Category Archives: Department

Our Contract Has Been Breached, What Now?

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A Sales Rep’s Options if Their Principal Breaches the Contract and How to Prevent It

Part Two

Author’s note: When our firm is contacted by a rep whose contract has been breached, overwhelmingly the principal in question is not a MANA manufacturer member.

Option 1: Trying to get the principal to retract a commission reduction or sign a more protective contract

This may be useful in situations where the principal could be liable for the payment of long-term sales commissions, based on either the Procuring Cause Doctrine, a violation of the Covenant of Good Faith and Fair Dealing; … Read the rest

MANA’s Manufacturer Seminar a Resounding Success

Hank Bergson speaking at seminarMANA’s annual manufacturer seminar, Best Practices With Reps, Planning With Intent, led by Hank Bergson of Henry Bergson Associates, LLC, was once again a resounding success.

Below: A highlight for many attendees was the session on rep councils presented by MANA Board Member Charlie Ingram, who is executive vice president & chief marketing officer of Eriez Manufacturing Company.

Charlie Ingram speaking at seminar

 … Read the rest

01010010 01100101 01110000

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This is how a computer stores the word “rep.” Binary language. Nothing but ones and zeros. To human eyes, incomprehensible.

image of binary code

© Anterovium | stock.adobe.com

Something else about ones and zeros has been almost equally incomprehensible. Can reps earn commissions selling ones and zeros?

Let me explain.

Yesterday I had a conversation with a manufacturer of communication software used in manufacturing plants so employees on the plant floor can communicate more effectively.

The software manufacturer wants to sell his software using manufacturers’ reps. After all, he reasoned, reps who are calling on specifying influences for other equipment on the plant floor would be a natural to sell his software. Except….

Except that most reps I speak with are used to selling a physical product. The product ships from their principal to a customer, the customer receives an invoice, and the rep gets paid a percentage of the invoiced price.

But selling software is different. When a rep selling manufacturing software makes a sale, ones and zeros pass from the software company to the customer. No physical products move. If the software is sold as a subscription, there may not even be an invoice. Let me give you an example.

A rep convinces a customer to equip 100 manufacturing employees with productivity software. The customer pays $20 per employee per month, $2,000 total a month, and the rep gets paid commission each month the customer continues to use the software.

If the rep has negotiated a good contract, the rep will continue to be paid sales commission for as long as the customer uses the software. It’s the ones and zeros equivalent of a life-of-part/life-of-program agreement for physical products.

It’s the first month of a new decade. Has the time come for reps to embrace selling intangible products, or does the rep business model require physical products? Please write to me with your comments; my email is [email protected].

Welcome to the Next Decade. Where Did the Last One Go?

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During the last decade, we saw many changes. Our activity level substantially increased and how we communicate with each other continues to evolve (social media, texting). Like a “New Year Resolution,” how about creating some “New Decade Resolutions” to help adapt to these changes?

The challenge you face relates to your activity level increase. What motivates you to take time from your busy schedule to invest in making plans on what changes you need to make to adapt? To get you out of the rut in which you find yourself and on to a different path, one that leads to … Read the rest

Considering Both Sides of a Story

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A folksy bit of wisdom was forthcoming from a meeting of four manufacturers as they were considering relations with their reps. When the subject arose of mistakes that reps make in their dealing with principals, one of the manufacturers offered the following insight: “No matter how you cook a pancake, it always has two sides.”

That’s when he went on to offer a partial list of what he considered missteps principals can be accused of making in their relations with reps. On that list were the following:

  • A failure to clearly identify mutual expectations before selecting independent reps.
  • Failure to
… Read the rest

Spotting Signs Your IT Is Out of Date

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The evolution of IT technology is advancing at breakneck speed. This evolution not only keeps the IT department in a constant state of change, but also dramatically changes the way the overall business must adapt to stay competitive.

IT technologies have rapidly morphed, including the way users consume them. Companies slow or hesitant to adapt will quickly fall from market leaders to laggards depending upon how effectively they embrace digital transformation.

But how does a leader know if the company is leading or lagging, and if its IT is out of date? While there are numerous ways to evaluate, let’s … Read the rest

Our Contract Has Been Breached, What Now?

