Thoughts of what happened to everything from drive-in movies, blacksmiths, and stagecoach drivers — not to mention the traditional handshake — come to mind when considering the changes in how reps have conducted business as the more than year-long pandemic winds down.

Think for a moment about the absence of in-person sales calls, not to mention the fact that many of the offices reps used to visit are now empty as purchasing and specifying personnel work from home. Then there’s the marked increase in the use of virtual Zoom or Skype meetings and the increase in the use of email and text messaging to stay in touch with customers.

“You don’t have to get depressed about these changes, what you have to do is adapt.” That’s the advice offered by long-time Agency Sales contributor Terry Brock as he surveys the post-pandemic sales landscape.

Brock maintains, “If anyone is equipped to deal — and move forward — with the changes we’ve been experiencing, it’s the independent manufacturers’ rep.”

Virtual Meetings

Brock is hardly alone in offering his observations on the changes Covid has wrought. For instance, Jerry Leth, MANA’s vice president and general manager, notes, “I think the most significant change is how we conduct our sales meetings. People are now so accustomed to online meetings that I just don’t see this reverting. It took some getting used to, but there are definite advantages:

• We can reach a broader range than we would by car.
• We can do more in one day.
• The rare physical meetings that do occur are much higher level (so less time wasted).

“The downside is that taking the time to stop by in person showed a level of interest that electronic communications just can’t match. It’s pretty easy to ignore emails and voicemails, but most people will make time for you once you’ve taken the initiative to come to them.”

He continues, “Tying into the above, another change that I expect will be permanent is how we think about travel. Even when there’s a vaccine, it’s unlikely that we’ll all have immediate access to it, and at this stage of the game, no one really knows how well that vaccine will work or how safe (I haven’t seen any safety studies yet — have you?) it is. Is COVID-19 going to be like the flu — something that’s constantly mutating and always there? Will people need a new shot every year? While we may not all have been jet-setting around the globe, it’s hard to imagine people being quite so blasé about their travels.”

Leth concludes, “It’s hard to know what other changes will be permanent because we don’t yet have enough of an understanding of COVID-19. Right now, quarantines mean that OEMs and their suppliers often don’t have enough employees, so equipment lines and assembly lines aren’t running as efficiently as they were before — and sometimes break down. Orders are delayed despite the need to sustain whatever business they can. But who can say how far-reaching this will be? There are certainly opportunities out there, but finding the balance is challenging. Sales reps are limited by their manufacturers — machinists certainly can’t work from home!”

Maintain Personal Contacts

Another MANA perspective is offered by Charley Cohon, MANA’s president and CEO. According to Cohon, the days of calling a customer’s switchboard and punching in the extension of the person you want to speak to are long gone. “If there’s any major change in the way reps will be contacting customers’ decision makers, it’s via the personal contact information that the customer will provide them.”

Add to that the fact that “the degree to which people have become comfortable with Google Meet or Zoom-type calls shows how much things have changed and will remain changed. The ease with which we now accept this technology has made these remote calls the default procedure. If anything, people who may have pushed back at a developing technology are stepping up and finding that it’s really not that hard to work efficiently.”

The MANA executive goes on to describe other changes that will achieve some permanency in the marketplace.

Relationships — Cohon stresses the importance of relationships when he says, “As a rule, if you have an established customer, the ease with which another unknown vendor can make calls and take them away is greatly diminished. What the rep has done by establishing and nurturing relationships is to increase the degree of difficulty that an unknown vendor faces when he attempts to convert an established customer. In reality, the trust the rep has established over the years during personal sales calls means that the rep’s principals can ride on the rep’s coattails in an era where personal sales calls may not be possible. Because the rep has built up that level of trust over the years, there are going to be innumerable roadblocks in the way of the stranger who seeks to get an appointment with someone he’s never seen before.”

The MANA executive builds on that argument when he explains, “Conversely, if the established rep faces the task of calling on someone he’s never called upon previously, he’s not going to be impaired as much as that stranger or factory-direct person.

A Known Quantity

“If, for instance, you were successfully selling die-casting parts to customers and you’re a known and trusted quantity in the territory, your ability to capture new business will be facilitated. Those who will suffer will be the factory direct salespeople. Keep in mind that if you have been a rep in the territory for 10 years or more, chances are you have a number of touchpoints with most of the major prospects in your territory. You’re not a complete stranger dialing in from 1000 miles away.”

The traditional sales call — “Does what has happened spell the end for the box-of-donuts or typical milk-run sales call that has no specific purpose? In reality, those calls have already been going by the wayside. There were certainly some places where you could walk in without an appointment and say thank you for the business, but those instances have been dwindling. For the last year and a half, people have been limiting their in-person contacts. In the future, if you don’t have a good reason to call, customers don’t want you there. And, if you think you can deliver a box of donuts to your customers, chances are the people you used to give them to are now working virtually.”

