In past conversations, Bob Gerrard has often referred to the traditional role of the independent manufacturers’ representative as one where the “rep is expected to make calls and follow up.” And, in the course of that activity, he’s supposed to find new business opportunities. “Feet on the street,” Gerrard says, “has been the mantra of manufacturers’ sales managers for years.”

Has that view been altered in the face of rapidly and continually changing technological sales and marketing tools? Gerrard, of Gerrard & Associates, Mooresville, North Carolina, is quick to offer, “I’d answer that with a ‘yes’ and a ‘no.’

“Just as always, reps are expected to identify new opportunities; but, given the advent of the technological tools now at our disposal, there is a much better and more efficient, effective means to do that job than ‘feet on the street.’ Let’s face it, on a good day the rep can make four or five live calls knocking on doors at prospective and existing customers. On the other hand, making use of our database for our e-marketing program, I can touch more than 5,200 potential customers in seconds and never leave my office.”

Gerrard, whose sales engineering firm has represented leading manufacturers of dry bulk material handling systems and equipment in the Carolinas and Virginia since 1973, describes his firm’s e-marketing efforts that began in earnest about the middle of last year.

“Properly designed and managed, e-marketing can be the most efficient, cost-effective way we have found to date to grow our manufacturers’ business. At Gerrard & Associates, we’ve developed four different e-marketing programs to help us:

• Stay in contact with existing customers to ensure their continued satisfaction and business with us.
• Reach out to businesses new to both us and our manufacturers, finding new customers and new opportunities.”

Measuring Results

Acknowledging that no claim is useful unless its results are measured, Gerrard says that his agency’s e-marketing efforts over the last six months have resulted in:

• 43 new opportunities.
• $264,249 in quotations.
• $161,247 in orders.

With more quotations and orders in those new opportunities still to be pursued.

He adds, “Perhaps the biggest surprise has been the success of an e-mail that sells Gerrard & Associates itself, our experience and areas of expertise, which has generated 10 of the opportunities — each of which has the potential for creating many more opportunities in that the resulting sales call is a meeting to discuss whatever ‘pain’ they are having in our areas of expertise. One such sales call recently resulted in eight new opportunities. The possibilities are endless.”

He adds that “With this program continuing, our manufacturers can rest assured that we are constantly looking in every crack, reaching out in every direction, and touching every contact that can possibly be a source for new opportunities in our territory.”

There are four primary components to Gerrard & Associates e-marketing programs:

• “A marketing version of the D&B database with more than 87,000 companies in the United States that we can search for individuals by SIC code, territory, and job function, i.e., engineering, maintenance, etc. The universe in our territory for SIC codes appropriate for our manufacturers is more than 5,200.
• “An e-mail service we use through our CRM program to create and send our e-mail blasts.”
• Gerrard’s Existing Installations database — “Our database of contacts that are ‘equipment owners’ for our manufacturers’ equipment at every installation in our territory.” Contacts in this database currently number 500.”
• Gerrard’s Active Contacts database — “This database has been compiled since the dawn of e-mail use in business. “This is our database of contacts we have dealt with on behalf of our manufacturers over the years.” Contacts in this database stand at more than 3,300.”

Lest there be any question concerning the effectiveness of Gerrard’s e-mail marketing campaign, he cites one recent experience of how the program benefits the agency: “We sent an e-mail blast on a new product to what our records showed was the maintenance superintendent at a plant. Following our communication, we were called by an individual who said his ‘boss’ had forwarded the e-mail to him and instructed him to investigate. He forwarded me the e-mail that his boss sent to him to make sure we’re talking about the same thing. But the interesting thing was the e-mail he sent to me said it was sent to him by a name we don’t have in our database. The new name is now the maintenance superintendent and our original contact had been promoted to operations manager. So, the e-mail caught the eye of one person in a new position, who then forwarded it to another person in his new position, who forwarded it to a third person, who called us for a quote.

“Here’s why this is so important — with the click of a mouse and never leaving the office or making a phone call, we:

• Learn of personnel change and promotion.
• Get a new contact for our database.
• Make sure our customer is happy.
• Get a new business opportunity we estimate at $30,000+.