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A Sales Rep’s Options if Their Principal Breaches the Contract and How to Prevent It

Part One

One of the most common and pertinent questions I get from sales reps is, “My principal breached one of the commission payment requirements of the contract but they are still paying me on other sales. What should I do?” That’s a very good question that depends on the circumstances. My intent in this article is to explore the various options.

You signed a representation agreement with a highly desirable manufacturer, and although it took several years to cultivate business, you landed the big … Read the rest

MANA’s Board of Directors Meet With Members in Atlanta

At MANA’s recent Board of Directors meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, MANA’s Board took questions from local MANA members and MANA CEO Charles Cohon demonstrated MANA’s new RepFinder® smartphone app.

MANA Board Chairperson John Davis, Paul Davis Automation, Inc., Chardon, Ohio, also thanked board members Stephen Fowler, Process Equipment Resources & Consulting Services, Bridgewater, New Jersey, and Ed Juline, Mexico Representation, Guadalajara, Mexico, for serving two two-year terms on MANA’s Board of Directors and thanked past Board Chairperson John Beaver, GSA Optimum, Oakdale, New York, for his service on the board and as board chairperson.… Read the rest

NMRA Elects New Leadership

The National Marine Representatives Association (NMRA) recently elected its 2019-2020 officers and board of directors. All are independent manufacturers’ sales reps who work in the commercial and recreational marine markets.

Patrick Churchman of Midwest Outdoor Marketing became NMRA president and Scott Kolodny of ComMar Sales is vice-president. Aaron Freeman of Tideline Marketing is the new treasurer and Mark Goodman of SGL Sales & Marketing is now secretary, after serving on the board of directors. Clayton Smith of Waters & David Company becomes the past president.

Robert Guerrieri of Atlantic Marketing, Jorge Montes of Brunger Export, and Mike Steiner of West … Read the rest

Customers Love Reps Because Reps Solve Problems

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© Alena | stock.adobe.com

We often hear that customers are more loyal to manufacturers’ representatives who have been in the same territory for decades than they are to direct factory salespeople who often rotate into a new territory every two to three years.

But there’s more to it than just longevity in the territory. Let me share three stories about reps who went the extra mile for customers.

One rep’s customer ran out of connectors and the rep’s principal was backlogged for six weeks. The principal’s response was, “Sorry, we are bringing in the connectors by boat instead of by air to save money. The connectors are already in the container on their way to the boat and there is nothing we can do.”

Because the rep knew his customers very well, he knew that another one of his customers had an abundant stock of the connector and he was able to borrow enough connectors from one customer to keep the other customer supplied until the principal’s cargo container arrived.

A rep found he had stepped into something unpleasant when his principal shipped defective products to his customer. The principal insisted that the best they had to offer was to have the customer return the defective parts for rework. The customer insisted that they didn’t have time to ship the parts back and wait for them to be returned.

To break that stalemate, the rep went home, grabbed his toolbox, drove to the customer, and reworked the parts himself at the customer’s site.

A rep’s customer complained that the principal’s website was hopelessly difficult to navigate, making it impossible to find the catalogs and drawings the customer used on a routine basis. The rep built a simple web page with links to all of that customer’s most commonly used parts, and posted it on an easy-to-remember domain name so the customer would not have to navigate the principal’s website to find the most commonly used parts.

These are just a few stories of reps who creatively solved problems their customers faced. Do you have a great story to share? Send it to me at [email protected].

Leads: Orphans at the Doorstep?

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Businesses invest countless hours and dollars to identify, target and educate their customers. Ultimately though all leads emerge as foundlings left at the doorstep of the sales funnel. They are left waiting to be adopted, nourished, and finally molded into our customer. Orphan leads should be potential or repeat customers. They are the key to our business success.

In the sales funnel, leads are heaped into the pipeline to be organized, sorted, qualified, contacted, and transformed into strong, profitable customers. The process is not always quick and obvious, nor are the performers clearly identified, prepared and responsive.

