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In Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare may have written, “Parting is such sweet sorrow,” but in the words of one rep who terminated his nearly 30‑year relationship with a manufacturer, “parting really hurt.”

According to the rep, here’s what happened to result in that painful parting of the ways: “We repped this company for close to 30 years and finally realized we had to terminate the relationship about four years ago even though they represented about 80 percent of our income. What brought us to this decision was a combination of things including:

• Quality went down.
• Prices went up.
• Lead times became extended.
• Our customers began telling us we had better get a new supplier.
• And, bottom line they just didn’t seem to care anymore.

“Now any rep can probably say, ‘I’ve had some of these problems with principals in the past,’ but when you can check all those boxes at the same time, and you begin to lose customers, you’re in serious trouble and it’s obviously time to make a change.” And the change he made was to terminate the relationship when no improvements were realized.

He continued, “The manufacturer used to have a rep council that I participated in. During our council meetings, I’d bring up many of these problems for discussion, but nothing was ever done to correct the problems I and other reps brought to their attention. It seems that at every meeting, all we did was speak about the same issues over and over, and then no corrective action was ever taken. Eventually, it seemed as if all communication just broke down.

“On top of the quality, price, delivery and other problems, the company also decided to move away from how they attracted business in the past. Where once they sought custom orders that had been very profitable, now they decided to move more toward cookie-cutter or commodity products. For instance, in the past, a customer would order a product in red with blue stripes, or blue with vertical stripes. Now they decided to move away from that approach which had been very profitable for them and us.”

Exacerbating the situation, according to the rep, was the fact the manufacturer was going through some family turmoil. In an effort to alleviate some of their problems, they brought in a new management team, but that did nothing to solve matters. “As a matter of fact, the new team’s attitude was that reps were no longer valued partners, but rather were a necessary evil that they had to work with.

“Before making a move, I sent an email to the new CEO and followed up with a phone call. When I finally spoke to him, I got the impression he had really never even heard of us. He said all the right stuff, but I let him know that the train had already left the station and we had made up our minds as to what we were going to do. By the way, the CEO was only in his position for about a year — that should tell you something about their operation. We finally just reached a point where we told them that it was best that we go through a quiet divorce, let our 30 days run out, and we’ll part ways.”

In the aftermath of the termination, the rep noted, “It was a little disappointing that after 28 years of working so closely with them, earning more than 15 sales awards and building close relationships, only one person from their organization said anything to us about our leaving.”

Here’s where that pain comes in. According to the rep, “A good deal of our orders were custom-made OEM orders. As I look back, our business with them fell off by about 50 percent in 2018 and then another 50 percent the next year. Looking forward, we knew that very shortly there was going to be nothing left.”

Fortunately, the rep firm was able to fill the void created by the termination. “We quickly signed on two other manufacturers and have a handshake agreement with a third.” He continued that relations with the new manufacturers are entirely different. “Whenever we get on the phone with them to let them know what’s going on in the territory, their response to us is ‘Get off the phone and go get the order.’”

Lessons Learned

After enduring a somewhat painful — but beneficial — divorce, the rep admitted that a couple of valuable lessons have been learned. “First is the fact you shouldn’t place all your eggs in one basket. Your basket can break or simply just wear out, and that’s what happened to us. What we went through was painful and it took us a couple of years to recoup what we lost, but I’d say we’re cooking with gas now. As I said previously, this manufacturer represented about 80 percent of our business. Now, as I look at the lines we represent, the lesson is driven home that we should have spread out our business a long time ago. I’m a firm believer that if something can go wrong, it will go wrong and that’s what happened to us. Today, I’m guessing that not one of our lines represents more than 30 percent of our business. Sure, we might book a large order one month and the figures change a bit, but we’re better positioned to lose a line now and not be harmed than at any time in the past. I’m not worried about the future.”

The second lesson learned, according to the rep, is the value of conducting a line productivity analysis. “I’ve read several articles in Agency Sales on the value of checking how much time you spend on a given line and how much you should expect to earn from your efforts. Maybe the light didn’t go on after the first or second article, but eventually, you’ll learn the value of going through the process.”

Finally, there’s the value of relationships. According to the rep, “There was certainly a sense of betrayal when things went south with that manufacturer. And we certainly miss the relationships that we developed with those people that we spoke with more than five days a week. But even though we haven’t forged those same relationships with our new manufacturers yet, that’s something we’re working on.”

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