Working remotely — And speaking of working remotely, “People who are not going into the office anymore will be disinclined to invite you into their homes for a meeting. In many cases, social distancing precludes even going to the local Starbucks to have a meeting. People who are working remotely will live and die by Google or Zoom meetings. They don’t want coffee and lunch.”

Field visits — “In-the-field sales visits are going to be conducted via video calls. There’s an upside to this move. In the past you had to carve out three or four days of calls to justify your principal’s sales manager coming into the field because they’re not going to fly in for just one call. Now, and in the future, you can make a joint call on any customer who would warrant one. You don’t have to generate filler calls in between.”

Product demonstrations — “Most of the products you demonstrate in person can be done over a video call. In some cases, you may end up shipping a sample product that doesn’t have an immense value and letting the customer know you want to conduct a demonstration. You let them know you’ll ship parts and provide them with a return label.”

As to whether this movement away from traditional face-to-face contact between reps and their customers is a good or bad trend, Cohon offers, “The practice of person-to-person selling hasn’t gone away — it’s simply on hiatus. I predict we’re going to be practicing our person-to-person selling probably within a year. It will continue to exist, but in the future, we may find that customers are going to be more selective in whom they have contact with.”

Cohon concludes by saying, “Essentially reps are riding on their own coattails right now. They continue to call on those people they’ve developed relationships with over the last 10 years or more. Remember, they’ve got goodwill deposited in the bank. This year and next they may find that they are making withdrawals from the bank. But they have a considerable balance available to them. Then, when things return to normal, they can start making their deposits again.”

Analyzing the Sales Process

“One of the ways I look at this situation is to consider the basic common denominator of the sales process,” offers Hank Bergson, president, Henry Bergson Associates, LLC.

Bergson, the former president of NEMRA, who for several years has moderated MANA’s manufacturer seminar, maintains that this common denominator is represented by the question that any manufacturer faces: “Is it necessary to take your product to market via an outside sales force? If the answer is no, then you don’t need one. If, on the other hand, the answer is yes, then you have two choices: a direct sales force, or an independent manufacturers’ representative network.

“Having agreed that we need a direct sales force, then we’re down to a discussion of what skill sets and activities are going to be necessary and how things are going to change in the future that will ensure your success in the market.

“In the first place, let’s talk about direct face-to-face selling. We’re all people who want to deal with people. Reps are successful because they’ve built personal relationships with their customer base. In addition to those personal relationships, they can create longevity in the territory, they possess product knowledge and they’re familiar with their territory. So, as far as change is concerned, these attributes simply aren’t going to fly out the window. Look at what we’ve all gone through and the fact remains that people want to eat together, they want their families and friends together, and they’re dying to get their personal relationships re-established. I think all of this is going to play in serving as a critical centerpiece for the future success of rep agencies.”

If those stated attributes that the rep possesses have not changed, maintains Bergson, “What we have today, on the other hand, is a whole bunch of new tools to accomplish what the rep has always done — video calling and various other methods of communication and follow-up. But at the core of this whole discussion is the fact that the customer is always going to want to know and trust you and feel comfortable dealing with you and conducting business with you. Isn’t it a fact that I would rather put my faith in a rep that I know as opposed to some anonymous entity on a computer somewhere? Sure, I know that there will be some people who think they’d rather deal with a touchless, faceless sales entity, but I think as the market resumes whatever the new normal is, there will be the need for the personal touch — and that’s the strength of the rep.”

Relying on Relationships

Bergson continues, “At end of the day it’s all about the relationships that the rep has established. That will be a crucial component and the rep is going to have to use all of his skills to get that needed face time back. I think he will have a willing participant on the customer side that would like that face time and personal relationship back. I’m making the assumption that the purchasing agent or other decision maker on the other end of the call is just as lonely as the rep is. And, if that decision maker isn’t going to be in the office anymore, the rep will find them wherever they are.”

In conclusion Bergson emphasizes, just as Terry Brock did earlier, that the rep must — and will — change. “Welcome to the world of change. The old ways of conducting business don’t always go away, but some of the things we did in the past aren’t as prominent as they once were. We now have some new tools in our baskets. It’s up to us to use them efficiently.”

He adds this observation: “I’ve never met a rep who said he was successful because he put out his shingle and customers came looking for him. No, it was the rep who made the effort to identify customer wants and needs and changed with the times who has continued to be successful.”

Lead Generation

Perhaps the greatest impact the pandemic has had on his business is in the area of lead generation, according to Owen Swift, president of Swift Scientific LLC, Coventry, Connecticut.

Swift explains, “I used to rely on trade shows for being able to meet with and speak with people in order to generate business. Obviously, now that’s simply not happening. It’s the same thing with not being able to meet customers in person. When you can meet someone in person there’s a reality that sets in that you’re building credibility. Intrinsically we all know the value of that process. As we’ve all seen in 2020, that’s been taken away quickly. I’ve been scrambling to adapt. So certainly, my ability to generate leads has slowed down and now I have to do a lot more cold calling and cold emailing. But it’s been a scramble, and we’re finding that so many of the office phone numbers we have are for people who aren’t in the office.”

