Let me tell you a story. I struck up a conversation with a rep at an industry event. The rep glanced to the left and right. Then the rep lowered their voice and said: “Can I tell you a secret?”

© Dilok | stock.adobe.com

“Most of my principals pay about the same commission percentage. But I give one of them more attention than any other line, probably more than their commission checks really justify. It’s because they treat me so well that they have become my ‘emotional favorite.’”

The ways reps talk about their “emotional favorites” are pretty consistent:

1. “They let me know how much they appreciate me and treat me like ‘one of the family.’ Most of my principals don’t do that. Of course, I work harder when I’m part of the family.”
2. “They respond fast so I can give my customers answers right away. They make me look good to my customers, and my reputation with my customers is my livelihood.”
3. “They treat me as a business partner instead of trying to be my boss, and they value my input.”
4. “They pay me like clockwork every month. That’s a tangible way they demonstrate how much they value my efforts.”
5. “They let me make a fair profit. I’m not looking for them to make me rich, but letting me consistently make a fair profit on all my sales shows that they want me to thrive and be their business partner for a long time.”

Then the rep looked left and right again, and their voice dropped almost to a whisper. “You know, it would be a tough conversation for me to have with my other principals to tell them why they are not my ‘emotional favorite.’ But they really need to know why they are not and how they could become the ‘emotional favorite’ of all their reps. Could MANA do something to help get out the word?”

Mission accepted.

© EWY Media | stock.adobe.com

Reps will tell you two of the same things that Lewis and Clark would have told you.

1. Sometimes the only way to discover what’s out there is to go and look.
2. When we go out and look, some of the value we generate won’t benefit us immediately. But often, we can store that value and use it strategically when the time is right.

Going out and looking, exploring the territory, and meeting people face-to-face were why Lewis and Clark left Missouri to explore the newly-acquired Louisiana Purchase in 1804. Going out and looking, exploring the territory, and meeting people face-to-face is also how many reps describe their careers.

Generating something of value that won’t benefit us immediately is something that Captain Meriwether Lewis wrote about in his journal on June 9, 1805.

“We determined to deposit at this place … all the heavy baggage which we could possibly do without, and some provisions, salt, tools, powder and lead &c., with a view to lighten our vessels … Accordingly, we set some hands to digging a hole or cellar for the reception of our stores. These holes in the ground, or deposits, are called, by the engages, ‘caches.’”

What value do reps generate as they travel that they cache along the way to use later?

They build and cache strong relationships with customers who are not yet ready to buy that will get them access to decision makers when needed. They cache reputations as trusted resources so customers who need their products will call them and buy from them. They cache goodwill that will eventually turn into orders.

Because reps know that even though they start their careers by deciding to go out and look, eventually, their territory won’t be a pioneering territory.

© dbrnjhrj | stock.adobe.com

A quote from Sir Winston Churchill reminded me how much of our futures were determined by the first manufacturer we worked with when we launched our rep firms.

We rarely consider how our futures were decided when we signed up with a line that seemingly came our way as if by a throw of the dice.

For many of us, our first job was working for a manufacturer or distributor. We had never even heard of reps. When we eventually learned about reps and started rep firms, we took a path less traveled that determined our futures.

How would your life be different if your first line was die-casting instead of plumbing fixtures?

• It would have changed your ideas about how to go to market. Instead of selling through distributors, you would have been selling direct. Instead of having a warehouse, you would have worked from home or an office building.
• The conferences and conventions you attended would have clustered in different regions. When you stretched business travel into a vacation, the places you visited would have been different.
• Your customers would have been different, so none of your business friends would have been the same.
• And more than a few of us have met our spouses during a sales call we would never have made if our products had been different.

When we are young and just starting our careers, we think we are shaping our rep firms. As we become older and more reflective, we realize how much our rep firms really shaped us.

* My apologies to Sir Winston Churchill for adapting his quote. “We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us,” said Sir Winston Churchill in his speech to the meeting in the House of Lords on October 28, 1943, requesting that the House of Commons bombed out in May 1941 be rebuilt exactly as before.

© ogieurvil | stock.adobe.com

“I just got a call from a prospective principal who has an exciting product but no existing sales in my territory,” said the MANA rep member who wrote to me for assistance.

“The manufacturer said, ‘You’re calling on those customers anyway. It doesn’t cost you anything to mention my product while you are there.’ Can you help me write an email that explains opportunity cost?”

This is a common problem, so I am sharing my response in this issue of Agency Sales magazine.

