If there’s anything that might set the Mantec agency apart from competitors, it’s the agency’s working philosophy it has embraced when it comes to representing a service provider vs. a typical products principal.
As stated on the agency’s website, “Since its founding in 1976, Mantec has strived to provide both customer and principal with the highest quality products and services available.” Note the inclusion of the word “services” in the agency’s description.
According to agency founder Pete Mann, who founded the Pomfret Center, Connecticut-based agency in 1976, “In 1981 we were approached by a testing laboratory that had no outside sales force. It was a company that wasn’t selling a product, but rather a service. We were faced with the proposition that we were used to selling products — something you can hold in your hand. How do we sell a service to prospective customers? The answer, in fact, was relatively simple and is the same answer as how to sell a product. What you have to do is simply go out and locate the people who need the service. Once you do that, you’ve pointed yourself in the right direction. You just do what reps do — sell. Basically, selling is just the same; you locate prospects, make the initial contact and then provide prospects with the information that they need.”
Mann adds, “We took on that line at a time when FCC compliance was just taking hold. All of a sudden, as things developed, we found that we had something that people needed. We were fortunate that at an early stage we found that a service such as what we offer is a viable thing for a rep to sell.”
While the concept of having a “service” offering available for customers was a fairly new concept for Mann and Mantec, the agency founder notes with pride that several of the traditional product lines the agency has a relationship with boast a lengthy tenure with the agency including one that has been with the agency from day one. Mann founded the agency in 1976 and just sold it four years ago to Heather McCourt.
Four Decades as a Rep
Asked how he forged a career path that has lasted more than four decades, Mann notes, “I was working in the aircraft cable business at a time when the company was going to put me in a position I didn’t necessarily want to occupy. Thankfully, I was able to take advantage of an opportunity to pick up a competing line and became a rep. I still represent that line to this day.”
If Mann followed a fairly typical path to becoming a rep, McCourt is another story all together. “Pete would frequent the restaurant where I worked. I regularly took care of him and his guests. After our paths had crossed so many times, he eventually asked me if I would be interested in working with him. Honestly, I knew very little about reps and what they did; it was something I had never given any thought to. Probably because I was so used to meeting and working with new people every day, I eventually said yes.” That was seven years ago, the last three of which she has been the agency owner.
Mann interjects, “The fact that Heather was a ‘people person’ and enjoyed meeting people led me to believe she would be successful as a rep. My thinking about sales is that you have to like people, have a great disposition, and are good at following up. She possessed all those attributes.”
Now that the two have been working together for the past seven years, they agree that they face the same challenges as so many of their rep peers. For instance, how does Mantec locate prospective principals and how do prospective principals find the three-person agency? According to Mann and McCourt, “MANA remains our number-one resource when it comes to locating principals. Whether it’s through the association or via word of mouth, I’d say we are contacted three or more times a month by principals asking if we’d like to represent them.”
The Importance of Being Professional
McCourt adds, “Naturally there’s not always a good fit for us, but one thing we’ve always done is to respond to their approach. It’s all a part of being professional and you never know if down the road there might be a good fit for you.”
Then there’s the subject of whether to introduce the subject of shared territorial development fees or retainers when speaking with a prospective or new principal. Mann offers, “I’m a bit old school in that I won’t necessarily ask for a retainer. But at the beginning of a relationship, we certainly try to get to know all we can about a manufacturer’s business in our territory. The fact is that most of the lines we represent are all engineered parts. As a result, sales can be two to three years in the making before you see any result.”
McCourt has a bit of a different view and she maintains that “While I wouldn’t necessarily ask for a retainer, I’m a firm believer in the fact that you don’t necessarily want to sign on with a manufacturer when they say they want us to develop new business but they’re going to hold on to the house accounts. There has to be an agreement that this is a partnership and we’re not trying to steal any of their business.”
Staying on the subject of dealing with principals, both Mann and McCourt are big believers in proactive, steady communication with principals. According to Mann, “I’ve patterned one practice that I learned from a rep I used to work with. Years ago on a weekly basis, that rep would write up two or three daily call reports and place them in a yellow envelope to be mailed to a principal. That’s the type of communication I’ve followed to this day. Naturally I don’t do it with every call I make, just the important ones that a principal should be concerned with.”
The Impact of Technology
With a tenure of well over 40 years as an independent rep, Mann is in a solid position to offer a well-seasoned personal opinion of how technology has affected his profession. In a nutshell he notes, “The advances in technology have made this a 24/7 job and I can’t say I like it. Consider for a moment that when I began as a rep there weren’t even answering machines — there was always a human being there to answer the phone. Not only that, but many times the person who answered the phone was a decision maker — so you hit the jackpot right away. Contrast that with today as no one answers the phone, and no one responds to email. Obviously it’s much more difficult to get in front of your prospects than it’s ever been.”
The availability of information on the Internet is also a change that reps have to deal with today, maintains McCourt. “There’s no getting away from it — in order to survive today you’ve got to stay connected. That’s certainly the way the younger generation conducts business. At the same time, there’s such a wealth of information available on the Internet that many people feel they don’t need the involvement of a salesperson in order to explain a product and its applications. On top of that they don’t want the printed catalogues that we used to give out. While I readily admit Pete and I come from different generations, we’re still both believers in the fact that it’s much more effective to conduct business in person.”
At this point Mann interjects that during the course of turning the business over to McCourt, “Heather and I participated in a MANA webinar concerning how to effectively sell to millennials. One of the points made there was that, in general, that generation is tied to their cell phones and aren’t necessarily as interested as their predecessors were when it comes to establishing relationships.”
“To survive, we’ve obviously adjusted,” explains Mann. “Admittedly, we’re now operating in a much faster-paced business world and we simply have to persist in what we do.” He adds that while he’s not necessarily a “tech person,” there is a certain amount of convenience in being able to follow up with a customer while relaxing at home on a Saturday night. “That’s certainly not something we could do in the past.”
Looking back to the beginnings of his agency, Mann notes that he’s been a MANA member in excess of 35 years. “While I started in business in 1976, I didn’t join until nine years later principally because I just didn’t have any extra money. After learning about the association, however, I quickly became a believer. I’ve participated in association webinars and love Agency Sales magazine. I can’t count the number of lines I’ve gained from my membership, with me either learning about them or principals learning about me through the association.”
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