Two executives with MANA-member Aquest Corporation provided the perfect words of praise earlier this year when they singled out one of their principals — Micro Air Corporation — as a “Perfect Principal.” As a result, this month the Wichita, Kansas-based manufacturer of a full line of industrial air cleaners, dust collectors, clean air booths, environmental booths, downdraft tables and commercial air cleaners joins our ever-growing list of manufacturers that their reps are proud to work with.

In presenting its “Quality Manufacturer of the Year Award” to Micro Air, Phil Roland, Aquest president, said, “Micro Air truly exemplifies the best in the dealer/distributor sales arena. Simply stated, they ‘get it.’ They have:

• Developed leading-edge Internet lead generation programs.
• Implemented ‘old school’ direct mail.
• Conducted case study reports.

“Micro Air teams up with their reps to encourage a winning attitude throughout the organization.

“How many principals in today’s competitive market have forgotten tried-and-true business principles or sound sales and marketing practices? Inside technical sales support is vital to the success of any field sales rep — and that’s what they provide. Someone has to be there to ‘answer the phone.’ When an order requires an expedited delivery, when a custom feature is required, if the paint color is needed to match the flagship colors of Harley Davidson, Micro Air delivers. Instead of saying, ‘Why are you asking?’ their response is, ‘What can we do to get the order?’”

Adding his perspective was Steve Maclachlan, Aquest vice president of sales, who said, “When the competition is fierce and the customer is demanding, you want a principal that will stand up to its principles. Micro Air makes you want to get out the door and sell their features, functions and benefits.”

Roland concluded his presentation to the manufacturer by saying, “In more than 16 years of sales and service of industrial capital equipment, we have never had the quality support that has been provided by Micro Air. Our sales have increased each year, and we look forward to a long-standing and mutually beneficial business relationship with the entire Micro Air team for years to come. Micro Air has worked hard to establish a partnership with their entire dealer/distributor network.”

In an interview with Agency Sales, Roland explained that his relationship with Micro Air began about four years ago when the manufacturer contacted Aquest. “They probably learned about us from our reputation,” he said. Aquest, Somers, Connecticut, provides a full range of high-quality and proven technologies that condition, filter and clean process air streams, improve indoor air quality and meet stringent environmental emissions standards.

Moving Up Quickly on the Line Card

“We were naturally interested in them because over the years we had gone through several different dust collector companies, all with a very poor success rate. I’d say in most of the cases that it was a poor marriage between us and the manufacturers.” Since Aquest didn’t have that line of products at the time, they took it on, and in a relatively short period of time it went from nothing to near the top of the agency’s line card.

One of the key ingredients in what is certainly a professional relationship, according to Roland, is the communication between the manufacturer and the rep and from the rep to the manufacturer. “If I had to describe their philosophy of communication, I’d call them aggressive,” he explained. “Their e-mail communications to us are superb. Any orders that we enter are sent through e-mail. The same can be said for their acknowledgements, order release and shipment schedules.”

Then, according to Roland, there is that old standby communication tool — the telephone. “There are a lot of companies today that believe the Internet is the panacea for all ills. As I look back on the more than 30 years I’ve spent in sales, we’ve abandoned a lot of our ‘old-school’ practices. Not Micro Air. They’ll use the phone to communicate to us with regularity, and they expect the same from us. They haven’t forgotten that sales success has been built on relationships, and if nothing else, hearing someone’s voice on the other end of the phone does a lot to maintain those relationships. Most of their people will be on the phone with us daily.”

When it comes to the type of frequency of communication that the principal wants/expects from Aquest, Roland takes a moment to describe his philosophy — and it seems to be one that meshes quite well with what Micro Air expects. “Here’s the way a principal should monitor or measure his reps: Are they calling us? How often do we hear from them? What are we learning from the field?

“On the other hand, if a principal is bogging down his reps with paperwork and reports, the salesman isn’t free to be out in the field getting orders. What results is some sort of a ‘police state’ that is worthy of no one. Every day I let Micro Air know what’s happening in the territory.”

In summation, Roland explains that Micro Air “is totally focused — from the top down — on the success of its rep network. They provide all the tools we’ll need to be successful, whether it’s inside sales support, pricing books, direct-mail programs or educational CDs. These folks are the real deal. They have a passion for what they do and they communicate that passion to their reps.”

Reps Make Sense

That passion for conducting business with and through manufacturers’ representatives is evident in a conversation with Micro Air’s national sales manager Jim Orr, who has been with the company for 13 years. Orr explains that reps make economic sense. “We work with 40–45 reps throughout the country and Canada, and they provide us with an instant presence in the territory. In addition to that immediate start in the field, consider for a moment how difficult it would be for a company like us to locate and hire 40–45 direct salespeople — and then provide them with all the support they’ll need. That’s why reps are so effective. They arrive on the scene with the needed sales organization and support, not to mention their ‘gung-ho’ attitude.”

The benefits don’t end there, however, according to Orr. “Then there’s the attribute reps possess with their synergistic sales offering. The direct salesperson is only representing one line. The rep, on the other hand, has the multiple product offering that makes him that much more valuable, not only to his principals, but also to his customers.”

Orr admits that one of the challenges he and his company face in working with their reps is always to be uppermost in the rep’s mind. “We’ve got to do all we can to maintain their mind share. To accomplish that task we service the heck out of them, whether that means lead generation, providing inside sales support or just by being there to answer their questions whenever needed.”

When asked for his reaction to the kind words uttered previously by Roland, Orr offers that “Quite honestly, that’s just a result of the fact that we listen to our reps. Some people — not us — forget that the rep is our customer. At the same time, since they are independent businesses, you can’t dictate to them how to run their businesses. We always keep that in mind in our relations with them.”