It’s a common complaint among reps: “Nobody understands what I do.”

And the complaint is driven by more than simple justifiable pride in the reps’ role in their countries’ economies. For the rep system of selling to thrive, the business world needs to universally understand the rep function.

Who are some of the people who need to understand what a manufacturers’ rep is, but don’t?

• Manufacturers that are considering using reps, but are reluctant to launch.
• Manufacturers that use reps, but don’t do it well.
• Prospective future colleagues who are thinking about getting into the rep business, but don’t really understand the rep’s role.
• Spouses, children, and family of reps who might someday be part of the rep’s business, or might at least appreciate understanding what their loved one does for a living.
• Professors at universities and colleges that turn out the reps of tomorrow, and the students they teach.

It’s a challenge to explain the rep function quickly, insightfully, and completely. Or it used to be a challenge. Until now.

MANA is proud to announce a new two-minute-and-nine-second video just posted at www.MANAonline.org that explains the rep function better than any tool we’ve ever offered. It’s such a great tool that we wish we could take full credit for it ourselves, but the lion’s share of the credit belongs to MANA’s Austrian counterpart, The Federal Association of Austrian Commercial Agents, and video production company SimpleShow.

The Federal Association of Austrian Commercial Agents collaborated with SimpleShow to craft an entertaining, informative video for European audiences that would make the rep system of selling easy to understand. And when they screened the video to an enthusiastic crowd at the Internationally United Commercial Agents and Brokers (IUCAB) conference in Austria in May, they graciously invited any other IUCAB member rep association to adapt the video to their own countries’ practices. We were excited to have the opportunity to take their video and “MANA-ize” it, so we reached out to SimpleShow and collaborated on a version for the North American market.

Share this video with your principals, colleagues, family and friends, and they will quickly understand the rep system of selling. It’s crisp, entertaining, and informative, and we thank The Federal Association of Austrian Commercial Agents so much for the opportunity to build on their hard work.

P.S. MANA members of long standing may be able to guess why the protagonist of our video is named George. The late George Hayward was the MANA Director who spearheaded MANA’s relationship with IUCAB. With permission from George’s son, current MANA Chairman of the Board Tom Hayward, we named our video’s protagonist to honor George’s memory.