“When I start thinking about adding someone to my agency, I know I’m in for a rough ride. Just about everyone working in my industry right now is in the 50- to 70-year-old range. It’s more difficult now than ever before to find someone younger who might be interested in carving out a career as a rep.”

“I was so desperate the last time I had to hire someone that I developed a flyer describing the position and ran around town dropping it off in the hopes someone would be interested. I don’t think it’s a surprise to me or anyone else, that didn’t work out too well.”

Those are just two scenarios described to Agency Sales in interviews over the last couple of months on the subject of where — and how — to find independent rep salespeople.

That subject has been raised often enough that MANA hosted a MANAchat devoted to the subject of finding prospective employees earlier this year. With 29 association members participating, a week-long, wide-ranging discussion took place that covered, among other things:

• The difficulty in locating prospective employees.
• Where and how to find them.
• What to look for in those prospects.
• How to compensate sales personnel.

The first subject tackled in the discussion was challenges that rep agency owners face when they reach the point that they feel they should add to staff. Initially one rep offered, “One of the first problems you face is that we’ve found that today it’s difficult to locate someone who actually knows what it takes to be a rep. Not everyone has the motivation to make their own decisions and fend for themselves.”

Hunter vs. Farmer

That comment led right into a discussion of the “hunter/farmer” concept and a consideration of what the agency needs most. According to one rep, “Whom you hire basically depends upon those things that as owners you need for your agency. Here’s what I want — salespeople who are ‘hunters’ and want to file an IRS 1099 as opposed to a W2. Sure, there are a lot of people out there who have real potential, but they have an addiction to the regular paycheck — let’s call them ‘farmers.’ I’m up against that whenever I’m looking to add someone.”

He continued, “We’ve actually hired some of those ‘farmers’ over the years. Let’s describe them as individuals who are comfortable selling for just one manufacturer. What it comes down to is that they haven’t been able to make that leap to ‘hunter,’ that is, going out looking for new business for additional manufacturers. They were simply used to business being given to them and they fulfilled their obligations by just farming, or maintaining, the business. When we look for people, we want those hunters who are comfortable searching for new business.”

A second rep offered, “Looking at the real world, there are any number of people out there who are happy not working all that hard. On top of that, we’re a commission-only agency and that backs off a lot of people. My message to prospects is that being a rep is one job in your life where if you work smart, and you work hard, your potential is unlimited. The more you sell, the more you make. In your search for employees, you have to find people who want to make a lot of money. As a result, they’ll want to work, and they’ll have that sense of accomplishment that comes with putting forth extra effort.”

And finally, another chat participant stated, “While we’re not opposed to hiring anyone regardless of age or gender, the fact is, when you look at statistics, we’re working primarily in a male-based business, and the majority of those males are in their 50s or older. That somewhat limits your possibilities.”

Exploring the Where and How

Admitting that there are any number of problems to consider when beginning the search for new employees, chat participants next took up the subject of where and how to find prospects. High on their list of logical places were networking with fellow reps, referrals from manufacturers and customers, print ads, business associates, friends, recruiters, and various online portals. The subject of making use of social media — primarily a tool such as LinkedIn — was raised with chat participants voicing mixed results with that approach. For example, one rep noted that “When I got a recommendation from a rep peer that I use LinkedIn, I looked immediately and actually got a couple of hits right away. However, in general, with how things played out, I don’t think it really worked for me.”

Another suggestion was offered by a rep who explained, “I had some success in recruiting at the college level. I contacted a local college engineering department and made an effort to hire sales-oriented individuals from the ground up. By that I mean get them fresh and train them without them having any bad habits to begin with.”

The benefits to this approach were described by one rep who explained, “Right now I’ve got two people out on the street working for the agency that don’t have any sales training experience. What I’ve decided upon doing is to bring them in ‘green’ to the industry, teach them the needed skills and then systemizing for them what we do. Once we’ve got that system in place, they don’t have to think about our processes. All they have to do is sell the products that we represent.”

In general, however, the tone of the chat participants was that “…it’s difficult to hire someone to work for your agency when the majority of people don’t know what it takes to be a rep.”

Interview Process

Assuming prospective candidates have been located, the chat participants were asked to relate their experiences during the interview process, that is, how were interviews conducted and what were agency owners looking for when they got the opportunity to directly communicate with prospects?

