When Agency Sales was notified earlier this year of The Whittemore Company’s goal of expanding its territory into Kansas and Missouri, it couldn’t help but cast a spotlight on the agency’s rich history stretching all the way back to 1918 to the time when World War I was winding down and a flu pandemic was working its way around the world.

As the company readies itself to celebrate its centennial anniversary this year, Dave Zaval, who heads the Addison, Illinois-based agency, took the opportunity to recount not only how he forged a career as an independent manufacturers’ rep but also … Read the rest

Since he’s the relatively “new guy on the block,” Bernat Riera can’t be blamed for having the normal concerns that any start-up rep firm has. Attracting quality principals, gaining a presence on the Internet, negotiating exclusivity with principals in the territory, etc., are all matters that keep him busy.

But if anyone has the qualities that will make it work, it should be MANA-member Riera, who heads Les Produits BR, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada.

Before beginning his journey as an independent manufacturers’ rep earlier this year, Riera packed several years of selling experience under his belt. Ten years as a pharmaceutical … Read the rest

In the article that precedes this one, MANA President and CEO Charles Cohon takes aim at the subject of succession planning. As he draws upon real-world examples of why succession planning is so critical and addresses many of the how-to steps to take in order to get the job done, it’s worth noting that MANA and Agency Sales magazine have for years espoused the critical benefits of planning, forming and executing an effective succession plan.

More than a decade ago, under the heading of “There’s No Success(ion) Without a Plan,” this publication pointed out that the existence of a workable … Read the rest

It didn’t take long for Bernat Riera to take advantage of his MANA membership. Shortly after joining the association the Waterville, Quebec, rep put the wheels in motion for the first of what is hoped for several networking meetings for members in Eastern Canada.

Riera, Les Produits BR, explained that the initial meeting in February was to be followed by another last month. “Several MANA rep members from the province of Quebec met with the joint goals of networking and identifying common interests. Our agencies basically cover eastern Canada and some represent lines for the entire country. The results of … Read the rest

At the very least, conversations with MANA members in the Rochester, New York, area indicate that there’s a beneficial marriage to be made between the products/services offered by MANA and those provided by the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE).

Even before getting into what those Upstate New York business people have to say, however, it’s useful to visit both MANA’s (www.manaonline.org) and SCORE’s (www.score.org) respective websites. It’s there that visitors will see the full range of support programs that will offer reps the best path to success in the future.

While association members and regular readers of Agency Sales… Read the rest

In this article, and the one that follows, Agency Sales will explore how and why an individual might decide to become an independent manufacturers’ representative. Conversations with any number of MANA members demonstrate that it’s the minority who actually began their professional careers with the goal of becoming a rep. A number who have set that as their goal have done so primarily because they were related to the owner of an agency. In other words, they probably grew up in the profession.

As a result, those individuals occupy a position where they are the heir apparent to agency owners. … Read the rest

The website for Robert M. Bernardo & Associates, Inc. (rmbaa.com) is deceptively simple. The visitor looking for details about the Port Townsend, Washington-based agency will find the following:

RBA Inc. operates as Brokers, Sales Agents, Consultants, and Procurement Agents. With over 35 years of successful history in the building materials industry in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Africa, Europe and Asian Markets.

RBA Inc. Specializes in Sales, New Business Development, Management, Sales Management, and Team Building.

They are also known for their experience with Negotiation, Marketing Strategy, Sales & Marketing, International Sales & Procurement, Distribution Strategies, Governance, Start‑up Consulting, Transportation, Logistics … Read the rest

Ask Jerry Bellar what practices or principles have guided him and his agency through its more than 40-year history and chances are he’ll pepper his response with references such as:

• “You don’t know what you don’t know.”
• “Don’t be the first to try something new or put the old aside.”
• Quoting hockey great Wayne Gretzky: “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.”
• And finally, “MANA has been a godsend to me and the agency.”

Bellar founded Agri-Sales Associates, Inc., Nashville, Tennessee, in 1976 in order to provide a national sales force of … Read the rest

Agencies’ quest to locate and hire competent and hopefully successful outside salespeople remains a constant. If there was any need to have a reminder of the importance of that ongoing process read the interviews with agency heads that appear in this issue of Agency Sales. At the same time, it’s worthwhile to take a look back almost 10 years to an article that appeared in this publication (May 2009) entitled “In Search of the Right Salespeople.”

