© Paylessimages | stock.adobe.com

Don’t ever underestimate the value of the advice you receive from members of your rep council. That was the recommendation from one manufacturer fresh off his first rep council meeting of the year.

“You put the group together with the hope that they’d be honest with you when it came to the most effective ways to work with your rep network. If you’ve gone to the trouble of all the work of selecting members, planning agendas and executing your meetings, why not take advantage of it?”

What spurred this reaction from the manufacturer was specific guidance his company received on the matter of finding and signing an independent manufacturers’ representative in an important territory. In a boiled-down form here’s what the council members advised the manufacturer: “When you’re looking to hire a direct person for an important area you pull out all the stops to make sure you’ve chosen the right person. You should exert the same effort when it comes to choosing a rep. You’re dual goal here is to not only identify a top candidate but then do everything you can to get their attention. Keep in mind that chances are the best a top-performing rep is probably not looking for additional lines right now. To get their attention, you’ve got to put forth a professional and persistent effort. Then, once you do get their attention and the fit is really precise in the rep’s mind, they will in all likelihood entertain serious discussions about taking on your company.”

Some More on the Same Subject

Another manufacturer related that several agents have cautioned him that rep council meetings can often seem very similar to the sales meetings they attended when they were direct sales employees. He continued, “I think I’m safe in saying that rep councils start with virtually the same goal, but that everyone expects immediate rewards.

“To make our rep councils work effectively, we’ve had to do some soul searching. One of our goals has been to make sure that we genuinely want someone from outside the company to provide us with advice — advice that we’re ready to take to heart. Anyone working with a rep council should ask their agents to answer this question: ‘How can we better serve you to help you in the field?’ But don’t ask for advice if you’re not prepared to take it, and if you’re not prepared to act on it. If you’re not willing to operate in this manner, then don’t waste your time, money and effort in having a rep council.”

Why Write it Down?

It was a little like a glimpse of the past at an industry meeting earlier this year when a manufacturer who was investigating the pros and cons of switching to an independent outsourced sales force raised a question about the need for written contracts. “Why can’t we both just agree, shake hands and get started?” Thankfully, there was a rep-savvy attorney taking part in the question-and-answer session and he quickly responded: “The business world has gotten a lot more complicated since handshakes were the popular form of agreement. Sure, handshakes are great but the good feelings they instill last only until something goes wrong. Without going into all the legalities involved, suffice it to say that having a mutually-agreed-upon contract in place is critical to both parties. It’s not really a matter of one party trusting or not trusting another. It’s a matter of establishing the ground rules now so that there is a frame of reference for differences well into the future.”

Keeping an Eye on the Future

An exchange of opinions between two manufacturers on MANA’s LinkedIn discussion page showed that both felt an agency’s future plans were key to his company’s decision to work with them. The first manufacturer explained that when he joined his company as a sales manager, the company was in the process of changing from a direct to an agency sales force. In the course of training some newly signed agent, he explained: “We were persistent in our questions about what their future plans and goals were. If the agent was a one-person operation, did they plan to grow or add more people in the field? If they were just starting out, did they have the contacts and financial ability to make it through those initial ‘tough’ times?”

The second manufacturer concurred when he said “We’re always interested in what the agency thinks it will look like in five years. Our feeling is that five years is just about as far as the majority of agents plan. How they answer that question will let us know whether the agent has given enough thought to his or her direction and whether we will continue to be a good match in the future.”

On top of that, he emphasized that “I’ve always been especially interested in what their personal plans are — if the agent intends to retire soon, to personally concentrate on one existing principal, or to spend time further developing his people. These are all considerations I’d like to know if he’ll share with me.”

Knowledge vs. Training

When a MANA manufacturer put forth the expectation that he expected any agent he signs to know intimately know everything about his product line, he was surprised to get some push-back from other manufacturers. One of his peers offered that “You should expect your agent to know your market and understand your technology. That’s what’s most important. You really shouldn’t expect them to know that much about your line. Your job is to train them in the line. The fact that they bring all the other requirements to the table is what makes this training fairly easy. But you have to do it, and you can’t expect them to know the line without your help.

“As time passes and the relationship grows, however, you should expect your agents to know the line cold once you have trained them and they have had the opportunity to take it to the field.”

Asking the Wrong Question

When it comes to the desire of a manufacturer to gain more of his independent agent’s time in the field, one manufacturer admitted recently that he views that subject in an entirely different light. “I was talking to one of my reps and he provided me with a different perspective. According to him, it’s not just the time spent on a line that results in sales, it’s the quality of that time. He explained that he spends less actual time on his top line than that he does on most other lines. That’s despite the fact that one line is his most productive.

“Here was his rationale: ‘The manufacturer knows what I need to sell his product and he gets it to me. This includes fast turnaround on quotes and immediate shipping information. It includes quality product service after the sale and well qualified sales leads. It includes a lot of other things too. If I was to spend more time on that most-productive line, I don’t think I could increase sales in any ratio that bears on the input. Naturally, if I sold only that line and none of my others, I could increase sales, but I don’t think I could do it by much. Believe me, I know what I’m doing. The help we get from the manufacturer makes the time I spend on his lines so productive that there just isn’t that much room for improvement.’”

Agents Cooperate With Real-Time Manufacturing Training

There was a twofold benefit to one manufacturer’s regular manufacturing training for its independent agents. According to the manufacturer, “Every two years, we put our reps on our assembly line for two days. At the outset, I have to admit we only do this with the full cooperation and enthusiasm of our reps.

“We’ve found that once they learn how and why we do something during the manufacturing process, their enthusiasm for selling our line increases dramatically.”

One of the agents who’s been through the process a couple of times explains that “It wasn’t until I actually sat at a bench and assembled some of their products that I really understood how their products achieve the high level of productivity they enjoy in the field. Sure, you can read all about their products online or in a catalog, but I was able to use the information I learned in my presentation to customers. In the end, it pays off for all of us.”

Patience Is Perfect

“If I’ve learned anything after years of working with reps it’s that no two agencies are alike.” That’s how one manufacturer began his conversation describing his experiences covering more than three decades of working closely with independent manufacturers’ representatives. According to the manufacturer, “Sure, we’ve always wanted immediate results when we’ve signed on with a rep, but over the course of time we’ve worked with reps, we’ve learned not to rush them. If they’re any good — and hopefully we’ve determined that they’re good before we signed them — then they’ll deliver in their own good time. You’ve got to keep in mind that one agency may be able to dive right into your line immediately and dazzle you with sales from day one. Another agency, however, may be in the middle of a special program for another of its manufacturers and they’ll have to defer the launch of your line for a short period of time. The key here is to communicate with your reps and learn all you can about their current and future plans. That way you’ll have a much better fix on what they can do for you.”

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