Category Archives: Feature

How to Make a “Newbie” into a Pro Some Tricks of the Trade

By

Newbie, newb, noob, nub or n00b is a slang term for a novice or newcomer, or somebody inexperienced in a profession or activity. Depending upon the context and spelling variant used, the term can have derogatory connotations — but is also often used for descriptive purposes only, without any value judgment.

With a little help from Google we have a starting point.

New people joining a rep firm are generally totally lost. If your firm doesn’t have a solid, highly structured game plan for a new person coming in to either the sales or customer service areas they will surely … Read the rest

Checking Out the CEO Before Taking a Job

By

Arguably, the biggest mistake many job applicants make is focusing on possible advancement, benefits, working conditions, and pay. Obviously, each one plays a role in making a job decision. But taken together, they pale in comparison to scrutinizing the one person perched on the top rung of the ladder, the one called CEO, president or owner.

No matter how near or far you may wind up from the corner office, the decision maker, the one who calls the shots, affects your destiny.

This may be a questionable exercise when millions of workers are unemployed or underemployed. At a time like … Read the rest

How Sales and Selling Will Be Changed by 2020

By

The year 2020 has not been typical by any stretch of the imagination. Almost everything we know has been changed or affected in some way, shape or form. So what about selling? How has selling changed and what must we do to adapt to the new environment?

Very rarely, if ever, does a disruptor change the core principles of the sales game. Most issues and changes, whether it’s the birth of the internet, social media and email, 9-11, or the 2008 recession, have simply been distractions, causing us to make some small adjustments to our process, but they haven’t changed … Read the rest

How to Deal With Difficult Customers

By

Oh, boy, we all have difficult customers. I’m going to walk you through the 10 ways to deal with these hard customers. In my book, A Mind for Sales, I write about this, however, I separate difficult and bad customers — putting them in separate categories. Bad customers are those that have ethical issues. They have issues with integrity. Other things come into play with bad customers, not just that they’re not good people to deal with.

Let me tell you something — bad customers are attracted to bad salespeople. When I hear a salesperson say that they have … Read the rest

Prospecting the Stock Market

By

Do you invest in the stock market?

If so, you’re probably aware of the constant waxing and waning that characterizes the life cycle of the stock market. What goes up eventually goes down and what goes down eventually goes up.

If you’re a long-term investor, you tend to wait out the market cycles and instead count on the long-term growth that has always happened in the market over extended periods of time. If you’re a short-term investor, you may be playing the cycle, hoping to buy or sell at precisely the right time.

Either way, the stock market goes up … Read the rest

What Do You Do With Decision‑Deficit Disorder?

By

I have grown fond of coming up with self-explanatory appellations that describe some of the behaviors employers are now dealing with in today’s workplace. These include menu-driven thinking, safe-decision syndrome and now decision-deficit disorder. This week’s term was inspired during a conversation I had with a colleague who was lamenting the reluctance of many young people to take initiative and act independently.

Now, before the under-30 crowd goes off on me for making an unfair generalization, allow me to explain my reasoning. You see, I believe that the responsibility for decision-deficit disorder rests on the shoulders of the previous generations … Read the rest

Faith or Fear

By

Every day, and every new opportunity or change in direction, we must choose faith over fear. What does this really mean, and how do we put this into real action or something truly tangible?

Fear is what causes us leaders to question our bosses, worry about what could happen, or worse, keep us from moving forward with conviction. Having faith isn’t necessarily a religious belief (though it can be) — in business it is a positive sense of self and a positive, strong mindset. Choosing faith is about moving forward with conviction because you believe in yourself and are not … Read the rest

Rep Career Spells Freedom

By

Ask Carla Campbell why she became an independent manufacturers’ rep and immediately you get a one-word answer — “Freedom.”

