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There are any number of MANA members who began their careers on the manufacturing side of the desk. At the same time, there are manufacturers who can boast a true appreciation for the rep’s view of the world because they were once reps.

It’s a case of the latter situation that got our attention recently when a rep-turned-manufacturer offered to discuss the concept of outsourced sales. According to the former rep, who’s been a manufacturer for a little over a decade, “There has to be a true understanding of the fact that outsourced sales are exactly that — outsourced sales. Independent manufacturers’ representatives are often a wise alternative to having salespeople on your payroll. Outsourced sales is not an alternative to a comprehensive marketing and sales strategy. Having realistic expectations about your relationship with your independent reps can lead to mutually beneficial relationships where both your business and the reps you work with prosper. If you think you can abdicate marketing and sales responsibilities just because you engaged a rep firm, you’re doomed to fail.”

He continued that to ensure there is no abdication of the marketing and sales process, there are a number of steps the savvy manufacturer must take, including these:

• Provide lead generation programs that will offer support to your reps and help them grow your business.
• Maintain data on sales performance and analyze that data so you know the true cost of acquiring a customer, the lifetime value of a customer, and whether or not you’re devoting the proper marketing and sales resources to the proper areas.
• Begin the relationship with a realistic marketing budget — wisely and effectively applied — for penetrating a new territory or market segment.
• Complete process evaluations which can show the ways to tighten up sales cycles and provide data on what kind of returns on investment your marketing and sales programs are producing.
• Offer market development retainers for reps you engage. Keep in mind that the rep who will take you into a new territory for zero compensation is likely desperate. Do you want to work with someone who is desperate?
• Conducting win-loss analysis to help you and your reps understand why a particular marketing/sales strategy works or doesn’t, and where refinements might be made.”

Walking in the Reps’ Shoes

When one manufacturer expressed a lack of patience when it came to dealing with the varying needs of the 11 rep agencies he worked with nationwide, a fellow manufacturer urged him to consider what it was like to walk in the rep’s shoes. The second manufacturer offered the following: “I understand your concern. I have to deal with a variety of reps myself. But just think for a moment and remember the axiom that if everyone in a room had the same opinion, there would never be a need for a meeting. Just as you have to deal with the varied needs of 11 different agencies, so too do each of those reps have to deal with the varied needs of every one of the manufacturers on their line cards.

“One way to smooth the path to effective communications is to ensure that your company’s goals have been uniformly communicated to every one of those reps. If, in fact, that’s been done, then at least everyone in the room will know that they’re headed in the same direction.”

Sharing Is Partnering

For years on television Mr. Rogers communicated to generations of children the words “Sharing is caring.” One manufacturer put his own twist on those words of wisdom when he offered that when it comes to working with reps “Sharing is partnering.”

As to how he employs that philosophy, he cited the approach he takes whenever he has a national sales meeting or when he executes a visit in the field. “When we make our plans before a meeting, we usually open our conversation with what I would call ‘a blank board.’ Our intent is to be totally open to what our reps want to cover.

“Remember, that’s why we’re speaking with them in the first place. We’re truly interested in the issues they want to address. If we weren’t interested, then all we’d do is dictate to them and we all know how that will work, Our intention is never to complain or ‘bash’ our reps about their performance. What we’re after is to learn what they are experiencing in the field. We want to learn how they’re doing — specifically with our product line — and we want to learn what we can do to make their jobs easier. We want to know what we can do to improve our performance and the best measure of how we do that is to listen to them.”

How does this approach work for this manufacturer? “My experience has been that if we operate in this manner, we get exactly what we’re looking for from our reps — whether it has to do with new product launches or any added work we may request of them. For instance, I anticipate that when we have a new product introduction next month, we’re going to be able to anticipate our reps’ activities and track the opportunities they can realize — all based on the feedback they’ve given us ahead of time.”

Learning From History

Based on his actions, one manufacturer would appear to be a believer in the words contained in the following quote: “Those who do not read history are doomed to repeat it.”

According to the manufacturer, “When I initially made my move from a direct to an outsourced sales force, I made a number of errors that I am bound and determined never to repeat.” Included in those areas were communications and not creating a team environment that allowed reps to feel welcome.

“To begin with the area of communicating — or better yet not communicating — I simply made assumptions that weren’t true, while failing to let the reps know what my expectations were of them. What happened as a result was that when my expectations weren’t met, I had no one else to blame, since I never told the reps what I wanted to begin with.”

When it came to the concept of creating a team environment, “We were just the opposite — if anything, we created an ‘us-against-them’ working relationship. I’ll openly admit that part of that came from my organization’s lack of openness and communication. I convinced myself that I didn’t have the time to better the situation, but that just made everything worse. Near the end, one rep told me that he felt this just wasn’t going to work, and we’d be better off parting company. Looking back, I certainly have to agree with him. But that doesn’t deter me from doing better in the future. I’m determined to move ahead because the concept of working with independent reps looks to me like it would be the ideal business model for my company.”

There’s No Substitute for Planning

There’s real value in networking. A good example occurred earlier this summer when two manufacturers were discussing the value of conducting field sales calls with their reps.

The first manufacturer voiced displeasure with the process. According to the manufacturer, “I’ve rarely had good luck with field calls. As a matter of fact, things have gone so poorly that I rarely go on them and when I do I often say to myself that my time would be better spent back in the office. When all is said and done, I have to ask why manufacturers ever make use of them?”

After hearing a litany of problems with field sales calls, the second manufacturer related his experience, which couldn’t have been more different. “I swear by the value they provide. Here’s how I approach the process: The first thing I do is to make sure I have a really solid purpose in mind prior to the visit. Then I ensure that I let the rep know well in advance (by that I mean more than 30 days) that I’m planning a visit. I let him know who I want to see, ask for his advice on additional calls and plan each sales call with him.

“I’m not done yet — before each call, we make sure that we’ve done as much pre-planning as possible. We determine what our level of business has been in the past with the customer; what is it now and what do we hope to achieve in the future? We also anticipate problems and make sure that we have answers to questions even before they’re asked.

“We arrange every detail of the visit right down to who will pick me up at the airport and where we are staying. We make sure we have a plan for each call, we review each call after the meeting and agree on who will conduct any needed follow-up activity. And finally, we monitor the follow-up activity to make sure all the customer’s concerns are taken care of.

“What this really entails is planning and communicating. The absence of one or the other leads to the same kind of problems that you’ve been facing.”

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