© Feodora | stock.adobe.com

It’s tempting to rely on well-known quotes and clever sayings to best describe what one rep is currently going through.

For instance, consider:
“We must either find a way or make one.”
— Hannibal, Carthaginian general and statesman

Or, how about:
“Ain’t no chance if you don’t take it.”
— Guy Clark, American songwriter and folk singer

And finally:
“If someone gives you lemons, make lemonade.”
— Anonymous, unless someone wants to step forward and claim credit

To a certain extent they all fit the path one rep is taking when it comes to her efforts to bring what she believes is a terrific product to market — without a great deal of help from her principal. The rep in question is finding a way; she’s taking a chance; and, she’s looking forward to finally tasting the lemonade.

Here’s how this situation was brought to our attention. A MANA member contacted Agency Sales to describe how a rep firm she was familiar with contacted her asking her to continue efforts to take a product to market even though the principal had a history of not being supportive or reliable, and failing to either pay commissions or when paid, paid them inaccurately. The first rep’s response was “Why bother if all we’re going to experience are headaches?”

In answer to that question, the rep firm that sold HVAC parts, supplies and equipment, explained the rationale for their interest in selling the product: “To serve our customers, we needed a coating (industrial paint) that would provide long-term durability and asset protection for condenser coils, water towers, pans and cabinets from the elements. Rain, salt water, intense sunlight, wind, etc., will destroy the equipment before the end of its useful life. They found a great little company that sold 316L stainless steel embedded coatings in addition to anti-microbial, epoxies and acrylics.”

The stainless-steel embedded epoxies were the perfect product for the application they had in mind. “The manufacturer offered us the line. We answered absolutely and signed up immediately.”

An Unbelievable Product

The rep continued that this product is unbelievable. “This coating was used on the external and internal metal surfaces of the Bonneville Dam more than 60 years ago. It’s still there. It hasn’t been touched up or recoated. It lasts forever.”

According to the rep, the manufacturing company that made the coating was owned by two individuals. They sold their company to a private equity firm that “had absolutely no understanding of what was needed to be done to market the product or how to support agencies such as ours. We had a lot of legal things going back and forth and other difficulties. Despite that, I remain a very optimistic person — I can make anything work; but, basically, what we ran into was a train wreck.”

Then came Covid — and that could count as a positive or a negative. “We knew our anti-microbial was an amazing product and the timing couldn’t have been better. We begged the principal to get the necessary laboratory testing done so we could take it to market, but they simply refused. They weren’t helpful at all. So, we went straight to my team and we agreed to get the product tested and make our effort work to take it to market.”

Help From Congress

They invested copious hours trying to reach the right people. Then, by coincidence, the rep’s husband mentioned that from his youth he had a contact with a prominent member of the U.S. Congress. “We reached out to the congresswoman in an effort to learn what we had to do to get the necessary Centers for Disease Control (CDC) testing, where coincidently, the product is in use in their freezers. She contacted the CDC and they got back to us with the necessary information on a level 3 bio-containment lab that was conducting the testing. Since the manufacturer wasn’t willing to work on the testing, we paid for it ourselves.

“Remember this was all happening during the forefront of the pandemic. Things were just beginning to happen. We were initially told that there were long waiting lines for products to be tested at the limited level 3 bio-containment labs. However, somehow we were able to complete the testing. When the results came back, this product proved itself to be the only one that was 100 percent effective against Covid, not to mention other infections such as MRSA, listeria, staph, strep and legionella, etc.”

Following the successful testing, the rep contacted the principal with the results and asked for a new contract that would provide the agency with a protected territory. “Here we were with a product that absolutely worked, and we paid for all the testing to prove how effective it was. Well, it took the principal’s director of sales a good three months to get back to us with an answer. By then, every ‘snake-oil’ salesman in the country had some product that they said would work. To say that things went downhill from there is an understatement.”

As an example of how far downhill things could go, the rep cited her efforts once testing was completed to communicate in a timely manner with everyone involved, including the manufacturer, via a Zoom call — something just about everyone got familiar with during Covid. According to the rep, “Once we got the positive results, we set up the call to communicate the astounding results. We (my agency) arranged for the Zoom call. What happened was the sales director for the manufacturer called in and was angry that he had to show his face on the Zoom call. That’s just another example of how they showed their lack of support. We are lucky though — the sales manager is
always supportive.”

Rather than pulling the plug on her efforts to bring this product to market, the rep — armed with a doctorate in public administration — attempted to do something with the lemons she had been given. “I figured I could manage this product myself. As a result, I’m in the middle of creating a business plan right now that could call for me to be in charge of handling the manufacture, sales and marketing of the products. What we want to make sure we do is stay away from the accounting end of it. That would be too difficult.”

While still in the planning stage, the rep maintains that “I don’t know if they realize how badly run this particular operation is. They’re diverting resources to support other products that aren’t nearly as marketable or profitable and most important, critical to help in the containment of future viral and bacterial threats.”

“We haven’t come up with the completed plan yet, but we don’t want to miss what I think is a terrific opportunity. This is a product that is ideal for everything from cruise lines, to schools, hospitals and manufacturing plants. It has an appropriate, long-term application for basically any substrate except glass and paper.”

Asked what she would consider as a best-case scenario for her efforts in working with this manufacturer moving forward, the rep noted, “We’re just one step as a nation removed from disaster right now. I think our experience with Covid showed that. It’s important that we move forward and do everything we can to overcome the lack of support we’ve received from this manufacturer. Our efforts are geared toward getting the tests results out there and spreading the data as far as we can. Thankfully, we have what we hope is a good relationship with the CEO of the equity firm that owns this company. As a result, I remain optimistic.”

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

Editor’s note: As this rep’s efforts continue, we’ll let Agency Sales’ readers know whether her approach to solving a problem worked to her and her customer’s benefit.