Obviously, there’s more to it than that, but her determination to be her own boss and make her own decisions appears to be the driving force when it came to opening her own agency more than a decade ago. “I know freedom is a fairly broad consideration, but I really wanted to dictate for myself who I called on, when I called on them and how much time I spent traveling. Before I opened my own agency there was always the … Read the rest

Keeping the Lines You Need and Want to Keep

By

The timeliness of a MANAchat late last year couldn’t have been better illustrated than when 52 participants offered their anecdotal input on steps reps can — and should — take to keep their most‑desired principals. Unfortunately, many of their stories related to how principals have slipped from their grasp.

As the conversations evolved from these stories, it became clear that there are some common reasons why reps can lose a principal. For instance, the most commonly cited reasons are these:

  • The rep has become too successful and there’s a certain amount of resentment on the part of the manufacturer to
… Read the rest

Why Expectations Matter

By

Have you noticed, that with all of the communications tools we have today, communication is still a top issue for many organizations?

One of the main reasons is that great communication is not about the tools themselves, rather it is about how effectively we leaders use the communication tools we have. The biggest example of this is expectations.

Expectations are how leaders help team members understand what their boss expects on a job — ideally as detailed as possible including what it looks like if expectations are not met. Expectations are about behaviors and activities specially, not job descriptions or … Read the rest

What You Have to Do to Be Super Successful in Sales

By

Being average in sales is not difficult. The truth is, 80 to 95 percent of the salespeople in any organization are somewhere between average and bad. If you want to be great and make the big money, while having the biggest positive impact on clients’ lives, and your own, here’s what you need to do.

  1. You need a morning routine that prepares you for your day.
  2. You need an evening routine that helps you wind down and get a good night’s sleep.
  3. You have to see yourself as self-employed.
  4. You’ve got to push yourself harder than anyone else can possibly
… Read the rest

Sell Like Your Life Depends on It

By

Prospecting is not just something sales professionals do to fill their pipelines. Prospecting is a mindset, and for the most successful sales pros, it’s a way of life.

If you work in sales, nobody has to tell you that prospecting today is exponentially harder than at any other time in history. Why is that?

Here are four reasons:

  1. Prospects are busier than ever, making them distracted and difficult to reach.
  2. Products and services are now commonly considered to be mere commodities.
  3. Salespeople all sound and act the same. Too many of us utter the same meaningless jargon and gimmicky sales
… Read the rest

The Attributes of an Empowered Employee

By

Every day, each employee you supervise makes hundreds of decisions in order to resolve problems and complete tasks. Most are routine and have been executed many times before. This repetition becomes the mastery that’s necessary to navigate the daily work. Then there are those unexpected obstacles that can disrupt your momentum. We all fear making a wrong decision at times, even though we pretty much knew how to react. Most of us possess the confidence to move on to a successful solution.

Some people, however, struggle to adapt. Some of this apprehension can be attributed to a lack of confidence … Read the rest

Ways to Influence a Dealer or Distributor Sales Force

By

Question: Is there a proactive way to implement a program from manufacturers to encourage distributors to have their sales force sell our product instead of another? My intention is to have the salesperson give quotes for our product more frequently.

And how can we appeal to retail users more? Especially ones that are taking bids from competitors that are not represented by our distributor?

Historically, we’ve shown favor to our distributors and given them discounts. Unfortunately, the benefits seem to end up in their gross profits. They have not been passed along to retail. It then appears that we are … Read the rest

How Do You Keep Going?

By

In this column I’m going to share some lessons from the farm. Recently, as I was thinking about how I respond in difficult situations, I realized something that I want to share with you.

Growing up as a kid, I worked on the farm. No, that’s not sexy. And no, it’s not brutal. It was ugly. I picked strawberries. I don’t know if you’ve ever picked strawberries, but it’s hard work. The strawberry picking season would start right after school let out in June and through mid-July. Every year, the bus came by to pick me up about 5:30 a.m. … Read the rest

Becoming a Brand Your Customers Fall in Love With

By

Getting your customers to see you as the only one that provides a solution to their problem involves everything you do — and everything you choose not to do. It communicates the value and character of your brand; even the little things matter.

