Near the initial onset of the COVID‑19 pandemic The New York Times’ columnist Tom Friedman was interviewed on one of the cable news networks. In the course of the interview, Friedman made the point that once things settle down and there’s a bit of normalcy, he expects an explosion of remote learning to take place.

While not directly related to the rep’s lot in life, Friedman’s point resonated during the course of a conversation Agency Sales magazine had with a 16‑year veteran teacher who ramped up his remote learning efforts to stay in touch with students earlier this year.

Here’s what he offered, and this is something that reps can and should relate to: “For any form of remote communication to be effective, there has to be the basis of a relationship to make it work. For instance, without a full seven months of face-to-face daily contact with my students, any form of electronic, remote education would fail.”

This conversation was related to MANA members Peter Mann and Heather McCourt of Mantec, Pomfret Center, Connecticut, when they came face-to-face with operating a rep firm in the face of a multi-state stay-at-home dictum in their and neighboring states. Here’s what they had to offer.

According to Mann, “I had appointments scheduled for Woodstock and Jamestown, New York, when we were told customers weren’t available for scheduled appointments. What we did immediately, however, was to stay in touch with principal executives and customers and let them know we’re here for them.

“Look, I enjoy my job and meeting the people I have over the course of 44 years in the business. But the fact remains, if I had never established the solid relationships I had, we’d never survive this.”

Anticipating changes and challenges that will result from this pandemic, MANA early on addressed the subject when the association conducted a MANAcast that is still found on the MANA website (www.MANAonline.org) devoted to the subject of “Communicating with Customers in a COVID‑19 World.” Moderated by MANA President and CEO Charley Cohon, participants were MANA Chairperson of the Board John Davis, Paul Davis Automation, Inc., Chardon, Ohio and Board member Charlie Ingram, Eriez Magnetics, Erie Pennsylvania.

At the outset of the presentation, Ingram noted that the relationship his company has with its reps is important for a number of reasons. “We’re working with a total lockdown. If all we had was a direct sales force — we’d have no one out there in the field with our customers. It’s our reps that have the relationships and they’re in constant touch with the customer.”

Working Remotely

Another important consideration for Ingram and his reps is the fact that “We’re being faced with the task of setting up many of our employees with the ability to work out of their homes. One of the many benefits of reps is that they’re already there — they know how to do it because that’s how they operate.

“Bottom line, our reps are out there still getting orders for us and they keep us abreast of what’s happening in the field.”

Bolstering many of the points made by Ingram, Davis emphasized, “Perhaps the most important message we as reps can deliver to our manufacturers is that we are eager to help them as much as possible. There could very well be the assumption on the part of some manufacturers that we’ll be sitting at home during the pandemic, just collecting a check from them. Nothing could be further from the truth.

“For manufacturers what is going on right now is hugely disruptive and they aren’t used to conducting business under these conditions. For reps, on the other hand, it’s business as usual. In a time when it seems as if everything is up in the air, the fact is the situation is stable for reps. It’s business as usual.”

An additional point made by Davis was the need for reps especially to make sure they’re acquainted with the latest and best technological tools that will allow them to do their jobs.

“During this time when customers, by and large, are no longer able to meet with us face-to-face, make use of video conferencing via Zoom and Skype, email, text, and don’t forget the phone. I had one of our reps recently tell me how much he’s grown to appreciate his phone. He’s never been on it as much as he is now and it’s getting the job done for him. He’s learned how to conference in the manufacturer with the customer whenever there’s need.

Bottom line, the rep must have as many tools as possible at his disposal.”

Taking a look at the future or at what many term the “new normal,” both men had some thoughts.

Predicting the Future

According to Ingram, “While we can’t predict what the future will look like yet, there obviously will be some sort of evolution as to how we work together. There will certainly be more distance communication, but whatever happens, we’re confident in our relationships with our reps and we know our long tenures will continue.”

Davis added, “As we move forward, there should be an understanding that we’re probably never going to go back to the way things used to be. That’s why it’s so important for reps to think about the future strategically so they’ll be able to better meet the needs of principals and customers.

“Moving forward, relationships are going to be more important than ever. But remember this this is still a human-to-human business. One change we might focus on is the fact that there are some built-in inefficiencies that exist in face-to-face meetings. But having said that, those meetings remain critically important. We’ve just got to figure out how to meet and serve customers who are very busy and may not have the time to meet us in person.”

Subsequent to the MANAcast, Cohon offered some additional thoughts pertinent to reps working successfully during the pandemic. According to Cohon, “It used to just be expensive and inefficient for manufacturers to send direct salespeople from corporate headquarters to customers in remote locations. Now, in addition to being expensive and inefficient, it’s also dangerous. Direct factory salespeople traveling from headquarters to visit remote customers are exposed to airports, close-quarters airline seating, rental cars that have already been driven by hundreds of people, and more.

Putting Boots on the Ground

“This is all the more reason that when in-person sales calls become possible again, using existing boots-on-the-ground reps is more than ever so much better than trying to serve customers from headquarters.”

