© ricardoferrando | Dollar Photo Club

Success for the independent manufacturers’ representative is directly related to an agency’s ability to establish, nurture and maintain relationships with customers. In order to achieve those three lofty goals, it’s critical for the agent to have an in-depth knowledge of his customers and then be able to more than meet their needs.

It’s a little bit like the meaning behind the words sung on Broadway by Julie Andrews in The King and I. “Getting to know you. Getting to know all about you.” That all sounded great, but the question remains how does the agent “get to know” all about his customers? It’s all about establishing those important relationships.

According to Tim Sanders, “Relationships are like wireless phone connections.” In his book Dealstorming, Sanders notes that when relationships are strong “…they produce a clear and satisfying conversation. When they are weak, they produce frustration and are unproductive. The key, then, is to boost the strength of the connections. While your phone call depends on a strong network and functional equipment …relationships rely on a sound perspective and effective practices.” (Dealstorming: The Secret Weapon That Can Solve Your Toughest Sales Challenges, Penguin Random House, LLC, 235 pp.)

Adding a bit more detail to the subject at hand is a book entitled Selling ASAP: Art, Science, Agility, Performance, which advocates for the development of relationships for selling because, “In order to make a compelling argument for buying, you need to know how to uncover your prospects’ implied and expressed feelings and thoughts about the solutions (the product or service) being offered.” And what better way to know how to uncover a prospect’s needs than by building a relationship with them? (Selling ASAP: Art, Science, Agility, Performance, by Eli Hones, Larry Chonko, Fern Jones and Carl Stevens, Louisiana State University Press, 199 pp.).

How Agents Value Relationships

Complementing those literary endorsements for the value of relationships are the real-world experiences of every-day independent agents who swear by the value of knowing who their customers are and being able to more than anticipate their needs. For instance, consider how the following emphasize the value of having long-standing relationships:

•   When asked to categorize his thoughts on how his agency views the importance of relationships, one agent explained, “In my father’s day…there were a lot of business lunches and conducting business during a golf match. At the same time, your business was conducted directly with people with whom you enjoyed a personal relationship.” He continued that today the business lunch and golf match are hardly common. Instead, “I define a quality business relationship as one where I’m able to make my customer’s life easier.” He defines “easier” as being able to do something for customers that allows them to get home early and have less stress in their daily activities.

He adds, “I’ve had a good customer relationship when I was hands-on all through the purchase process and the customer received a piece of equipment and the required service that he needed at the right time and the right place.” When he’s done that, he finds that the customer “…winds up putting me on his speed dial. I’m the one he calls when he has a need.”

•   Next consider the agent who builds his relationships on the twin pillars of networking and contacts. Customers “are coming to you for various reasons including simply to pick your brain. That’s why it’s so important to maintain those contacts and get back to people as soon as you’ve got the information that they’re looking for, or answers to the questions they’ve asked.” Once you’ve done that, they’ll return to you on a regular basis, he maintains.

•   Or how about this Oklahoma-based agency that maintains, “Our customers let us know that our commitment to customer care and ethical business principles differentiates our agency from the competition. We’ve let that advice guide us for a quarter of a century and the reputation we’ve established for ‘doing the right thing all the time’ has allowed us to establish a firm foundation of high-trust customers.”

•   Then there’s the Pennsylvania-based agent who makes a case for the importance of relying on relationships for both commodity and high-tech products. According to the agent, “There will always be survivors on the rep side as long as manufacturers acknowledge the need to have someone in place who has those relationships with the purchasing managers. On the high-tech side, you’re going to have engineers and end users who make the purchasing decisions who are going through the same sales productivity process that we all are. As a result, there are fewer of them and they’re going to need smart reps to fill the role as their resource providers.

“This translates into the fact that reps will continue to be in demand. Customers are going to be looking for solution providers, and that’s what we are.”

•   Serving as an addendum to the previous observation, another Pennsylvania agent explains that in his view it’s the personal relationships an agency enjoys with its customers that allow it to be successful in the face of any chance. “At the same time many of our customers have downsized to the point where they don’t have the people or the time to devote to sales calls. That’s why it’s more important for reps to know their customers and know how they want to be served. Many of them prefer the Internet and phone to the personal visits. If that’s the case, then it’s our job to accommodate them accordingly.”

Elements of a Sound Relationship

Relationships between independent manufacturers’ representatives and their customers don’t materialize out of thin air. Stable relationships only evolve when the agent has done his or her homework and coupled that with a history of performance that lives up to the expectations of customers. Among several ingredients that serve as a partial recipe for a firm rep-customer relationship:

•   Service — The complaint has been heard that agents are order takers or their job is done once the sale is made. It’s the agent with solid customer relationships that never turns its back on the customer. It’s the agent that follows up with delivery information, handles post-sale questions and problems and asks if the customer is satisfied who can expect his customers to remain loyal.

•   Commitment — What customers seek in their relationships with independent agents is performance and that performance is achieved via the commitment from the agent.

•   Communication — The independent manufacturers’ representative is located squarely in the middle between principals and customers. As a result, it’s the agent that the customer looks to when it comes to timely and accurate information regarding products, prices, delivery, etc. Failure to be on time and honest in those communications will contribute to the downfall of the relationship. It’s incumbent upon the agent to be sure he thoroughly understands the needs/wants/desires of the customer and to communicate that information to the principal. At the same time, it’s the agent that has to be the number-one communicator from principal to customer. While fulfilling that role, it’s the customers’ interests that remain number one. Even if answers to questions and solutions to problems aren’t forthcoming from the principal, the agent must communicate to the customer as to when that information will be available. Remember, no one wants to be kept waiting for an answer.

•   Honesty — Perhaps the top priority in any relationship is honesty. The agent that represents the interests of his customers vs. those of the principals is bound to have strong and lasting relationships with customers.

•   Value — What’s it worth for a customer to deal with an independent manufacturers’ representative vs. a number of direct salespeople? In a single call the agent represents a number of product lines from a number of manufacturers. The result is that several needs are accommodated at the same time. Compare and contrast that with the need to see several direct salespeople from several manufacturers. And while you’re at it, add the fact that the agent is in the territory to stay and meet customer needs for the foreseeable future.

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