The message you send when you handle phone conversations, when you send email messages, the way you conduct business in a meeting, the way you handle complaints, the convenience you offer and the relationship you cultivate with your customers — it’s all part the of message you are sending about your brand.

Your brand resides within the … Read the rest

A Key Question:
“What Now Big Shot?”

By

When asked to recount recollections of his first day as an independent manufacturers’ rep several years ago, Steve Lamer good-naturedly responds: “I just sat there looking at my phone and asked myself ‘What now, big shot?’”

Thankfully, he can now look back on that day with a great deal of satisfaction as, today, he heads North Central Manufacturing Solutions, LLC, Madison, Wisconsin.

In part answer to that “What now?” question, Lamer recalls that among the first steps he wisely took as a rep was to contact business friends and acquaintances to let them know what he was doing and to … Read the rest

Maximizing MANA Membership

By

“If I could do anything over, I’d join MANA sooner than I did.” That’s a common refrain when speaking with several long-standing association members. The reason they speak that way is that once enrolled as members of the association, they have available at their fingertips any number of products and services that point their agencies in the direction of professionalism.

Speaking to that point, Charles Cohon, MANA’s president and CEO noted, “If there’s anything I would emphasize to MANA’s members, it would be to take it upon themselves to learn all about what the association offers and take advantage of … Read the rest

When Retirement Isn’t Really Retirement

By

By the time Lisa Wilson reads this, she’ll hopefully be well into what she calls her “semi-retirement.” It’s semi-retirement — not retirement — simply because one of her long‑standing principals won’t let her go.

According to Wilson, who heads L.S. Wilson & Associates, Inc., Bristol, Wisconsin, “I’ve reached a point in my life that while I can still walk, talk and see, when I get up in the morning, I want to do what I want to do.”

L.S. Wilson & Associates, Inc., specializes in motors, stainless steel coatings, surface preparation products and industrial cleaning solutions.

Admitting that the current … Read the rest

Struggling to Build Your Business and Increase Sales

By

Are you struggling to increase sales? Struggling to build your business? If so, what are you doing about it?

Being successful in sales is pretty easy. You know the roadmap. Assuming you have the basic foundation of liking people and having people skills, now you simply need to learn sales skills, some marketing skills, communication skills, your product, your industry, and about the prospects and clients in your industry. While working on that, you have to talk to enough people to find out who has a problem you can solve and then solve it by having them invest in your … Read the rest

Basic Business Survival Skills: Making Sure You Always Have a Job

By

No one in business was prepared for what happened when the coronavirus invaded the United States. Overnight, it literally upended the nation’s economy, leaving American workers not knowing what to think about the future.

While some workers are doing well, others are underemployed, and 13 million are jobless. Whether you’re a CEO, just entering the workforce, or someone in-between, such confusion and uncertainty begs the question “What’s it take to survive in a job today?”

What businesses are looking for are people with the ability to adapt, learn, perform and progress so they can contribute to the organization’s success. To … Read the rest

Tips for Getting an Appointment With a Busy Person

By

It is important to have a good state of mind when attempting to get appointments with busy, important people.

First, do not take rejection (non-answering of your calls and correspondence) personally. Your target may literally get 50 plus requests a day for an appointment. This is in addition to their regular extreme workload. Your challenge is to cut through this clutter. Stay upbeat. Never get angry. Follow up, be persistent, be creative. Be patient. Be confident. Be energetic. Smile. (Yes, you can sense a smile on the phone or through the written word.) Don’t let fear of failure stop you … Read the rest

The Sales Force — Working With Reps

By

This is the final in a number of articles serializing The Sales Force — Working With Reps by Charles Cohon, MANA’s president and CEO. The entire book may be found in the member area of MANA’s website.

Several years had passed since Troothe hired William Carl’s company as its first rep. The changes Troothe had made in its operation seemed gradual as they occurred, but, in retrospect, looked more dramatic.

