Manufacturers’ independent rep councils go a long way to eliminate the “us vs. them syndrome.” That was one of the primary messages delivered by Charlie Ingram, executive vice president and chief marketing officer of Eriez Magnetics, Erie, Pennsylvania, during a MANAcast.

“In a nutshell,” according to Ingram, “the rep council serves as an advisory board and operates as a way to provide information back and forth between manufacturers and their reps. A rep council’s purpose is not to hear reps’ complaints; rather, their ultimate purpose is to determine what improvements are needed when it comes to serving manufacturers’ and the reps’ mutual customers.

“In addition, rep councils head off small problems before they become big problems. They can enhance the relationships manufacturers have with their reps as they allow reps to provide their manufacturers with market intelligence.”

Ingram, who serves on MANA’s Board of Directors, spoke from experience as he described his company’s history of working with reps. “We started working with an agency with a handshake 75 years ago and we’re still together. We’ve also got agencies whose tenure exceeds 50 years. Today we have agencies working with us throughout North America and we’ve had a rep council for more than 25 years.”

Eriez (www.eriez.com) is an authority in separation technologies. The company’s magnetic lift and separation, metal detection, fluid recycling, flotation, materials feeding, screening, conveying and controlling equipment have application in the process, metalworking, packaging, plastics, rubber, recycling, food, mining, aggregate and textile industries. Eriez manufactures and markets these products through 12 international subsidiaries located on six continents.

Citing that rich history with reps, he went on to note, “When I joined the company, I felt there was a wealth of knowledge out there with our reps. I knew I needed to do something to learn more from them.” That something was to form a rep council.

Starting and Maintaining Councils

Perhaps the greatest challenge any manufacturer faces when it comes to rep councils, according to Ingram, is to start and then maintain a rep council. “To start with, a manufacturer has to get its senior management to buy in to the process. It’s not like you can conduct a rep council for one or two years and then abandon the effort. To make it work, you’ve got to make a long-term investment — and that involves top management.”

In addition to getting top management to buy in to the idea of creating and maintaining a rep council, Ingram continued that perhaps one of the most critical beginning steps is to put together a “charter” that governs how the council will operate. He explained that the Eriez charter is about a page and half long and it provides an overview of the council including everything from its purpose, membership requirements, expenses, frequency of meetings, follow-up, etc.

Specific to Eriez, according to Ingram, some of the critical information included in its charter is as follows.

Membership — Pointing out that Eriez has approximately 50 reps throughout North America, Ingram says that how a manufacturer populates its rep council depends upon an organization’s needs. “From our group of reps, at any given time we have six reps on our council. In turn, each of those reps serves as a team leader. They communicate with and represent the interests of other rep offices — up to seven or eight.” He explains that whatever decisions are made, or information disseminated, it is up to those team leaders to pass it on to their other rep offices.

Tenure — For Eriez, the tenure to serve on the council is three years. “Before someone joins the council, they have to be made aware of what their time commitment is going to be. We rotate two reps off every year. That allows us to have continuity on the council and also provides for fresh ideas as well as prevents the group from getting stale.” He adds that while two reps get rotated off every year, some may continue on for longer periods of time.

Selection of members — Ingram strongly advises that it is the manufacturer who decides which reps should serve on the council. “I’m aware of the fact that some manufacturers have reps make those decisions. I’d advise against that. What you want to ensure is that you have diversity among your members. You want diversity in terms of geography, tenure with the company, size of the organization, etc.”

Council leader — According to Ingram, some councils have the reps elect a president who will conduct the meeting. “Our council didn’t want that responsibility. They were happy with how we ran it, and we have our top sales manager run the meetings.”

Meeting frequency — “We meet only once a year and have only rarely scheduled an additional meeting. When the latter has occurred, it was to address a single, very important topic. Otherwise, we stick to the annual schedule for our face-to-face meetings. Once scheduled, the meetings take up to three of the reps’ days. One day for travel to, and one day for travel from the meeting. The first evening we’ll have some sort of a casual meeting since several of the reps don’t know each other. This helps build a sense of camaraderie among the members. The next day, we’ll go through with a full day of meetings and have some sort of celebratory event at night. On the third day, all members travel home.”

Covid’s Impact

Ingram explained that the pandemic has temporarily impacted its rep council. “Having the rep council in place when this thing hit was extremely important. Via technology, we have been able to exercise contact with our six-person rep council and ask them to let us know what’s going in the field. Our virtual meetings have worked out very well and we’ll continue that way for a while. However, right now I’m about ‘Zoomed’ out and can’t wait to get back to the old way of meeting. If anything, I’m ‘old school’ and prefer to meet that way.”

Expenses — “Expenses should be covered by the manufacturer — that includes air travel, parking, hotel, meals, tolls, whatever. Remember this is a volunteer service on the part of the rep and the manufacturer should pick up the entire tab. It’s simply the right thing to do. You’re taking them away from their customers. By leaving their territory, they’re already making an investment.” He adds that by conducting the meetings in this manner, “You achieve a much better working relationship with your reps. In return, reps consider their participation in the council as an honor and they certainly take it seriously.”

Agenda — “Prior to the rep council meeting, we publish and circulate an agenda. We put everything reps want to discuss in there — the pleasant and the unpleasant subjects.

”The agenda is sent out a month before a meeting. “This lets council members gather information from their teammates and allows them to arrive at the meeting prepared to have relevant conversations. Keep in mind that the rep council meeting isn’t just an opportunity for manufacturers to spew the information they want out there. We’re looking for feedback from our reps.”

Location — Ingram explained that while several manufacturers conduct their rep council meetings at their factory location, Eriez does not. “I don’t necessarily recommend that. We always have ours in various cities throughout North America. The reason for that is it allows everyone to get out of their respective offices and away from distraction. Typically, if you’re meeting at the factory, at some point during the meeting, someone will say they have to spend some time with engineering or some other department. It’s simply distracting.

“If you schedule the meeting for another city, it’s viewed as fun and a reward.”

Follow-up — Ingram emphasized that as important as having the rep council meeting is, what happens afterwards is just as important. “We provide minutes of the meeting to all of our sales offices. We let them know what we discussed. In addition, each council member is encouraged to produce their own reports for the reps that they represent, but whether they do that or not, it’s up to them.”

Prior to concluding his presentation, Ingram made two important points relative to rep councils.

Rep Council vs. Sales Meeting

Explaining that there’s considerable difference between a rep council meeting and a sales meeting, he said that “For me, a sales meeting would be defined as a time when a manufacturer calls reps in to introduce a new product or program, or to see the factory. The rep council, on the other hand, is an opportunity to cover a wide range of topics. It’s almost like having a full-day roundtable discussion. It’s a much different environment from a sales meeting.”

And finally, he stressed, “Rep councils can only be meaningful if the participants agree beforehand on the subjects to be discussed and they trust each other. We’ve had delicate discussions on everything from commission rates and split commissions; and, they’ve all been beneficial. You have to have transparency and trust to make it work.”

Following Ingram’s description of his company’s experience with rep councils, a number of listeners to the MANAcast offered their views. Among the subjects raised were these:

• “We’ve served on rep councils in the past and found that too many of our principals view the meetings as simply sessions where they were going to hear complaints from us. It’s obvious there hasn’t been buy-in from management as to how beneficial the rep councils can be.”
• “We had one experience where the existence of a rep council would have been especially beneficial. Our principal was looking to create a new contract to work with its reps. I suggested that if they would circulate it among a number of us, we could give them the input they were looking for and get the job done. They viewed that suggestion as us meddling in their business. As a result, they’re still working on the contract and really haven’t made any progress.”

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