In that article, Mike Norton of AxiomOne, a company that provides diagnostic and evaluation tools to assist in the hiring process, detailed some … Read the rest

As Kurt Kroemer and his partners in CEP Sales Inc., Zionsville, Indiana, looked to the future, what they saw was a good deal of uncertainty. “Faced with the prospect of half the sales force anticipating retirement in the next couple of years, not even counting what plans I might have, we had to make some decisions. One of the decisions we could make was to simply do nothing and just let the agency peter out. Another path we might take would be to try to sell the agency to someone. The latter course obviously takes a great deal of planning

… Read the rest

Jerry Ballard offers that he’s happy to share his thoughts on the process of hiring salespeople for his agency and communicating what works and what doesn’t work. “I’ve been hiring and training salespeople for 40 years. I get a little better at it with each mistake I make. I could write a book on my mistakes, but only a pamphlet on my successes.”

Ballard, who heads Energy Equipment, Inc., Midlothian, Virginia, explains that “We have two rep lines and 10 specialty distributor lines. To be successful with our distributor lines, our outside salespeople have to think like a manufacturers’ rep … Read the rest

As this is being written millions of Americans are wrestling with the wreckage wrought from the one-two-three punch delivered by hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria. At the same time, residents on the West Coast can hardly be blamed for casting a wary eye south to the damage resulting from Mexico’s second earthquake this year. And then there are the wild fires that seem to continually plague California and Washington State.

And, who knows if there’s more to come.

What this all leads up to is the subject of disaster preparedness. That’s a subject Agency Sales initially addressed in 2012 in … Read the rest

Late last summer and even into the beginning of fall, the United States mainland and possessions in the Caribbean — especially Puerto Rico — were buffeted with a succession of hurricanes that showed just how vulnerable citizens, their possessions and businesses were to the machinations of natural disasters. If anything, the experiences that were the focus of countless hours of media attention drove home the point that individuals and businesses had better plan ahead and be prepared to continue business if they hope to continue operating under the most unfortunate circumstances.

Taking a Look at the Houston, Texas, Area First… Read the rest

During the course of an informal lunch with a 45-year member of MANA early this fall, he related that one of the keys to his agency’s continued success was the willingness of the agency staff to continually make use of the products and services that association membership provided.

According to the agency president, “Over the more than four decades we’ve been members, I’d maintain that we’ve gotten more than our membership dues back. But, it’s only because we took advantage of what is offered.

“We determined long ago that we wanted much more than just a MANA decal or membership … Read the rest

Cultural and work-related differences among generations recently have been the fodder for many discussions among MANA members.

Specific to the conversations there has been an emphasis on the challenges that older generations face when dealing with members of what is referred to as the Millennial generation. For the purposes of this article, the generations in question are broken down accordingly:

• Matures, born prior to 1946
• Baby Boomers, born 1946-1964
• Gen-X, born 1965-1980
• Millennials, born 1981-1999

When looking for tips or advice on how to deal effectively with different generations — specifically Millennials — Michael Roemen is quick to note that … Read the rest

When his bookkeeper failed to show up for work for a few days in a row, it didn’t take long for Richard Sinclair to suspect something was amiss.

A former MANA Board member, Sinclair heads Applied Process Equipment, Scottsdale, Arizona. While still an eight-person rep firm and a “budding” manufacturer, the company is also a distributor of pumps, tanks and water and wastewater treatment equipment servicing the southwest United States.

As he looks back at what turned out to be an unfortunate experience, Sinclair notes that “Over my close to 30 years as a rep, I’ve employed a number of … Read the rest

This month marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of MANA. Earlier this year, MANA President & CEO Charley Cohon noted that since those early days of 1947 “…things have changed, and changed for the better” for independent manufacturers’ representatives and their principals. One thing that hasn’t changed, however, is the constant need for a place where reps and their manufacturers can learn how to work more efficiently with each other. If the words of several long-standing MANA members can be believed, MANA is still that place.

Just as several other long-standing MANA members, Elry Cramer can’t necessarily take credit … Read the rest

Just as so many of his MANA-member peers, Tommy Garnett’s path to becoming a rep began with a family connection, but unlike many others he took a bit of a detour first.

In the past, Agency Sales magazine has described how professional basketball and baseball players have morphed into independent manufacturers’ representatives. However, Garnett, president & CEO of Garnett Component Sales, Inc. (GCS), Wake Forest, North Carolina, is the first professional golfer.

Departing the business of golf, where he was a member of the PGA of America, was hardly Garnett’s motivating factor for becoming a rep. “When I decided to … Read the rest