“Also, the text and picture in the e-mail are from an announcement piece sent out by our manufacturer. All we had to do was create a subject line, paste it into our template — and blast it out.

“I’ll do that all day, every day with no problems.”

Gerrard continues, “The programs we have developed and currently use are as follows:

• Application Specific — “For those manufacturers who have Application Sheets or Case Histories available, this program identifies the appropriate SIC code for the company or application showcased. We then search the database by that code for all contacts in our territory in companies with that code and send an e-mail blast with a link to the case history or application sheet. We complete a telephone follow-up to select recipients to determine their level of interest in the application.”
• Selling G&A — “This program attempts to sell the services and expertise of Gerrard & Associates from more than 40 years in business to top-level management personnel, i.e., president, vice-president, engineering manager, production manager, etc., in those businesses with SIC codes suggesting dry bulk material handling and/or dust collection potential. The same e-mail, which requests a telephone appointment to discuss the value of a relationship with G&A, is sent to a universe of more than 5,800 contacts once a month for three months, every other quarter.”
• Existing Installations — “Shame on us if a competitor’s equipment is ever installed in a plant with our equipment that we don’t at least have a chance to bid on. To help prevent this, we have identified appropriate plant-level contacts for every equipment installation in our territory for every manufacturer, both those sold by Gerrard and those sold before our time. Once a quarter, we send out a ‘Keeping in Touch’ e-mail, followed by ‘Is There a Problem?’ if we don’t hear from them. If we still don’t get a response, we follow up by a phone call every two weeks until we reach them or find out if there is a new contact. Remember, an existing customer is a terrible thing to waste!”
• Monthly Product Announcements — “On a monthly basis, we select what we feel is the most interesting new development coming from our manufacturers and send out an e-mail blast to our Active Contacts database.”

Leading With Technology

As he views his agency’s e-marketing activities, Gerrard offers that “I would guess that among reps we’re probably on the leading edge when it comes to the use of technology. In addition to our e-marketing activities, we naturally use the Internet, Smartphones, and tablets. Why not? They’re there to help us. What we haven’t made use of to any large extent, however, is social media. When we first got into this, we sent an e-mail survey out to our Active Contacts database and asked them what the best way was to communicate information to them. We listed everything from e-mail, to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, and almost universally all that responded said e-mail.”

He adds that the agency’s e-mail communication allows for an opt-out and “I’ve been surprised at the very small number who make use of it.”

As he looks back at all of his agency’s e-marketing activities, Gerrard notes that all of the efforts have been developed internally, without the aid of an outside consultant.

Whether such an approach to dealing with the marketplace would be effective for others, Gerrard maintains it all depends on how advanced an agency is in terms of how much technology they’re comfortable with in running their day-to-day business. “If they’re beginning at the beginning, there’s a lot of work to be done. Do they know anything about the capability of e-mail services? Have they even looked at them? Do they have databases available for contacts?”

Changing Relationships

“Here’s why we’ve done what we’ve done,” he says. “There have been tremendous changes in the relationship between agents and their principals. In the past, it was the manufacturers who were largely depended upon to conduct marketing activities. The classic source of leads for reps came in the form of requests for information or literature generated from trade publications. At the time, reps would always complain when manufacturers didn’t send enough leads. That’s simply the way the world worked — manufacturers did the marketing, reps did the selling.

“That’s what’s changed. Probably because of the Internet, advertising leads from our manufacturers have virtually dried up. So, we either sit here and wait for the phone to ring, or pick up the marketing ball and run with it ourselves. Understood properly, marketing is the activity that takes place in order to get the customer to the showroom door. Sales is what goes on after they go through the door. The rep’s role used to be primarily limited to inside the showroom door. What we’re also doing now is the marketing that brings them to our door.”

He continues that “There is a defensive side to this as well. We’re in regular contact with our customers and prospects, and we communicate all of our efforts and results to our manufacturers.

“If a manufacturer is all about having ‘feet on the street,’ then I’d maintain that we have at least 5,200 feet on the street at all times. We’re reaching out on a regular basis. If the business isn’t there, it’s not because we’re not reaching out. If we get no response from a customer, there’s value in letting the manufacturer know we’re doing everything possible to find new business and trying harder than the competition if they’re not doing the same thing — which they’re probably not.”

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