It’s no wonder … Read the rest

Letter to the Editor

Response to “Surviving a Change in Management,” October 2019

This article could be about a company we have represented for almost 36 years that has gone through a couple of buyouts by investment groups. Each time this happened, our commission was cut, territory taken away, and increased reporting became a necessary nightmare. The management that has come and gone neither embraces the manufacturers’ representative model nor understands the power of compatible products.

This has been personally hurtful, since we were responsible for the original family-owned business moving from direct sales to manufacturers’ representative agencies, and also for a 10-year period … Read the rest

Good vs. Bad

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With regularity MANA’s LinkedIn discussion page offers thoughts on any number of subjects important to manufacturers and their reps. A good example was posted earlier this year when Lisa Wilson, L.S. Wilson & Associates, Inc., Bristol, Wisconsin, shared her thoughts on what makes a good vs. a poor principal.

How would you define a really good principal vs. a poor principal?

Over the past 21 years, I learned the following about a good principal:

  • Will pay commissions even when you retire.
  • Will pay you for the life of the part or program.
  • Will turn over whatever existing business there is
… Read the rest

The Importance of Transferring Knowledge

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When you stop and think about it — most of us don’t know what we know — or at least we can’t recall it on command. Sure, we can remember what we need to know when a specific challenge arises. But how will we transfer our knowledge to a generation of employees who come to work with different attitudes and expectations about getting the job done?

On-the-job training will not be enough. Besides, emerging workers have learned to learn in ways that didn’t exist even 10 years ago. So how will you and your management team prepare for this critical … Read the rest

Justice Delayed Is Justice Denied

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This legal maxim essentially means that if a legal remedy is available to a party to redress an injury or wrong but is not acted upon in a reasonable time frame, it is effectively the same as having no remedy at all. William Penn similarly stated: “To delay justice is injustice,” and Martin Luther King Jr. wrote in his Letter From Birmingham Jail: “Justice too long delayed is justice denied.”

Recently, a rep contacted me to request my assistance in recovering more than $100,000 in commission she stated was owed to her by a principal. This is a substantial sum … Read the rest

Well-Deserved Honor — AIM/R Presents Golden Eagle Award to Elkay EVP Mark Whittington

One of the best-kept secrets each year at the AIM/R Annual Conference is the recipient of the Golden Eagle Award. This prestigious award was established as a way to recognize senior-level plumbing manufacturing executives who have actively supported independent reps and the important role they play in the supply chain. During the September 2019 Annual Conference in Orlando, AIM/R Board Member Michelle Lewnes-Dadas, CPMR, of Preferred Sales Inc., announced that Elkay Corp.’s Executive Vice President Mark Whittington had been selected for the Golden Eagle.

Throughout the year, AIM/R reps are encouraged to nominate executives who value their representatives and recognize … Read the rest

Who Says 2020 Will Be a Great Year for Reps?

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Manufacturers and reps both say 2020 looks great for reps, according to MANA’s second annual member survey.

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© Artur | stock.adobe.com

What do manufacturers say?

  • 84% increased or maintained the number of rep firms they used last year.
  • 90% plan to increase or maintain the number of rep firms they use next year.

What do reps say?

  • 79% increased or maintained the number of lines on their line card last year.
  • 90% expect to increase or maintain the number of lines on their line card next year.
  • 87% expect to increase or maintain their company’s revenue next year.
  • 88% expect to increase or maintain their company’s profits next year.

Will all reps benefit equally?

No, say manufacturers, who report they are increasingly selective when they search for reps. To even get on the list to be interviewed, top manufacturers say reps must:

  • Regularly update their MANA member profile.
  • List a professional e-mail address in their MANA member profile.
    • AOL, Yahoo, and even Gmail accounts can hurt your chances.
    • E-mail addresses like [email protected] also can hurt your chances. Manufacturers want to contact a specific person, not a department. Anything less than [email protected] may bump you off the list of reps to be contacted.
  • List a professionally created website in their MANA member profile.
    • Manufacturers say that websites that do not include the rep’s line card make them assume that rep has something to hide — so that rep won’t be contacted for an interview.

