“No one can whistle a symphony. It takes a whole orchestra to play it.” — Halford E. Luccock

MANA’s “Partners in Profits” philosophy has contributed to so many successful rep-manufacturer relationships that when I saw research giant Gallup Inc.’s recent “Eight Elements of a Powerful Partnership” article, I knew it would be a valuable resource.

According to Gallup, those eight elements are complementary strengths, a common mission, fairness, trust, acceptance, forgiveness, communication, and unselfishness. Let’s drill down and see how those elements build and support great rep-manufacturer relationships.

• Complementary Strengths

Reps’ strengths include local market knowledge, access to local decision … Read the rest

Last year was called “The Great Resignation” and the “Big Quit” because waves of unhappy employees quit their jobs. And all the indicators suggest that this year won’t be different.

Some of these people are jumping right into new jobs, but many are giving themselves time to recover, reflect, relocate geographically and consider new career paths. Seeing so many people taking a breath and considering their options took me back to the days when I did the same and discovered my calling as an independent manufacturers’ rep.

As many people evaluate their options, this seems like the right time to … Read the rest

One of the benefits of serving on MANA’s Board of Directors and the Health Industry Representatives Association Board of Directors is that I get to meet and speak with many other manufacturers’ representatives. They have lots of different ways to go to market, and the products they sell serve many different industries — but they all have one thing in common: They are proud sales professionals.

Each of them expresses their professionalism in their own way, and I would like to share with you some things that I have learned about professionalism from my counterparts who span so many industries … Read the rest

As a manufacturers’ representative, we are tasked with the responsibility of educating our manufacturers as to what we actually do in the field.

The nature of our “Partners in Profit” relationship gives us the opportunity to provide clarity, while managing the manufacturer’s perceptions about what we do and how we perform in the field to achieve our mutual end goal of increasing sales and profits. Additionally, educating our manufacturers about our activities in the field will allow us to identify and further define their expectations, while targeting our efforts toward maintaining our relationship and position as valued professional business partners.… Read the rest