today — it’s the importance of manufacturers and their reps maintaining their close relationships. “We always talk about the need for reps to visit the factory every 18 months to two years. That couldn’t be more important today. That’s one way the two can determine if they are going in the same direction. If one company is making drastic change and the other isn’t, how much longer are we going to be able to work successfully together?”
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