For reps with MANA member profiles that hit the sweet spot manufacturers seek, 2020 looks like a banner year. Want help checking your MANA profile to be sure it sparkles? Contact MANA VP & GM Jerry Leth at [email protected] or me at [email protected]. And grab your share of banner year profits in 2020!

Full details of the survey are available to MANA members. Request a copy at [email protected].

Your Top Line Was Just Acquired or Acquired Another Company

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Management likes to use the word “merged.”

This scenario has played out for me several times, and I’m pleased to say I’ve benefited more than I’ve lost — the key is being proactive. Yes, sometimes you will lose; it’s just the way the cards play out. Rather than simply giving up, I suggest you come up with a strategy and work the plan.

First, the assessment: did the merged company use manufacturers’ representatives or, worse yet, a direct sales force? If it’s a direct sales force, you may want to consider visiting the management team to discuss the advantages of … Read the rest

The Move From Manufacturer to Rep

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“The view is quite a bit different from the other side of the desk.”

That’s how one new rep who had just recently retired from a manufacturing company described her initiation to the world of reps. “After my company was sold to another much larger firm, I decided it was time for me to make a change. During the course of 23 years with the manufacturer, I had climbed the ladder from outside sales to a regional manager’s slot. When my company was sold, the whole culture of the place changed, and it just wasn’t where I wanted to be … Read the rest

Adopting a Rep‑Specific CRM Spurs Revenue Growth

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There’s no time like the present to set new goals. Accompanying growth goals is the desire to increase efficiencies, and one prominent way to do that is by following proven practices from other industries and making the shift from paper and spreadsheets to a customer relationship management (CRM) system. This move to cloud-based digital data provides reps easy access to historical information, current project status, and contact details anytime, anywhere via their mobile devices.

Because independent manufacturers’ rep agencies typically don’t have an IT resource, implementing a software solution can seem overwhelming. Fortunately, there are now plug-and-play solutions for optimizing … Read the rest

Sometimes a Bad Contract Can Be a Good Thing

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I recently met with two clients of mine who worked together in a small sales rep agency. Their principal wanted them to start using a customer relationship management (CRM) software program to record sales contacts and myriad other information. They had both read my book and know that I caution salespeople about providing all their sales contacts and other details of their day-to-day work to their principal because such detailed information can be used to lay the foundation for their principal to go direct. In fact, one of the chapters in my book is entitled “Beware of the New Sales … Read the rest

Letter to the Editor

MCS has been serving the Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina territory since 1998, and I have been a MANA member since 2008.

My MANA membership has been proven to be especially valuable just recently.

I just picked up a new line from an ad in Agency Sales magazine, and I also have connected with MANA-member attorney Leslie Marell for some legal needs.

Mark Peavey
Microwave Component Sources
www.go4mcs.com… Read the rest

McCullough, Watson Honored — AIM/R Inducts Two Into Hall of Fame

The success of any business or organization doesn’t just hinge on one person. Rather, it can usually be traced back to the contributions of many. Today’s AIM/R members wanted a way to honor the dedication and efforts made by members who came before them — especially those who drove the group’s inception and helped build a strong foundation.

In 2015, AIM/R established a Hall of Fame to formally recognize — and memorialize — all of those contributions. Fourteen have already been honored, and two more were inducted last week at the group’s 47th Annual Conference in Orlando. During the awards … Read the rest

Marine Biology Major Awarded $2,500 Scholarship

The National Marine Representatives Association (NMRA) awarded its 2019 NMRA Maritime Trades Scholarship of $2,500 to Kennedy Peirson of Villas, New Jersey. The scholarship was established in 2008 for students pursuing an education that leads to a career in the maritime trades.

A recent graduate of Cape May County Technical High School, Peirson will be attending the University of Tampa this fall to pursue a degree in marine biology. Having learned about the vital importance of coral reef ecosystems and the threats facing them, she already has a career trajectory. “I want to become someone who works to find solutions … Read the rest

Netflixing Rep Search

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© HQUALITY | stock.adobe.com

Rep search technology has been stalled at the Blockbuster Video stage for the last 19 years.

Today we launch smartphone-based rep search that is going to hit old-style rep search like Netflix hit Blockbuster Video. And it’s available exclusively to MANA members.

