Teamwork and its importance to the principal-independent sales agent business model brought to mind a basketball game late in this year’s NCAA basketball tournament.

In two instances, the center (a very large import from Europe) for Gonzaga University successfully negotiated no-look passes to a teammate that resulted in easy baskets against UCLA. Both times the announcers marveled at the player’s unselfishness and
dedication to teamwork.

This is noted at this time because early this summer an industry consultant was using basketball as an analogy for the principal-agent relationship. According to the consultant, “Think for a moment about that basketball player. While he’s especially adept at passing the ball, he doesn’t score all that many baskets because he’s always thinking about what he can do to maximize the talents of his teammates. So too is it with the principal. He’s the guy who must think team-wise.”

Continuing to explain what he meant by thinking team-wise, he said: “When you’re truly a member of a team, you don’t consider how expensive the car is that the rep is driving. When a principal does that, isn’t he really saying, ‘You’re putting your commission dollars right in your pocket, aren’t you?’”

He cautioned by noting, “Isn’t that type of thinking a far cry from asking a prospective or existing agent, ‘What type of investment are you returning to your agency? What are you investing in the representation of my product line?’

“It’s the principal who employs the former approach (citing the expensive car) more attuned to the selfish gunner on a basketball team, than the latter who is looking for the most efficient/productive way to improve the team’s performance. Remember that it’s the player who gets the assist who is just as valuable to the team as the guy with all the points at the end of the game.”

Firming Up Principal and Agent Relationships

The following relationship tips are reprinted with permission from a blog post that appeared on Brandwise.com. The author is Liz Lacy, key account rep and vice president of sales for Atlanta, Georgia-based DHR & Co.

When it comes to forming a successful partnership between vendors and their independent sales agencies, there is always a healthy amount of give and take. However, I do think there are some very simple ways vendors can re-purpose a lot of what they’re already doing to make sure their reps are equipped with everything they need to be successful and make it easier to sell!

Communicate the Shifting of Inventory

First and foremost, I can’t stress how important it is to communicate the shifting of inventory. It’s a waste of the rep’s and the retailer’s time to write an order only to find out it’s not going to ship in the desired time frame. Having this information also arms our reps to shift the buyer into products that are in stock, potentially adding new SKUs they wouldn’t have otherwise considered.

It’s great when vendors send an e-mail on an as-needed basis regarding changes to stock, delivery dates, or notifications that shipments have arrived. The frequency of communication depends on the size of the vendor. For larger vendors standardizing a weekly e-mail or template would be great! That way reps can expect it and rely on it. Smaller vendors can get away with a monthly inventory update unless of course they are experiencing any delays or issues, in which case an immediate notification is needed.

Also important in inventory communication is clarifying and standardizing common terminology. Many suppliers will mark SKUs as “SOLD OUT.” But it’s unclear to reps if that means they are currently out of stock and will have a new available date or if that means the product is discontinued. Marking a product as “LIMITED” without further information may sway a rep away from selling the product, as they are unsure if the retailer’s order will be fulfilled. ”MID-MONTH SHIPPING” is not precise enough and a real date is preferred, even if we get to that date and it needs to be extended.

A lot of times vendors may not want to provide out-of-stock inventory information or shipping dates that extend further than they would like, but reps can deal with real dates and real situations when it’s told up front by vendors. What reps don’t want to deal with is uncertainty. We understand that a vendor might be hesitant to share unfortunate or undesired inventory information for fear of losing the order. But in the end it’s hurting long-term business between the retailer and the vendor as well as eroding trust between the rep and the retailer.

Get Product Photography on a Timely Basis

As reps, we absolutely understand that product photography and catalogs can be a huge expense for vendors — especially for smaller vendors who are just getting started with sales agencies. However, having product photos is crucial to the sale. If you are planning on adding new SKUs or lines, reps need those product photos to sell the products. If you can’t get the product photos before launch, then at least let us know when you anticipate having them.

We can’t pre-sell anything if we don’t have an accurate delivery date or picture.

Give Sales Reps the Authority to Offer Approved Incentives

Give reps pre-approved incentives to offer to retailers for times they might need just a little extra push to close a deal or to perhaps make up for shipping errors. This doesn’t have to be anything that will dramatically affect the bottom line. We’ve seen several different kinds of incentives work such as 5 percent discounts, discounted or free freight, extended terms for customers with good credit, etc.

This is also an area that it’s important for the sales reps and sales agencies to work with vendors. As a sales manager, it’s up to me to make sure our reps know they have this in their back pocket and to use it! I’ve seen several times where a rep doesn’t want to offer incentives because they fear that it may be taken from their commission. Regardless of if that’s true or not (and that should be clarified up front) it’s important for reps to understand that while it might short change their commission now, it will certainly pay off in future orders long term.

I’ve also seen offering small incentives lead to adding additional products and writing bigger orders! It’s a win-win-win for vendors, sales reps and retailers.

Share Promotional Information With Your Sales Agencies and Sales Reps in Advance

Most vendors send out e-mails to retailers notifying them of promotions and deals. Please share this information with your reps at least a week in advance. This gives your reps a reason to schedule new appointments and prepare recommended orders.

Nobody likes to receive a phone call from their retailer regarding a new promotion and have no idea what they’re talking about. Even if you share this information with your sales agency principals, they can forward it to the reps.

Standardize Communication With Your Sales Agencies and Sales Reps

We love knowing what’s going on with our vendors! A standardized newsletter for sales agencies and reps is a great way to keep us informed! Here are just a few topics that could be covered:

• Product information such as new products, new lines, product changes, etc.
• Promotional calendars.
• Customer behaviors — are your customers changing shows, do you see new buying trends, etc.
• Shipping information including port arrival changes.
• Company information such as employee changes, recent press and successes.
• Marketing information — we love to see how you’re marketing your products so that we can reinforce those efforts.

Any and all information is welcomed and encouraged. Sure, it may not relate to all reps or all territories, but at least we have the information to digest if we so choose.

Make It Easy for Sales Reps to Send You Orders

Taking the time to e-mail or fax an order and then having to follow up to make sure it was received is enough to make sales reps tend to shy away from selling your line. The ability to send orders to vendors electronically as the order is written not only ensures it’s received but also protects all parties from credit card fraud that can occur when credit card information is transmitted insecurely (e-mail and fax).

Vendors are just as much our customers as our retailers and we strive for a prosperous and long-term relationship with all of our business partners. If vendors were to keep these six things in mind I think that not only would it help to fuel successful sales reps, it would also help to fuel everyone’s revenue objectives!