Richard Boisseau

One year comfortably into his retirement, an Ohio rep was reminiscing about his 27-year career as an independent rep when he settled upon one especially fond memory.

“As I look back over my career as a rep, there’s one incident that’s especially important to me. I was able to assist a small Ohio business to gain a higher percentage of a world-wide market and at the same time to grow as a ‘Made-in-America’ company. While what I went through to help both the manufacturer and the customer sounds a bit complicated, principally because I had to devote a lot of extra time in selling my customer to buy the U.S.-made product, in the end it paid dividends for everyone.”

First, a little background about the rep: Typical of many others who have chosen an independent rep career, Dick Boisseau started out in a number of manufacturing positions including salesman, regional sales manager, and director of marketing and sales. When his last manufacturing employer decided to scrap the product line he was working on, “I decided it was time to consider putting all my past experience to work as a manufacturers’ rep.

“I had a friend in Ohio who was a rep who had been bugging me for years about taking over his agency. At the time his children were approaching college age and he wasn’t satisfied with the commission payments he was earning. He had an opportunity to manage the engineering at a local company. I decided to make the move to Ohio in 1993 to eventually take over his business.

“When I took over the agency, its leading principal was a manufacturer of precision mechanical components with a 70-year history. After conducting considerable research on the territory and the potential of that principal, I decided to represent just that one line and have the agency be centrally located in the Columbus area. My agency was a one-man operation that would concentrate on marketing. I quickly learned that the principal did not have a marketing group to support its rep sales. Immediately, I put together a 500+ listing of current and potential customers and completed a product mailing program which included current and potential customers, and a quarterly newsletter, designed and produced in my home office.”

Boisseau notes that his agency, DG Technical Sales, flourished for 27 years until he finally retired last year. “With just that one line, I was able to build a new home and have it paid off in eight years.” He adds, “Over the years one thing I always did was to recommend MANA to both reps I knew and principals.”

A True “Made-in-America” Story

Here’s what Boisseau did for both his principal and for one of his customers. “My major customer produced high-precision marking systems. They were acquired by a Chinese venture firm in the early days of the blanket order that I ultimately crafted for them. Shortly after my customer was acquired, a prototype of a popular marker was started. After two attempts, even with support from the customer’s engineering department, the results were not acceptable. After two attempts at producing sample products in China, all we had to show for it was poor quality and almost no cost advantage for the manufacturer of a $10k dot matrix marker. After the Chinese trials with my customer’s engineers, the customer’s management decided to keep their marker line in the United States and hopefully continue to grow in their market with my assistance.”

Boisseau’s assistance came in the form of the principal he was working with, a United States-based manufacturer of precision gears, pulleys and numerous other motion products. “The company’s offering of high-quality motion products came from their early days (1950s) as a division of a company known for their precision ‘wind-up’ watches. They continue to provide most of the products my customer needed to manufacture heavy industrial dot matrix markers, made to run a high number of operations, especially in high-volume automotive factory vehicle applications.”

Developing a Blanket Order

While it was one thing to be able to provide the product that the customer needed, it was a different challenge when it came to producing the actual order needed to get the job done.

According to Boisseau, “What we (the rep and customer) had to do was create a unique blanket order contract that was then submitted to the principal for approval. Included in the contract were the usual elements, i.e., terms of delivery, factory stock, negotiated pricing, etc.

“The customer’s materials manager was a former buyer with a major automotive manufacturer and his experience with just-in-time purchasing was a huge assistance. After we started our program he left, but thankfully was replaced with another automotive-experienced buyer who eventually became the customer’s materials manager.

“Initially the principal’s management was unhappy with the blanket order approach and had to be sold on the idea of putting in a special stock. The principal’s product manager and I showed management that each product’s yearly release was a real order and the stock my principal would produce during the year could be shipped in any quantity at random releases during the year. The company CEO soon realized that the first month’s shipment per the blanket order was more than $5,000, and a few years later shipments grew to $15,000 monthly.

“Basically the blanket order calls for the rep to receive the monthly release from the customer for review before he sends it to the factory. The product release is a random selection of contract-listed items depending on the customer’s production needs. It is done this way to discourage competition, boost monthly factory shipments and increase the rep’s commission each month.”

The Ohio rep adds, “As a part of my initial agreement with the manufacturer, I convinced the factory to assign an inside salesperson to manage all items related to the order, thereby expediting all future transactions. Over the course of a few years, orders from the customer to the manufacturer grew from five to 62 items. Each item was priced according to the yearly estimated usage. It hardly changed for the past 10 years whereas the customer uses the same specs for new products in order to maintain a high‑quality history.”

Long-Term Results

In conclusion, Boisseau notes, “This blanket order has been in effect for the past 15 years. I understand it has continued since my retirement.

“By working together I think this serves as a good example of how a rep can go that extra mile when it comes to meeting the needs of both customers and principals. Benefits of the program include the following:

• Factory stock is available for shipment daily for ASAP customer releases.
• The customer issues a single purchase order number for the blanket order with coded releases monthly, and any new additions for new products can be added.
• Each item on the blanket order is re-quoted and released only when stock is at a minimum. The blanket order is not your typical format with a yearly review and re-quoted as a package.
• With monthly shipments to the customer, the rep sees a monthly gain in commissions and it can only increase.

“The customer today has a large percentage of the dot-peen precision marker world market and is able to react to their customers’ needs ‘asap.’”

Rep Participation in a “Made-in-America” Project

According to Boisseau, a good number of representatives probably have one or more customers that would like to back off from buying off-shore products or components. “The details in my story give some ideas how a rep can start a conversation with buyers. Lots of reps such as myself, have prior experience in the industrial / manufacturing world that can be used to enhance a buyer/principal agreement.

“Adding QA assistance, engineering support, monthly release reviews (before entering the order/release, etc.) can be an important part of a contract or blanket order. This should be a very important feature of the rep’s customer service plan.

“However, the toughest part may be in pricing to get started. This will take some negotiation with your customer and the principal. I was able to review factory quotations prior to accepting a pending customer order or release — one of the challenges the rep faces on a daily basis.”

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