Reps who aren’t doing something to advance key parts of their business are asleep at the switch and will pay a price sooner rather than later.
It is a never-ending frustration to me to speak with reps who say, “We know we need to do something.” Then they disappear into the ether and I never hear another thing. These reps are not thinking of their best interests. Regardless of the size of the agency, there are things that need to be done proactively to place the business in a better position for the future.
The list is short but critical.
- Create a new profile and effective website.
- Develop a principal management and enhancement program.
- Develop a sales management plan to demonstrate the agency’s skill and value as a true outsourced sales force.
- Develop a program for each salesperson to measure up to expectations and eliminate any possible way principals see weakness.
This is a major list that deserves immediate attention from the owners of any rep agency.
1. Create a new profile and effective website.
The profile is the rep’s most standard and hopefully most effective tool for advancing the agency’s position in its marketplace.
Without an effective, totally professional profile a rep firm looks amateurish. The profile states so many positives for the agency that the reader has to come away with a predisposition to want to know more.
The profile is not to fool prospects or even existing principals. The profile has to tell it straight. It is not a substitute for great work with existing principals. This is the agency, this is how we do what we do, this is whom we have done it for, this is what they say (“they” are principals and customers) about the agency. This is how the agency adds value and power to the sales equation.
Along with the profile the agency website must be dramatically designed, graphically sound and very easy to use for customers, principals and employees. Having a great website is just basic good business.
2. Develop a principal management and enhancement program.
Proactively managing, enhancing and improving the relationships with the most important principals should be a primary concern of the agency management and every employee regardless of level.
Making the relationship with the principals who pay the freight a primary concern will pay huge dividends. These relationships can’t be ignored. There is no question, customers are much easier to get than good principals. Neglecting a principal or having poor representation in a market will kill the agency. Just because a principal doesn’t put huge demands on the agency for a territory doesn’t mean that the agency can ignore that principal.
3. Develop a sales management plan to demonstrate the agency’s skill and value as a true outsourced sales force.
Selling is all that the agency has to offer. Selling is what an agency gets paid for. In order to sell there has to be a disciplined, effective program for managing the sales team and making it more effective one customer at a time, one line at a time.
4. Develop a program for each salesperson to measure up to expectations and eliminate any possible way principals see weakness.
Aggressive management of the sales team is so critical it can’t be overstated. If the agency has one weak, ineffective, over-the-hill salesperson it is a “landmine” in the path of the agency and it will blow up sooner or later. Charlie may be a good guy, his customers may love him and he may be great at Little League, but if he isn’t selling and increasing the market share and sales of all of the key lines, he is a liability and will cost the agency sooner or later. As difficult as it may be to have to cut an old timer or a young one who is not cutting the mustard, there is no room for weakness in the rep business.
Taking a hard, critical look at each salesperson at least every six months is vital. This type of review cannot be skipped over or eliminated. If there is one weak salesperson on a team of 10 that is enough to get the agency fired. The principal doesn’t even have to place the blame, they can just send a 30-day notice.
Someone in the agency has to be the manager of the sales force and has to bring the discipline that is vital to make the agency bulletproof.
Summary
Sitting back and saying, “We know we have to do something” is the surest way for a rep agency to find itself scrambling to make enough commission to survive. The rep business is tough, but it is a lot less tough if the owners/managers are doing their job and doing the things to work on the business that are clear and vital.
Good luck and good selling.
MANA welcomes your comments on this article. Write to us at [email protected].