Troothe employees who had been its direct sales force had made a transition from having day-to-day direct account responsibility to being regional managers charged with supporting and providing oversight for … Read the rest

MANA Recognizes Members’ Milestone Anniversary Dates

Each year MANA recognizes members who are celebrating special anniversaries of their MANA memberships. In this issue we recognize members who are celebrating 70, 65, 60, 55, 50, 45, 40, 35, 30 or 25 years of MANA membership.

MANA thanks and congratulates these members for their long-term support and commitment to MANA and our industry.

We also thank those long-term members whose membership anniversaries are not among the years listed in this issue. Your company name was either published within the past three years or will be published within the next two.

Whether your company has reached a special anniversary … Read the rest

Making a Mark With Special Incentives

By

photo of Tasha SharpEven the shortest of visits to MANA member Sharp Incentives’ website (www.sharpincentives.net) offers a completely understandable explanation of what owner Tasha Sharp’s unique independent manufacturers’ rep firm is and what niche it fills in the marketplace.

To appreciate the role that this agency occupies it’s probably necessary to know that:

  • According to Incentive magazine, businesses in the United States spend $90 billion annually on non-cash incentives.
  • Over the past two decades there has been a significant jump in the number of U.S. businesses using non-cash rewards, rising from just 26 percent of all U.S. businesses in 1996 to 84 percent
… Read the rest

The Need to Invest in the Rep’s Efforts

By

Over the course of four days association members participated in a free-wheeling MANAchat on the subject of developing new markets.

The sessions were entitled “Market Development Fees”:

  • What are they?
  • Why are they necessary?
  • What strategies should you use to convince your prospective principals they need to offer market development fees?
  • How long should such a fee last and how do you determine the amount?
  • Are market development fees mandatory every time you sign a new principal?
  • What do you provide the manufacturer in exchange for the market development fee?

The 53 independent reps who took part in the chats … Read the rest

Working From Home or Confined to Your Home?

By

For several years now, thousands of professionals have been working from home, so you would think that today’s environment of “stay at home” would be no big deal for those that are already used to working from home.

However, in many ways it is a big deal, because although many worked from home, they still met clients and employees at offices, had meetings outside the home office as well as business lunches (or heck, just any lunch outside the home). Yet now they never leave unless it is essential, such as a grocery run. Then we have the thousands of … Read the rest

Managing Decision Fatigue: Sources-Symptoms-Solutions

By

You probably know the feeling — it’s mid-afternoon and you’re just tired of thinking. Or maybe you’re in the middle of a meeting and you’re beginning to zone out. Perhaps you’re in the sixth virtual conversation of the day and you’re paying more attention to everyone’s background than you are to the decisions being discussed. Maybe you’re in the supermarket staring at the toothpaste and wondering why all these choices are necessary.

Decision fatigue has become the new drain on today’s daily performance. Truth is, decision fatigue has always been around because it is the result of what happens when … Read the rest

One Thing Leads to Sales Success

By

The recent pandemic is a possible threat to your sales career but probably not for the reason you think.

If you’ve read my articles in the past, you know that I attribute sales success and failure primarily to activity level. If you make enough calls to talk to enough qualified prospects, and you have at least average sales skills, you’ll make enough sales. If you don’t make enough calls, you won’t make enough sales.

Sales success starts with the math.

  • What’s your annual sales goal?
  • Based upon your average sale, how many sales do you have to make?
  • How many
… Read the rest

An Introduction to Business Systems

By

At its most fundamental level, business is always and only about three things: money, people and systems.

There is a huge body of content revolving around money in business. Lots of books have been written and consultants’ careers advanced in the pursuit of wiser use of money. A whole population of professionals — bookkeepers, accountants and CPAs — have come into practice to deal effectively with money.

When it comes to people as an element in business, there is an equally impressive body of knowledge and infrastructure. Lots of books have been written, YouTube videos created, seminars developed, and consultants’ … Read the rest