One manufacturer learned about the pitfalls of offering the same marketing/promotion programs to all of its reps. “Thankfully, we’ve always been pretty good about listening to what our reps tell us. We began to get an earful from several of them when they complained about how we were rolling out some marketing plans. While we had done a great deal of preparation for the program, to be perfectly honest, we didn’t do what we should have in terms of getting their advice.

“As a result, we shouldn’t have been overly surprised when we didn’t get the results we were looking for. None of our reps were bashful about letting us know that what we were doing might work for some territories, but it wasn’t what they needed, and the customers weren’t responding.

“Our conversations with our reps all took place during the course of a couple of our rep council meetings. Once we heard what they had to say, we took immediate action, and now it’s a matter of course to tailor our programs to the specific needs of individual reps so we’re sure that we’re providing exactly what they need to get the job done.”

Keeping an Eye on the Rep’s Qualifications

After he justifiably boasted about the lengthy tenures of several of his reps, one manufacturer related the specific details of a valuable tool he made use of to constantly evaluate his reps. According to the manufacturer, “I have posted what I’d call a rep job description within clear eyesight of my desk. Whenever I’m communicating with a rep or on that rare occasion when I have to make a decision on preparing a new territory or to replace a rep, I carefully consider what I’ve got written down.

“Here’s how I begin. I’ve listed the overall qualifications needed for a rep to be able to work with me and my organization. Included in these qualifications are:

• An informed and workable knowledge of our product technology.
• Contacts.
• Territory knowledge.
• And, perhaps most important, strong selling skills.

He goes on to emphasize, “If those are the rep’s qualifications for even getting in the door, here’s what I consider to be the rep’s responsibilities when working with me:

• Thoroughly understand the customers.
• Be able to align the customer’s long-term goals with our ability to meet those goals.
• Anticipate future customer needs and requirements.
• Gather and analyze competitive information.
• Deliver our message to the customer and be prepared to answer and overcome any objections.
• Identify customer needs.
• Identify customer decision-makers, including building deep and lasting relationships with them.
• Orchestrate and complete the selling process.
• Find and qualify new accounts in the territory.

The manufacturer went on to emphasize that these aren’t the only attributes/talents he’s looking for, but he maintains that they serve as an excellent starting point.

Both Sides Need to Be Realistic

It’s important that both the rep and the manufacturer need to be realistic on the number of prospects in a territory. Buying a mailing list may be cost-prohibitive for the manufacturer, but if the rep buys the list and can use it for mailers for other principals and justify the cost, that makes it a win-win all around. Being flexible in using and developing prospect lists is one key to driving more sales.

Once the prospects are identified, the initial contact can take the form of a cold call, mailed literature, or now you can use the territory-specific internet key searches. It can originate from the factory or the rep, either way the first impression is lasting, so make sure your mailer or telemarketer makes the right statement. With keyword searches you can also target specific geographic areas. Most budgets for keyword searches on a popular string are limited.

The Value of a Rep Council

Following up on a recommendation from its rep council, one manufacturer decided to conduct a survey of all of its reps. While what he found didn’t especially surprise him, what it did do was to allow him to gain a more precise focus on what’s important to his reps. Three areas specifically came to the surface after he studied the survey results:

• Product development — “My experience in dealing with reps is that they’re creative, enterprising entrepreneurs. That’s why they like new products, and that’s why I’ve made it a habit to provide them with a steady stream of new products. It’s my desire to whet their appetites with this type of activity. At the same time, I know customers are looking for innovative solutions for taxing problems. That’s what new products address.”
  
• Sales performance and communication — “I’m busy and I’m well aware that my reps are too. That’s why I don’t want them burdened with unnecessary, unneeded, unread sales reports. Here’s what I want from them in terms of communication: If they have a problem where they need my immediate assistance or if something is happening with a customer in the territory that I had better know about, then I want instant communication. Otherwise, their sales figures at the end of the month speak wonders for what they’re doing for me, in lieu of any written reports.”
  
• Field visits — “The message I received from my reps regarding field visits was hardly a surprise, but it bears repeating here. If I’m certain I’ve chosen the correct reps to partner with, then I know they’re as busy in the field as I am in the office. That’s why when I schedule a visit to the field, I’m very careful about what I do. I make it a practice to let my reps know at least four to six weeks in advance of my desire to make joint calls with them. I’ve never surprised them and I never will. When I let them know I’m coming, I also let them know what it is I’m trying to accomplish and what specific accounts I’d like to visit. By planning this way, I get very little push-back from the reps. As a matter of fact, they appear to be more than pleased to have me accompany them on calls.”

What Makes a Good Rep

Late this summer when a group of manufacturers got together to swap information about their experiences with reps, the conversation eventually got around to attributes of the ideal rep. One manufacturer weighed in on that subject with the following: “Early on in the relationship I can tell how things are going to work with a rep based on his willingness to learn all he can about us. To be effective, a rep must know all there is to know about the companies he represents. They’ve got to gain that knowledge so they can present the ideal solutions for problems that they encounter in the field. And, in order to gain that working knowledge of our operations they’ve got to be vertically integrated with their principals and the markets that they serve. Our goal — and it should be a shared goal with our reps — is to be the quality and the solution provider for our mutual customers. The rep can only become the value-added provider when he knows all about our infrastructure how we manufacture, and keep informed regarding any changes that are being implemented.”

Penetrating the Customer

Long an advocate for making joint calls with his reps, one manufacturer reports his method for helping reps achieve greater market penetration beyond the typical purchaser or user of a product. “After years of working with reps, I’ve come to the conclusion that salespeople are seldom able to penetrate their customer’s organization beyond the level of the individuals who buy or use the products that they sell. All of us know how helpful it can be for salespeople to at least be on friendly terms with those in general management at upper levels. Recognizing that fact, a few years ago we developed an approach that seems to get us where we want to be with those people. Our joint calls with agents are not only made with our top marketing people. In addition, we make every effort to integrate our key top management, including our CEO. These calls are planned very carefully to provide the customer with the opportunity to bring in their top people. In fact, we’ve found that this is something they really want to do. Some seem somewhat intimidated by meeting our CEO without having their key people with them. Of course, this has worked to our advantage. It works in our favor that we have a CEO who knows that nothing happens until someone sells something. But maybe you can train the bean counters to have a broader outlook too.”

Honing Listening Skills

A manufacturer recently had some thoughts on a number of articles that have appeared in the pages of Agency Sales that relate to the importance of reps having and using finely honed listening skills. While he agreed with everything he’s read, he went on to stress how important those same skills were for the manufacturers, particularly in his relations with his reps. “If I knew everything there was to know and could do a better job in the field than the rep, then I wouldn’t hesitate to do it myself. But the fact is, experience has shown me that reps are an important part of my marketing and sales efforts. They’re the experts in their respective territories and they’ve done their homework when it comes to learning about my company and all of my product offering. As a result, when I get together with them — either in a group or separately — I make it a habit to spend the majority of my time listening to them.”

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