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While the previous article describes what transpired earlier this year during the course of a three-day MANAchat devoted to the subject of rep councils, what follows can serve as a primer or checklist to consider when approaching the rep council from either the manufacturer or rep point of view.

✔ Communicating Goals

At the outset, to ensure that your plans for operating a rep council don’t proceed in a vacuum, it’s critical to communicate.

Communicate with every person who will be involved with the operation of the council. As to what you’re going to communicate, start with the goals you hope to accomplish. At the same time, let all who will be touched by the council know what your role in the process will be. Once that’s accomplished, there won’t be any surprises as the process evolves.

✔ Selecting Members

Many manufacturers have found that they’ve had better experiences by choosing manufacturers’ representatives to serve who have been with the manufacturer the longest. They know the manufacturer, his product, his personnel, and the marketplace better than anyone else. In addition to the knowledge that length of service provides, their tenure will also provide them with a willingness to participate in the process with a high level of candor and objectivity.

The newer or less experienced reps should not be excluded from the process, but at the beginning it’s often helpful to have the more seasoned veterans available who can help you hit the ground running.

On the manufacturer’s side, the personnel who sit on the council and participate in its workings should be senior personnel who carry the appropriate titles. At the same time, they should be empowered to make decisions on behalf of their company without having to check with some higher ups.

✔ Length of Service

Then there’s the question of how long members should serve on the council.

The quick answer is that they should stay in place for as long as it takes them to get something done. Given that a manufacturer’s council will probably meet once or twice annually, it would appear that a one-year term is hardly desirable. Many manufacturers lean more toward a two- or three-year term. One manufacturer who uses the latter time period ensured the productivity of his council by planning a major goal for them to achieve each year. That way both the principal and his reps realized a feeling of accomplishment.

Length of time on the council for rep members should be staggered so that while there is a continued infusion of new blood, there are also a number of experienced reps who stay on, thereby guaranteeing stability in the council’s operation.

✔ Marketing the Council

Since the success of any manufacturing venture can only be achieved via a comprehensive marketing effort, so too should the operation of the rep council. In other words, once it’s up and running, to give it a chance to succeed, see to it that it is constantly marketed to the entire representative sales force.

This can be accomplished through newsletters, having the manufacturer’s regional managers communicate the word in person, or having the rep members of the council communicate to their peers. In any event, the efforts of the council will be wasted if there is not a concrete effort to get the word out.

✔ Council Size

Function and representation should be the key words when considering how large — or small — to make the council. Keep in mind that if it is too large, it becomes cumbersome and difficult to accomplish tasks. When thinking of size, consider what it is you want to accomplish and then decide what number would be needed to get the job done.

✔ Continuity

If the council meets only once or twice annually, that doesn’t mean that’s all there is to the job. Before and after the formal meeting, the council should still be operating, whether it’s planning, communicating or implementing new plans.

✔ Location and Expenses

Finally, there are expenses and location to be considered when planning and scheduling your council meetings. Many manufacturers maintain that since they knew they were taking their reps out of the field and causing them to lose time in their territories, they felt it more than appropriate to take care of expenses. At the same time, that’s the same kind of reasoning that caused some manufacturers to occasionally conduct their council meetings at resorts — away from the plant — as a form of partial reward for the efforts their reps were making by their participation. However, many did emphasize the importance of holding the meeting at plants to allow reps to become more familiar with the manufacturing process and the personnel they are so dependent upon.

✔ Additional Considerations

Some additional considerations to keep in mind when thinking about your rep council include:

• When a small group of people gets together, there’s always the danger that someone has a personal agenda. Avoid that at all costs.
• Goals should be realistic and reachable. There’s nothing worse than a volunteer serving his time and realizing that nothing he did made any difference — that whatever was set as a goal could never be achieved.
• Responsibility and accountability should move to the fore. Be sure that each member of the council knows what their responsibilities are and emphasize the point that they are expected to follow up on all their assignments.
• In communicating the agenda, emphasize that each member of the council has the opportunity to submit topics that they feel are important.
• One member of the council should carry the responsibility to take minutes of all meetings and then follow up by communicating those minutes in a timely fashion.
• Feedback is critical to the successful operation of the council. As a result, manufacturers should let members know what they thought of the council meeting and they should require council members to provide similar input from their vantage point.
• Council members should be encouraged to work closely together and the manufacturer should make his personnel available to council members.

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