When a panel of three manufacturers was asked by another manufacturer who was brand new to working with reps what kind of support he should expect in order to make the partnership work, the trio on the panel answered unanimously “teamwork.”

One of the manufacturers offered, “You don’t need just one person or one ‘rep champion’ in your organization. What you truly need is to introduce the philosophy of team support — and that’s much more than just support in the sales function. Your manufacturing support team should include individuals from accounting, manufacturing, shipping, advertising, public relations, and operations. If you do your job correctly, you’ll have someone from virtually every department that even remotely touches your reps. And in order to ensure that team works well as a unit and with your reps, make sure they meet regularly to keep themselves and you up to date on what has happened, what is happening and what you anticipate will happen in the future.”

A Vote for the “Rep Champion”

If the manufacturer in the previous instance eschewed the need for a “rep champion” within his company ranks, another manufacturer has a different view.

“After less than one year of working with reps, I learned from my outside sales force that my inside people weren’t providing all the assistance that they needed.

“Their most common complaints were that they weren’t getting the information they needed and wanted from the inside people. After hearing all the complaints I could handle, I began to wonder whether I had made the right choice to work with reps. I then convened a meeting and learned that many of the inside people actually resented the freedom the independent reps had. They admitted that they had become accustomed to giving orders to our former salaried sales staff and having those orders obeyed with little or no push back. When I heard this, the first thing I did was to re-educate the inside staff as to the reasons we decided to go to reps. Then I appointed one of them who appeared to be most receptive to my message as the ‘rep champion.’ He then became the go-to guy for our reps whenever they have complaints. I did this about six months ago, and the results were positive immediately.”

Sharing Information

It’s more the rule than the exception that manufacturers will contact both MANA and Agency Sales magazine concerning the propriety of encouraging their independent reps to work closely together in terms of sharing best practices, industry knowledge, information on trends, etc. When several reps were queried about their reaction to such efforts, a variety of opinions were forthcoming.

On the negative front, one rep noted, “While I’m more than willing to assist my fellow reps if and when I can, more times than not I’m wary of the fact that this type of cooperation could turn into a project in itself and would take me away from what I am supposed to do — and what I do best — selling in the field.”

While that is admittedly a viable response, a more positive view was offered in the following from another rep, “The best and most efficient way to get your reps to communicate among themselves and to share experiences is under the umbrella of a rep council. I’ve served on several rep councils and the environment was such that we all felt very comfortable when it came to sharing information. The way the agendas were put together allowed us plenty of time to network and learn from each other. And it was a usual practice that whatever we learned; we were more than willing to pass on to our principals.”

Reps Value Training

Whenever Agency Sales communicates with manufacturers, inevitably the question is asked: “Is there anything you wish reps were more appreciative of that you provide?” Any number of times the answer comes back “The training that we provide.”

Typical is what one manufacturer recently had to offer, “We put the training out there because we know it’s critical to our mutual success. We tell our reps about it and it’s constantly in front of them on our website or in visits to our factory. Despite our best efforts, there’s still a large number of reps who fail to follow up on what we offer. I know, they always mention the reasons why, mostly because they don’t have the time, but the reps who do take advantage of our programs show sharp increases in their sales performance.

“There’s nothing worse than having a new product or promotion and our reps don’t know what to do with it. And making that situation worse is the fact that we provide all they need in order to be successful. All they’ve got to do is use it and provide us with their constructive feedback.”

Not to be totally negative however, the manufacturer continued, “I can point to our top-performing reps as the ones who get the information they need or sign up for our training programs. These top performers really stand out from the rest.”

Checking the Record

When a rep began hearing some comments from one of his principals that his commission checks were a bit too large, his antennae went up.

Rather than assuming those comments were a harbinger of some future bad news, he fell back on some of his best record keeping. It seems that “way back when” he developed the habit of taking careful notes during important conversations. It paid off this time when his regional sales manager finally mentioned something to him about his checks. It was then that he pulled out notes from his initial meeting with the company president more than 10 years previously. Here’s what the president had to say about commissions at that time: “I’ve never had a problem with large checks. If the rep is making more than I do, then I know I’m making more than enough. Anyway, have you ever heard of a manufacturer going broke because the commissions he paid are too high?”

Proof that the rep’s approach worked is seen in the fact that there was no cut in his commission. By the way, the manufacturer’s president is the same person today as it was 13 years ago.

Sales Forecasts Aid Planning

A manufacturer admitted that “We’re as guilty as anyone else when it comes to putting pressure on our reps for them to submit sales forecasts. As a result, the forecasts often aren’t that accurate. They’re more an example of data dumping than anything else. What we’ve done instead is to sit down with our reps on a regular basis and explain to them exactly what it is we’re looking for. Following that we stress the importance of that information to our planning process.

Since we’ve taken the time to approach this in a serious manner, the reps have really taken the ball and run with it. Their forecasts are now much more thorough and if not exactly accurate, at least we know the reps are trying and not just providing a quantity of worthless information.”

Incenting Reps

A manufacturer reports to us that when he came out with a new product — complete with all the innovations that it could have — he thought he was ready to make a major impact on the marketplace. He had developed a marketing plan for his network of reps and brought all his agency principals in to the headquarters for two days of training. After what he thought was an appropriate beginning, however, he was unimpressed with the impact his reps were making with customers. His solution was to throw more training at the problem and see what happened. What happened? Not much.

Finally two of his reps who were less than enthusiastic about more training at the factory, let him know there was more to consider. That’s when he took a different approach. According to the manufacturer, “They let me know that the new product pioneering work I was advocating required a good deal more of their time than needed to establish sales. Here’s what they suggested:

• Increase the commission rate for new product selling.
• Follow up on that with a reevaluation of whether new product training was called for.

“I followed their advice, and for the majority of my reps, the increased commission more than got their attention. There were only a few reps that still required some more in-depth training.”

Planning for That First Sales Meeting

After making the move from a direct to an outsourced sales force, a manufacturer was faced with the task of planning and executing its first annual rep sales meeting. One of the first decisions he had to make was how long the meeting should be. In the past, time was never an issue because the sales force was entirely made up of direct employees.

After checking with a few non-competitive manufacturers who went to market via reps, he was cautioned to keep in mind that the rep’s time out of the office for the sales meeting was time spent out of the territory — and not selling. As a result, he was urged to keep the sales meeting as short as possible, assuming he crafted an agenda that covered all the important areas.

In addition, he was urged to:

• Let reps know ahead of time what his goals were and what he hoped to accomplish.
• Ask reps to suggest anything important they felt should be included in the meeting
• Stay tightly focused on pre-determined agenda items.
• Complete the meeting in the shortest period of time — without rushing — in order to allow the rep to get back to his territory in the most timely manner possible.

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