Let me explain.

Back in August 2000, MANA launched the online rep search to supplement the printed directory that dated back to 1949. And for the next 19 years, the technology manufacturers used to search for reps remained pretty much the same.

  • Search the online database for reps from your desktop or laptop computer.
  • Download a list of potential candidates.
  • Start contacting those reps by phone or e-mail.

Other than rep search, a lot has changed in 19 years. More and more we use smartphone apps instead of our laptops for banking, shopping, and booking travel. Pretty much all the business we use to transact on our laptops can now be done on smartphone apps.

Except rep search. Until we launched the RepFinder® by MANA smartphone app.

Is the RepFinder® app just a way to download the old style list to a smartphone? That would not be good enough! On-the-go Millennials are not content with apps that just let them browse a list. They expect to complete their transactions from smartphone apps. And with some Millennials turning 38 this year, more and more are starting to have rep search responsibility at their manufacturing companies.

Now MANA is making sure that MANA rep members can be found by these smartphone-wielding sales managers.

RepFinder® lets manufacturers use our smartphone app to search for reps, view each candidate’s MANA member-profile, and contact the best candidates right from the app.

That’s right — manufacturers “Swipe Right” if they want to contact that rep and “Swipe Left” if they don’t.

RepFinder® by MANA is now available for download on the Apple App Store and Google Play. It’s the very first rep search app available, and it is exclusively for MANA members.

To read more about the app, turn to page 10 of this issue. Questions or comments? Contact me at [email protected].

Inside Sales and the Manufacturers’ Representative: Key Factors in Creating Mutual Success

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The relationship between a manufacturer’s inside sales staff and the representing agency is one of the most crucial elements in creating mutual success.

Inside sales serves a dual role; first, they must provide support and service to the customer and secondly, they have to champion the rep and their efforts. Several key factors play a role in this model: communication, recognition, support, and the rep model being accepted as an extension of the manufacturer.

Communication must flow both ways and consist of timely written and verbal dialogue. It is incumbent upon the representative to keep the inside sales staff fully … Read the rest

Letter to the Editor

Response to “Can You Write Me a Business Plan?”

I am providing my perspective on the August 2019 editorial by Charley Cohon. Although I have been asked to supply a business plan when interviewing for a new line I have always declined for the following reason: I have an MBA and have provided sales/marketing consulting services for approximately $100 per hour in the past. In order to write a useful plan it will take me approximately 400 hours, i.e. depending on the quality/scope of the market research, competitive update, and customer/target summary, etc. I did give this information away for … Read the rest

Reps Value Manufacturer Training

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As the time for his annual rep training program neared, a manufacturer let Agency Sales magazine know how much value he placed on the input he received from his outsourced sales force when it came to training.

The manufacturer enthusiastically reported, “One of the most valuable things I learned from my reps was their willingness to share opinions when it came to the types of training they needed. I’ll never forget one rep telling me that he made it a habit to rate his principals on how much importance they placed on training their reps. Here was a rep with … Read the rest

The Lost Art of Social Contact

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Technology enhanced meetings can be a wonderful thing when the technology drives attendee engagement and learning enablement. Doing more with less and increasing the attendees’ return on travel and lodging investment (ROI) serves everyone. However, when technology becomes the controller and the audience becomes the controlled, the value of technology quickly diminishes.

Why We Meet

My research has exposed the fact that networking, first, and education, second, are the primary reasons for live meeting attendance. Additionally this research, conducted across a wide assortment of trade associations and professional societies, has revealed the yearly sustainable real-dollar value of networking to be … Read the rest

Fire Damage Was Just the Beginning

An e-mail from MANA and PTRA member Adam Cooler of the J.W. Cooler company led us to dig in our archives and revisit this December 2005 Agency Sales magazine article on subrogation.

“For warehousing reps, the risks of subrogation remain the same today as when this article was first published in Agency Sales. It is important to review risk coverage with your insurance agent and attorney to confirm that you are properly protected,” says Gerald Newman, partner at law firm Schoenberg Finkel Newman & Rosenberg, LLC, who was quoted in the original article.

After a fire destroyed his warehouse … Read the rest