Whenever a manufacturer is faced with the prospect of initiating the search for the right rep to work with, there are any number of factors that must be considered. Top of the list, however, is the importance of establishing a level of trust from the very beginning. That’s the advice offered by Peter Zafiro in a MANAcast conducted earlier this year.

“First and foremost, reps are the key to your business success,” maintains Zafiro, general manager of LinMot USA, Inc., a Wisconsin-based manufacturer of industrial linear motors. “Remember that reps are a part of your organization. Every manufacturer wants to be at the top of their reps’ line card. In today’s environment, to get and stay there it’s important to run a tight ship and have a completely transparent operation. We have to do the right things when dealing with reps — that’s how we become their emotional favorite.”

According to Zafiro, manufacturers should strive to become their reps’ “emotional favorite,” and they can accomplish that goal by following a number of practices including paying commissions accurately and on time and by having a firm policy when it comes to granting territorial exclusivity — and staying consistent with that policy.

When first searching for the ideal rep, Zafiro stresses the importance of seeking out reps that carry complementary lines to your own. “That has to be your first consideration. They are the ones who will work best for you. What they do is to bring more to the party than just their ability to rep my company. Typically, a rep that carries complementary lines actually provides you with an ‘ace in the hole.’ They can bring six to eight lines that a customer has need for. They open the lines of communication between you and your distributors and customers. Repping complementary lines allows a rep to better establish a relationship with a customer than a direct salesperson.”

Having stressed the importance of complementary lines, Zafiro moved on to other areas of concern when considering whom to work with. “As you consider whether to work with a rep, you must learn:

• What is his territory?
• How does he cover his territory?
• What is his technical competence?
• How does he communicate with his customer base?”

Succession Plan

In addition, of critical importance is learning what is their five-year window for retirement? What is their succession plan? “You never want a rep to tell you with just a couple of months’ notice that they don’t have a succession plan in place. In building a relationship with a rep, what you’re trying to do is to set long-term plans for the territory. That’s why a succession plan is so important.”

Zafiro continues that the manufacturer must keep these considerations in mind as he begins the interview process. “While the interview facet of the selection process used to be face-to-face, today we’re offered other options, whether it’s Zoom or some other sort of virtual meeting.” He explains that while these virtual interviews are obviously very useful, “There are some things that can occur during an in-person, face-to-face meeting, that can be missed. For instance, being able to read body language and to see how an individual presents themself in person is very important. That’s why it’s critical to make sure to schedule a follow-up to the virtual meeting.”

While it’s important for the rep agency to present itself in a professional manner during any form of interview, Zafiro emphasizes that to ensure the manufacturer makes the right connection with a rep, the manufacturer has a similar obligation. The manufacturer has to be able to show how well it works with reps; and, it does that by paying attention to things such as creating that level of trust, territorial exclusivity, commissions, training and communication.

“You build trust with your reps by always doing the right thing — and one way to do that is to grant territory exclusivity and be consistent with it. From the very beginning you have to state the terms of the exclusivity. You don’t introduce a new strategy by taking away a part of the rep’s territory.”

In a discussion on exclusivity that followed, the point was made that it is possible for a manufacturer to work with more than one rep in a given territory. One chat participant pointed out that “Historically, exclusivity was based on territory; but I didn’t know the needs of customers in other industries in my territory. In order to serve them, it would have been necessary for me to take time away from the customers that I usually work with in order to serve them. As a result, it’s not unusual to have exclusivity granted on an account-by-account basis. Many times when a rep begins with a manufacturer, they will provide the manufacturer with a list of accounts and describe them as the only customers they want to deal with. As a result, it’s possible to have more reps in a single territory as long as they are selling to different customers. Manufacturers should be open to this approach.”

Importance of Communication

On that point, Zafiro offers, “It makes sense to work with account-based selling. “This all comes down to having a high level of communication with your reps. When a change has to be implemented, if it is properly communicated, it can be agreed upon by both sides. We’ve certainly had times when a rep has come to us and explained that they’re unable to service an entire territory. That approach makes sense. The wrong move here is to make a change in coverage without communicating. That’s the wrong way to go.

“It’s so easy to destroy a relationship if you say to a rep ‘We’re taking this away from you and making it a house account.’ That will do more to impact your emotional favorite status than anything else. It all comes down to the manufacturer marketing themselves as a good partner with their reps. If all you do is talk about how great your products are, that’s a bit of a turnoff.”

Staying on the subject of communication, Zafiro emphasized that when selecting a rep to go to market with, the manufacturer and rep have to be clear how they can best communicate with each other. Zafiro was quick to identify call reports as a pet peeve. Prior to becoming a manufacturer, he explained, “I was a rep for eight years, working closely with manufacturers. Now, as a manufacturer, I can understand the manufacturers’ position. We put an emphasis on the need for reporting, perhaps to the level of being over-communicative. It comes down to communication to point of paralysis. What we as manufacturers have to do is be consistent with our appreciation of the rep’s time. Certainly manufacturers need communication from the field, but often daily, weekly and monthly updates are all too frequent. If the rep is representing a line that takes six to 18 months to sell, we should try to fit that timeline into our communication needs. Obviously, there are going to be months where there is no need to be updated.”

He continued by emphasizing that call reports are an obvious pet peeve for him and for reps. “In addition, you may have some tax issues there with the IRS. What we do with our initial interview with a rep is determined by how reps prospect, and how they communicate with their customers. Then we move on to determine how the rep feels they can best communicate with us.”

Useless Reports

According to Zafiro, “Requiring your reps to fill out extensive reports or daily call logs is useless and onerous. Unless you can have your reps communicate in just a few seconds, that’s the only time the rep really has.”

If communication is critical, so too is the payment of commissions. On that subject, Zafiro offered, “What we do like clockwork is to pay our commissions two weeks before we have to. That way we always beat expectations.” As an aside, he said, “If the check ever comes down ‘late,’ our response is that it’s still delivered to you 11 days early, instead of 14 days early.”

After communication and commissions, he continued that training is important: “The manufacturer has to provide the type of training that the rep feels confident that he has the tools to talk to customers about all products and their applications. In addition, key to the reps’ training is the practice of joint sales calls. The manufacturer should be careful about scheduling such calls; let the rep know well in advance when you want to visit the territory. If you visit without a plan, joint calls won’t be effective. There’s an obvious need for the manufacturer to visit accounts — this is a key area for training your reps.”

Finally, Zafiro addressed the subject of getting references for prospective reps. “Reps should have other reps — not in their market or selling to their accounts — that can vouch for them. I get a number of good referrals that way.”

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Weighing the Value of References

The final point made by Zafiro during the MANAcast brought to mind an item that appeared in Agency Sales years ago on the very same subject. The article stated that a number of manufacturers check with customers when they’re looking for references when hiring a new rep. One manufacturer had settled upon the simplest — if not the best — reference he could get for a prospective rep:

“I asked one customer what he thought about a rep who had been calling on him for a couple of years. I was considering this rep to fill a void in my national coverage. The customer’s ringing endorsement was: ‘He and his agency are great. They have a passion for what they do.’ He went on to say that if a rep didn’t have a passion for his job and for the products he sells, ‘How can you expect me to be passionate about buying from him?’ I’ve remembered those words and I’ve made it a point to include the ‘passion quotient’ in every appraisal of a prospective rep.”

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