Having outlined the obvious downside that the pandemic has brought about in the lives of reps, Swift maintains that “In other ways, we as reps have been able to adapt very well. For instance, internally we’ve always made use of video meetings. I’m a big believer in them. And, at the same time, I’m surprised by the number of our customers that have also acclimated themselves to the use of video calls.”

Swift offers the opinion that it’s obvious that face-to-face contact with a customer is much more valuable than a phone call. “It really makes a difference if in your contact with the customer they can see your face. I hope that the use of video calls is here to stay.”

When he’s asked to take a look into the future and predict whether virtual calls will have an impact on in-person sales visits, Swift explains, “There are some customers where the cost of parking is more expensive than the commission we might earn. That’s where the value of a virtual call will be important.”

Developing High Trust

As she contemplates the manufacturers’ rep’s lot in life in a post-COVID-19 world, Marnee Palladino, president, MARN, Inc., Middlebury, Connecticut, readily acknowledges that “I believe we all know it will differ from the pre-Covid era.”

She continues, “With a long career in sales, both as an employee and an independent manufacturers’ representative, the one thing I strongly believe is that success in sales comes from creating high-trust customer relationships. We all like to buy from those we trust and that remains the same.

“In the past, we created those relationships by first creating an internal sense of purpose that we want to help solve our customers’ problems, not get purchase orders. We then met with our customers in person and used our questioning, listening and feedback skills to get an understanding of their current reality and desired outcome. By feeding back to the customer what we learned, they start to believe that your purpose might just be to really help them. Once you get your first order and meet or exceed their expectations, you must maintain their trust. You must continue to ‘Walk the Talk’ — you cannot fake it.”

Palladino, who serves on the MANA Board, notes, “The COVID-19 era forced changes in how salespeople interacted with customers. They no longer met in person. Virtual meetings became the new norm and I believe they will continue to play a role in establishing and maintaining relationships in the post-COVID-19 era. Salespeople will go back to in-person meetings, but now they have a new tool at their disposal.

“I believe these virtual meetings may impact the way principals conduct territory visits. In the past, those visits were set up months in advance and were designed to help the principals add to the high-trust relationships their manufacturers’ representatives created. Now that members on both sides of the relationship know how to conduct these virtual meetings, they will use them when there is an issue with a customer that requires immediate attention and participation with the principal. They can be set up quickly and this eliminates the need for the principal to spend extra time and expense to personally visit the customer. By allowing the customer and principal to at least see each other, the virtual meetings provide a little more value and add to the high-trust relationships.

“Other than that, I do not expect much else to change.”

Expanding Options

In addressing the same subject, Sid Ragona, who heads Ragona Scientific, Pittsford, New York, offers, “Let me start by hitting the nail on the head with the following comment. None of the changes we’re seeing will be permanent once the pandemic is over; however, what will be permanent will be a larger variety of options available on how we conduct business.”

Agency Sales readers will recall that Ragona’s efforts to adapt to changes in business practices were detailed in the February 2021 issue. He continues, “Let’s start looking at the changes I see:

• “Zoom meetings and other forms of remote meetings are here to stay. The plus side of the Zoom-type meeting is that it saves time, money, and is efficient. Additionally, there is no travel and almost everyone by now knows how to use it and how to share their desktop. It has become one of the de facto methods for communicating with customers and colleagues.
• “Online camera and audio etiquette — Since many people are now attending remote meetings, there is a growing awareness as to our appearance when in a Zoom or similar type of meeting. Increased etiquette awareness includes the following:
  1. Muting oneself when not talking to prevent distracting sounds.
  2. Even illumination — no one wants to look at an image that looks like poor makeup from Phantom of the Opera.
  3. Camera height close to eye level, as opposed to a camera looking up one’s nose.
  4. Avoiding bright lights or windows in the background.
  5. Green-screen effect with a professional office setting.
• “Equipment/product demonstrations — Before Covid, many of these efforts were moving online as proof of performance demonstrations. Not only were many of these better than the live versions, they also saved travel, expense, and ensured that the equipment was in working order and that the in-house expert was present for the demo. In this age of Covid, this has become more prevalent, and I believe this will be an option chosen more often in the future.
• “Virtual conferences and exhibits — The very concept of a virtual exhibit at a virtual conference was essentially unheard of prior to the pandemic. This does present a new paradigm. Previously, trade show exhibiting has been one of the largest single-line items of the marketing budget for most companies, only to realize that year after year the exhibits’ isles are poorly attended and filled with bored exhibitors from other companies, wishing they could be doing something more productive, especially those at meetings that require four days of exhibits. The death knell of super-expensive exhibits is becoming louder every year and the virtual exhibit is yet another nail in its coffin.”

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