While in the midst of trying to maximize the efficiency and contributions of its rep council, a manufacturer accessed several of the articles on that subject that have appeared in the pages of Agency Sales magazine.

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After reviewing them the manufacturer contacted us with the following observation: “With a certain amount of regularity one or more of our rep council members seem to force discussions in a negative direction. They seem to have their own agenda and are bound and determined to complete it no matter what.”

We’ve heard this complaint previously and in response there’s really nothing wrong with a little noise or negativity during the rep council. However, when the group veers off in the wrong direction, your efforts are doomed. There are a couple of solutions you may want to consider:

• Make every effort to let the group know that you’re in charge — not them. You, as the manufacturer, should set the agenda (with their advance input) and run the meeting. Remember, it’s your meeting.
• There’s really never a problem with someone being outspoken or “constructively” critical, but if they never provide a solution, then it could be they who are the problem.
• Be careful in your selection of council members. Be wary of negative influences.

Do it Fast, but Don’t Be in a Hurry

A manufacturer didn’t panic when he was given a mandate by management to make the move from a direct to a manufacturers’ representative sales force. The real cause for concern was the fact that he was told to get the job done in a 12-month period. “Certainly, the major challenge we faced was accomplishing the change in the allotted period of time. Roughly speaking we had 30 sales territories we had to accommodate. In about half of those territories we made the change to reps all in a period of 12 to 15 months. All that had to be accomplished, including product training and training on policies and procedures (which were also new), and you still had to hit your numbers. This sales executive admits, “There was a considerable amount of stress on our management and technical people, not to mention stress brought about by a change in culture. There was never any problem with our customers accepting the manufacturers’ rep — that was never an issue. They latched on to the reps in short order — they were already dealing extensively with them on other product lines.”

Why This Manufacturer Made the Move

A manufacturer of just one product that had been in business for a little more than 10 years contacted MANA recently and ultimately was able to partner with three rep firms. Looking to grow nationally, the president of the company explained some of his reasoning for wanting to go to market via reps: “So far on our own we’ve seen business grow about five to six percent nationally, but now we want to take that next step and we determined we couldn’t afford to do that with a direct sales force. As a result, we contracted with three agencies and are looking for more. We’re a small, single-product manufacturer and for me to employ a direct sales staff and hope to efficiently achieve any measure of success was a long shot. If I had a direct salesperson and they could get just five minutes of a purchasing agent’s time, I’d count myself lucky. The rep, on the other hand, assuming they represent complementary products, can probably get in there and over the period of an hour or more, do a great job of selling my product. Added to that is the fact any direct people I employ would have to begin by establishing relationships with the right people. Reps have already done that.”

The Constant Need for Mentoring and Motivation

“Mentoring is the greatest aid in helping and motivating manufacturers’ reps.” That may not be news to manufacturers, but it certainly reinforces the message that what reps want from their principals is support. A recent conversation with an OEM rep resulted in the following: “There is no specific set of skills needed to serve the customers we deal with. But our job does take basic quality people skills that are easily translatable from market to market.

“What’s important will always be our goal to serve the customer and provide solutions to his problems. If anything remains as an area of concern, however, it’s our constant need to be motivated by the manufacturer. The job we do in the field is one that can’t be done by watching the clock. What we do isn’t a nine-to-five business. I make it my job to always be at my first call by 8:30 a.m. and my last by 5:30 p.m. To do the job properly, we’ve got to be willing to do whatever it takes to serve the customer; how much time it takes should never be an issue. What is an issue is our constant need to be mentored and motivated by the manufacturer. And that motivation doesn’t just mean paid compensation — what it means is total support in the field.”

Not All Incentive Programs Work

One concern with typical incentive programs for reps is that if they are in place for any length of time, some agents may tend to take them for granted. A manufacturer reported that a few years ago he decided to give his agents unexpected incentives and to vary the reasons for giving them. This, he explained, solved the problem of them being taken for granted, and it also solved the problem of the agents focusing on the one or two announced factors that such programs usually feature. For example, most agency incentive programs are based on individual performance in exceeding certain sales levels. This manufacturer, rather than focusing on individual agents, set up his program so that all agents were given the same reward when the team hit a target that he had set but that the agents were unaware of. For example, he recently gave all his agents a surprise five percent bonus based on commissions for the last six months of last year because of solid overall sales performance. He explained that doing this benefited everyone and that it encouraged all the agents to work more closely together. He acknowledged that some of his agents were more productive than others, but that none were slackers. “I don’t keep slackers on the team,” he maintained. “But I do recognize that some agents are going to be better than others. And my program seems to have a strong positive effect on those who sell well as well as those who are terrific.”

We’re Number Two

Here’s the view of one manufacturer who maintains he doesn’t mind being other than number one on the rep’s line card: “I’m realistic. I can’t expect all of my agents to treat my line as their prime line. It’s a good line, but some of our agents have much bigger lines. The fact is with some of these, I would rather be the second line pulled out of the bag simply because the agent is a real powerhouse in the territory. I know that his reputation is going to get us in the door and that he’s going to sell the line. It may not be number one with him, but he has the integrity to give it his best effort as his number two or three line. So far, I be been proven right.”

Appreciating a Rep’s Business Culture

In the course of a recent rep council meeting, the manufacturer hosting the meeting came away with the view that it’s important for each party — rep and manufacturer — to understand the other’s corporate philosophy. Coming away from the meeting, the manufacturer noted, “We’ve always gone to great lengths to understand the corporate philosophy of the customers who buy our products. Why don’t we spend the same amount of effort in understanding the corporate philosophy of the individual reps who sell our products? Maybe some manufacturers do this, but we didn’t think about it until about a year ago when we had a conflict with one of our reps. During the discussion, the rep explained that he was expected to do things differently from the way that works best for him. He said that we were trying to overlay on his agency a selling strategy that was not compatible with the way he sells. At first, I took exception to this, but when he pointed out that he was always in the top three each year in sales of our lines, he made his point. We were, indeed, trying to force him to do it our way. That’s when we took a careful look at our policies and realized that we just didn’t take into account the differing philosophies of our various reps. This is something we’ve followed through with and we’ve found we have much better working relationships with our reps.”

An Endorsement for Reps

A real endorsement for working with reps came by way of a manufacturer who explained, “We’ve found reps are the best way we know of to keep the customers we already have.” He added that he was a true believer in the philosophy that your existing customers are your best customers. “We know what when we lose a customer it’s difficult to get them back. In addition, it takes more effort to get and serve a new customer than it does to get your existing customers to maintain or even increase sales. That’s where we’ve found our reps to be so beneficial.”

MANA welcomes your comments on this article. Write to us at [email protected].