On the subject of how reps can be effective in maximizing relations with customers and principals during the COVID‑19 situation, he offered that reps should simply “…ask them how they want to be contacted and what reasons should trigger outreach from you. When you ask them how they want to be contacted, they may tell you to use their mobile phones, email or text. You have no way of knowing which they prefer unless you ask them. Contact them by the means they prefer to get the fastest response and also to avoid unnecessarily rubbing them the wrong way if you’re calling them when they prefer emails.

“When you ask them for the reasons they want to be contacted, you’re showing that you respect the fact that different people may want to hear from you for different reasons. Some may only want to hear from you if something is going wrong. Those people, you don’t want to irritate by over-communicating.”

Finally, he noted that “Some people will want status reports, perhaps to confirm that all their orders are on schedule. Those people you don’t want to irritate by leaving them guessing about the status of their orders. The only way to find out what people really want is to ask them and then to respect the answer they give you.”

MANA Members Weigh In

Some other thoughts on the impact that COVID‑19 might have on reps were offered by other MANA members:

“For the short term what’s happened has ground me to a halt.” That’s how Steve Lamer, principal/owner of North Central Manufacturing Solutions, LLC, Madison Wisconsin, described his situation prior to the lockdown being lifted in his state.

Lamer, who sells large capital equipment, explains, “It’s difficult to operate when I’m not allowed on the customer’s property. In addition, the manufacturers that I represent have to get on the customers’ floor in order to install equipment, and that’s not happening. This (the lockdown) has to go away.”

When asked if there’s any hope for manufacturers to rely more on independent reps in the long term as a result of the pandemic, Lamer admits that “I can’t say ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ Perhaps one possible long-term benefit could be the return to the United States of some manufacturing — more than just medical and pharmaceutical — and I believe that’s a positive.”

Lamer continued that perhaps another positive of what has happened is that “I’ve been working more ‘on’ rather than ‘in’ my business. I’m taking on new lines, building the business and there is some positive activity. There are some good things happening.”

Another positive view is offered by Robert Bernardo, Robert M. Bernardo & Associates, Inc., Port Townsend, Washington, who emphasizes, “We [reps] own the relationships. Personally, I’m 66 now and full of beans and looking for something to do. I’m having fun and looking at new income streams. In the new world order that we’re all going to be working in, I believe there’s going to be a new demand for reps. Corporations will be cutting back on their personnel and they won’t need as much office space as in the past. Business travel will change as more and more people won’t want to take the risk of getting on a plane.

MANA Board member Michelle Jobst, Jobst Inc., Eden Prairie, Minnesota, points out the potential up and downsides to what’s going on and how events might affect independent reps. “The situation we find ourselves in is hardly unique to us or the customers and principals we serve. We don’t know when it will end or how it will end. Despite that uncertainty, we’re finding out that we have a lot in common with our customers and principals. Obviously, we’re all in this together.”

On the positive side, however, she notes, “We, as reps, were well set up for working remotely. We’ve always had the systems in place and together with our vendors we were ready to pull the trigger on that. A real upside is that I’m getting to have more in-depth conversations with our customers and we’re developing much deeper relationships — that will obviously help us in the future. The fact that we’re all engaged in a common fight will serve as an upside.”

Considering Risk vs. Cost

When he was interviewed by Agency Sales, fellow MANA Board member, Ken Russell–Murray related that he found himself in a similar boat with his fellow reps. Russell-Murray, who heads ElectraSpec, Inc., Quebec, Canada, explains “This has been a direct hit on our business. In the Province of Quebec, other than essential services, all businesses, electrical contractors, all trades, have been shut down.”

Striking somewhat of an optimistic note, however, he says, “Hopefully, from a cost standpoint, this might cause some manufacturers to consider the risk and cost factor when it comes to taking their products to market. And, that could cause them to take a very careful look at working with reps.

“In the meantime, it’s a bit too early to say. We continue to work from home, conduct webinars and hopefully conduct a reset on our business and consider how we go to market.”

Armed with 18 years of unique expertise in the residential, commercial and decorative plumbing products markets Craig Deerman, Deerman Sales, Birmingham, Alabama, maintains that when this initial wave is done, business will be conducted in a different manner.

“It’s all predicated on the belief of what more we can do with less.” For his part, Deerman has, like so many others, relied on electronic means to communicate with his customer base. What’s happened is that the showrooms and distributors that I work with have learned that we don’t have to go through the regular ‘milk-run’ type of sales calls we’ve conducted in the past. That approach hasn’t necessarily been all that beneficial. I think in the future when I make a call it’s going to be a lot more beneficial. But having said that, I’ve had to get comfortable with electronic communication — something that a year ago I wasn’t. I’ve already put out a couple of videos for customers — not too many because I believe too many is too much.”

When asked if any change that does occur post COVID‑19 would be beneficial for reps, he says he does in that manufacturers won’t be making the sales calls, “Instead, they’ll be handing the ball off to reps to do that part of the selling job for them.”

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