According to one rep participant, “Given all that we’ve been through during the past year, it’s not easy finding people. You can’t go out and personally meet and touch prospects like we used to be able to face-to-face. But, what we’ve settled on in our approach to this task is to turn over every rock to find individuals who possess integrity and have a good work ethic. Given the limitations of what we’ve been able to do during the pandemic, once we think we’ve found a prospect, my approach is to speak with them face-to-face via a virtual computer meeting. This approach has been great. There have been a great deal of good conversations and I felt I really got to know the individuals I was considering.”

Once those conversations transpired, chat participants described what they were looking for once they firmly got a prospect in their sights. Universally, agency owners are looking for people who possess a sales aptitude. Given that, however, a work ethic and integrity are of paramount importance.

Describing the process, one rep offered, “To begin with, we don’t put a great deal of credence in an individual’s resume. When we’ve found someone we want to speak with, I’ll conduct the initial interview. Following that, if we decide we want to proceed, we’ll have the individual come into our headquarters for additional conversations. This is all done at our expense. We have them meet with our inside people. Our feeling is that if there’s something odd, our people will pick up on it.”

The ability to communicate via the phone was important for another agency owner who explained, “When we’re interviewing someone, and the initial interview is conducted over the telephone, we’re seriously considering their phone skills. You want to understand how they’re able to communicate because, generally, that’s the customer’s first impression. Then, considering the restrictions that Covid has imposed on us, we want to know how they’ll behave on a Zoom, or other remote, call.

“The way we sell has been dramatically affected by the pandemic. A majority of our customers are now working from home and we want to know how creative an individual can be when they’re communicating remotely.”

The Compensation Question

No conversation of locating, attracting and signing new personnel can be complete without the consideration of compensation, and, the MANAchat was no exception. Among the strategies employed by agencies when it comes to compensating new personnel were:

• One-hundred percent commission with a draw.
• Combination of base salary and commission.
• Bonus structure in which all outside people share
• Salary, plus commission, plus an incentive plan where “We sit down with everyone at the beginning of the year and agree on the terms.”

Among all the MANA members who participated in the chat, there was agreement that whatever compensation program is agreed upon, agency owners have to be sure their salespeople have sufficient income to pay the bills, while at the same time being incented to develop and grow the business. According to one rep, “It’s a little bit like investing in capital equipment. You must be sure you’ll get a return on your investment in order to cover the up-front cost. How long you’re willing to make that investment depends upon how long it will take to get the new person up to speed so they can make their own way financially.”

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

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List of MANAchat Participants

MANA wants to thank the following members for their contributions to the “Where and How to Find Rep Salespeople” Agency Sales magazine article. They made these contributions by participating in the MANAchat on how to go about finding and hiring professional salespeople for manufacturers’ representative businesses. These online virtual meetings create a platform where members exchange information on how to successfully operate their manufacturers’ representative businesses. Jack Foster, Agency Sales magazine editor, wrote the article using the information and knowledge these members provided during the MANAchats.

Thank you! We sincerely appreciate the time you took to participate in the MANAchats and particularly the information and knowledge you shared.

Eric Blythe
Advanced Engineered Products
Titusville, FL

Carla Campbell
Campbell Sales & Marketing, LLC
Tacoma, WA

Will Hill
CuDes, LLC
Southfield, MI

Jeff Weseloh
Dynamic Measurement and Control Solutions
Watsonville, CA

Rich Morse
EPI
Kansas City, KS

David Tahmassebi
Flo-Spec, Inc.
Brookville, OH

Michael Davis
Flow Tech, Inc.
South Windsor, CT

David Burke
Halpin D. Burke & Son, LLC
Fenton, MO

Rich Deering
Industrial Sales Associates
Indianapolis, IN

Kevin Rehberger
MDB Supply, LLC
Roswell, GA

Matt Pansing
Midtec Assocs., Inc.
Lenexa, KS

Janell Diresta
Pacific Systems Group
Torrance, CA

Rick Pierce
Pierce Marketing, LLC
Dayton, OH

Perry Thornton
Pinnacle Marketing, Inc.
Raleigh, NC

Rob Lawrence
R.T. Lawrence and Associates, LLC
Duluth, GA

Ken Yunker
Reps East
Yarmouth, ME

Charlie Badzik
Technical Marketing Specialists (TMS)
Greenwood Village, CO

Richard Wickizer
Wickizer & Associates, LLC
Woodland, WA