What do you do when you get a telephone call from a new MANA associate member, and it becomes immediately obvious that he is new to working with reps? He doesn’t have a clue about how things work with outsourced sales professionals. For most of us, our immediate response is to tell the principal that we are not in a position to take on any additional suppliers right now and politely end the conversation as quickly as possible.
But what if we took just a few minutes to point the supplier toward some easily accessible resources that would immensely improve his understanding of the outsourced sales profession and how to work with us? We could make life infinitely easier for the principal, and for our members who end up representing him.
The next time you get a call from a new, inexperienced supplier, why not invest just a few minutes to get him started down the right path? Here are a few simple suggestions you can make:
- Suggest the manufacturer read the “Search Assistant” section in the Online Directory in the Member Area of the MANA website. This will take only about 15 minutes.
- Suggest the manufacturer read MANA publication Understanding the Outsourced Sales Professional by Harold Novick.
- Suggest the principal take advantage of MANA’s educational seminars for manufacturers, presented six to eight times each year.
- And finally, remind the associate member that he has unlimited telephone access to the experienced MANA executive staff to advise him on any issues that come up in locating, interviewing, selecting, evaluating, and motivating his manufacturers’ representative network.