Let’s say that you have a line called Alpha. Historically, if you make five sales calls to promote Alpha, you earn an average of $1,000 in commissions. So every sales call you make to sell Alpha products earns you $200.

Let’s also say that you take a pioneering line called Beta. And you know from experience that it will take a year of promoting an unknown brand before customers get comfortable enough to start to buy it. During the first year, you earn zero dollars for each Beta sales call.

When you go into a customer to make a sales call, you can either promote Alpha and make an average of $200 or promote Beta and make zero dollars.

You lose out on the $200 average commission you would have made if you had promoted Alpha every time you promoted Beta. So $200 is your opportunity cost when you make a Beta sales call.

That is why reps who take on a pioneering line frequently receive a monthly Market Development Fee (MDF). The MDF contributes toward offsetting the rep’s opportunity cost when they take on a pioneering line that may not pay any commission during the first year a rep takes it on.

To learn more about Market Development Fees, visit the “Steps to Rep Professionalism” program on the MANA website (www.MANAonline.org). See step 3, “Developing/Pioneering New Markets With Professional Manufacturers’ Representatives.”

© captainvector | stock.adobe.com

It’s always a pleasure to help a MANA member sort out a thorny problem and hear them say, “If there is ever anything I can do to help MANA, please let me know.”

MANA VP and GM Jerry Leth and I have probably heard this offer hundreds of times. But we rarely had a way to take those members up on their offers.

Now there is something we can ask for that MANA’s members can do to help MANA grow its membership. And we’ve come up with a way to thank MANA members who take the time to help.

How can you help? Put a link to MANA on your website!

How does this help? One of the ways that Google ranks the importance of MANAonline.org is to count how many other websites link to MANAonline.org. The more websites that link to MANAonline.org, the higher MANAonline.org goes in Google search results.

Can I see an example of a link? Absolutely! MANA rep member Kelly Smith, Innovative Technical Sales, Tipp City, OH, wrote an excellent blog post that strongly endorses MANA as the “go-to” resource for finding reps and included a link to MANAonline.org. You can see the blog post at:
https://innovativetechsales.com/how-to-find-a-good-rep-firm-to-sell-my-products/

Need a MANA logo to include on your website? Let me know, and I’ll send it right away!

How will we thank you? Agency Sales magazine will publish a monthly Internet Honor Roll with the names of all MANA member companies that have a link to www.MANAonline.org on their website.

How do I get listed? Add the link to your website, and email the details to [email protected].

What can you do for MANA? This is what you can do for MANA! And then watch Agency Sales for your company’s name on MANA’s Internet Honor Roll.

MANA logos for your use are available at: www.manaonline.org/about/logos/

© Maxim_Kazmin | stock.adobe.com

Celebrating MANA’s 75th anniversary last year led me to reflect on how MANA has transformed how reps and principals work together.

Last month part one of this series started to look at ways MANA has changed the rep industry just since I became MANA’s CEO and president in 2011. Part two of the series looks at more ways MANA has changed the rep industry since 2011.

Strategic Partnerships

Our strategic partnerships mean that all rep members of these associations are also MANA members:

• Association of Independent Manufacturers’ Representatives
• Canadian Electrical Manufacturers’ Representatives Association
• Industrial Supply Association
• Health Industry Representatives Association
• Heavy Duty Manufacturers’ Representatives’ Council
• International Housewares Association
• Power-motion Technology Representatives Association
• National Marine Representatives Association

Extended Post-Termination Commission

MANA’s educational activities have noticeably moved the needle on “standard” 30-day termination clauses by:

• Helping reps learn to articulate why 30-day termination clauses often are unfair.
• Helping reps learn to negotiate extended post-termination commission and life-of-part, life-of-program clauses.
• Helping manufacturers understand that 30-day termination clauses are no longer automatically part of rep agreements.

Line Card Profitability Analysis

A decade ago, most reps I spoke to felt that “any income is good income.” Educational programs from MANA and MRERF have helped line card profitability analysis gain credence, so reps can identify and exit relationships that cost more to service than the income they generate.

International Connections

In 2011 MANA only had visibility to rep practices in the U.S. and Canada. Through the Internationally United Commercial Agents and Brokers (IUCAB), MANA is connected with its rep association counterparts in 17 European countries, Peru, and the Republic of Congo.

Thank you to current and past MANA Boards of Directors for the support and insight that helped MANA transform rep-principal relationships and set the stage for continued transformation of our industry.