Charles Ingram, Eriez Magnetics, Erie, Pennsylvania, points to effective communication as the foundation for long‑standing and effective relationships between principals and their reps.

Anyone doubting his view should take note of the fact that Eriez this year is marking the fifth rep agency that the company has been working with for at least 50 years. In that group of five is one agency the company has been working with for 65 years, “and we’re only 75 years old as a company,” he notes. “There’s no longevity such as that without excellent two-way communication.”

Eriez’s magnetic lift and separation, metal detection, x-ray, materials feeding, screening, conveying and controlling equipment have application in the process, metalworking, packaging, recycling, mining, aggregate and textile industries.

When he’s asked how Eriez and its reps communicate, Ingram notes that that’s a pretty broad question but to understand how each side stays in touch, “the real answer is that both sides have to work at it.”

He explains that on some occasions a rep firm may not regularly report to or contact its principals “because they feel they might be bugging the manufacturer. If they are a firm that gets the orders, they have to appreciate the fact that they can’t bug us. Any rep that doesn’t contact us is making a huge mistake. There are plenty of things we can help them with whether its product applications, selling strategies or simply how to approach a given customer. Believe me, we welcome the contact.”

He adds, however, that “with the rep who maybe contacts us a dozen times and never gets the order, then that’s another topic of conversation.”

If that’s Ingram’s view of how and when the rep ought to be in touch with his principals, then when it comes to the principal communicating with the rep, “The rep ought to have a receptive and open mind. We’re not interested in contacting the rep to admonish him. Rather, our goal is to determine what they need; to help them; to develop teamwork between the rep firm and the home office.”

Using All the Tools

To accomplish that principal-to-rep communication Ingram says that a number of tools are put to use:

• “We love to travel with our reps.” He cautions, however, that the Eriez approach is not to contact the rep and inform him, “We’re going to be in your territory, set up some appointments. That’s the worst thing you can do. Instead, we’ll ask them if it’s convenient and it helps them, then they determine where to go.”
• “We have our reps work trade show booths with us, and that provides us with an excellent opportunity to speak with the rep and learn what we can do better together.”
• “Our rep council is a constant source of excellent communication between us and our reps.”
• Eriez’s website (with a sign-in for reps) allows the company to pass news and information along to its rep network. “We’re regularly telling them about pricing, personnel news, quotation formats, product information and press releases.” He adds that the website and its sign-in for reps were accomplished as a direct result of a suggestion from the rep council.

Whether it’s principal-to-rep or rep-to-principal communication, Ingram maintains that “an effective stream of communication fosters the relationship between the two and provides a wealth of opportunities for both parties. It also ensures that you’re not working with divergent objectives. Both sides remain on the same page to the benefit of both.”

The fact that other MANA manufacturers are as quick as Ingram to respond to questions relating to communication is indicative of how important the subject is to both them and their reps. For instance, consider:

In general, Bill Mahoney, The Young Industries, Inc., maintains, “Most of our independent reps provide us with the information that we need in a timely manner. On occasion when we need some details, we’ll contact them and they generally have the information immediately available. We don’t ask for call reports.

“As to how we regularly communicate with them, we’ll ask them to provide updates on quotations and we get a fairly mixed result as to who responds.”

He adds that with all the tools available for communication today, in-person contact, phone and e-mails seem to work the best. He says “We also communicate with them via our website, which has a password entry for reps; we do quite a bit of e-mail training and provide videos on our different product lines.”

Young Industries, Inc. is a Muncy, Pennsylvania-based manufacturer of bulk materials handling equipment.

“The regular communication we have with our reps and them with us is all over the board, says Pat Roddy, Molded Dimensions Inc. “That runs the gamut from phone calls, e-mails and various CRM reports.”

Given the variety of tools cited by Roddy, he notes that “Overall our reps are very good when it comes to communicating with us and others. There are occasions, however, when they’re not necessarily on their game or perhaps they’re spread a little too thin, that some don’t remember all that they should. In general, I think it’s fair to say that we’d always like more communication. But I would add that it’s those reps who are truly proactive in their approach to communication who make the very best partners for us. We can depend upon them to always let us know what matters of importance are happening in the field.”

Molded Dimensions, Inc., founded in 1954, engineers and molds custom rubber and polyurethane mechanical parts for OEM and aftermarket industries

Roddy continues that one of his and his company’s major concerns is that “We’d like to have all of our important information from reps reside in just one bucket. But, given the size of our organization and the nature of the independent manufacturers’ rep, we can’t really dictate to them how they should communicate. There are any number of CRM tools available today and everyone isn’t necessarily using the same tools. That can complicate communication a bit.”

If that’s how reps communicate with Molded Dimensions, Robby explains that “We communicate back to them generally on a project-driven basis and that communication usually takes the form of phone or e-mail.”

Making the Partnership Work

As to his overall view of how principals and reps ought to communicate, Roddy concludes that “To truly make the partnership work, you need a principal and a rep who are accomplished communicators. There’s no substitute for that.”

“We use all the means at our disposal to communicate with our reps,” explains Cliff Bannon, Climax Metal Products Co., Mentor, Ohio. “What’s happened is that we moved a bit from verbal communication to e-mail. That’s probably become our major means of contacting our reps.” He adds that texting has also become popular with many of the company’s younger reps. “We’re extremely pro-rep in our company and are always open to new ideas as to how to communicate better.”

Climax Metal Products is a manufacturer of shaft collars, rigid couplings, keyless locking devices, bearings, abrasives and pulleys.

Much like his manufacturing peers who were interviewed for this article, Dave Dolan, K&K Screw Products, a Glendale Heights, Illinois-based manufacturer of automatic screw machine products, uses all means possible to communicate with reps.

The foundation of his company’s communication efforts with its reps is that “ We treat them exactly as we treat our direct salesmen.” That means everything from verbal, e-mail, text, etc., is put to use when it comes to letting the outsourced sales force know what’s going on. “We conduct calls in the field with them and they also have access to our IT information. In addition, they have access to the president of our company, our vice president of sales and me — once again, just like our direct sales force.”

Working Hard on Information

“We work very hard to provide our reps with the information and access that they need to the point where they don’t need us personally.” That’s how Bill Wessel, Cincinnati Fan, Mason, Ohio, describes the interaction he and his company have with its network of reps.

Cincinnati Fan manufactures cast aluminum and fabricated steel, aluminum and stainless-steel industrial fans between 1/4 and 125 horsepower. The company also manufactures customized models that are designed to customers’ exact requirements.

He continues that perhaps the company’s main form of principal-to-rep and rep-to-principal communication is e-mail, “although with the capabilities of the computer today, our reps can look up virtually anything they need at any time. Given the technology that we have, that’s been one of our goals — to let reps have whatever they need, whenever they need it.”

Returning to the subject of the company’s favored mode of communication — e-mail — Wessel says, “I wonder if we’re approaching the point where we send so many messages back and forth that we never have to pick up the phone again.”

Typical of the information the manufacturer sends via e-mail is everything from leads generated by the company’s website, plant schedules, personnel information, etc. Likewise, the reps working with the company make use of the same communication tools.

When it comes to summing up rep communication to the manufacturer, Wessel expresses satisfaction with how the sales force reports. “Our philosophy is that we leave it up to the rep to call on customers. Their sales numbers will generally illustrate if they’re doing the job or not. If they’re not doing the job, then we’ll revisit the subject with them. It’s very important that there’s mutual respect between the principal and the rep and a part of that respect is shown in the manufacturer’s willingness to let the rep do his job. In addition to sales numbers, communication lets us know that he’s doing that job.”