Manufacturer's Corner

Agency Sales,  Sep 2005  

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The Newsletter For Sales Executives Who Use Manufacturers' Representatives

Sharing best practices to help you get the most from your rep partnership

There's More to it Than Time

When a manufacturer was interviewing prospective reps, he offered a refreshing take on where he thought his position would be on the rep's line card. "I know I'm not going to be your first or second line. As a matter of fact, I'm not overly concerned where you place me in terms of how much time you're going to spend on my line. What I do want are results. At the end of the month, if the sales figures are at or above where you and I have mutually agreed that they should be, that will be just fine with me. That shows me that we're a good match."

He continued by explaining to the rep that even in the course of planning for a field visit, the rep didn't have to go overboard by only talking about his product with customers. "I understand the rep sells other lines. That's why I chose him. Many times it's those other lines that get his foot in the door and provide him with an opportunity to talk about me and my products."

The Value of Annual Rep Surveys

Editor's Note; When you put your survey together, be careful to avoid information that is confidential to the rep's business.

One manufacturer that's experienced good luck in eliciting information from his reps via annual surveys described his thinking:

* "The first thing I do is to make sure I don't ask too many questions. I find that if you overburden the rep with a lengthy document, chances are he's either not going to complete it, or his effort will be half-hearted, at best.

* "Next, I make sure I'm specific concerning what I'm looking for. There's no sense in asking an open-ended question if I can get what I want by simply zeroing in on the subject from the very beginning.

* "And finally, after I've completed a survey, I always make sure to pass the information along to all my reps. There's nothing worse than keeping results - even if they're negative - a secret. If I fail to share the information, no one believes I had any real reason for asking my questions in the first place.

"By taking that final step, I've been pleasantly surprised that some reps have gotten back to me with suggestions on how to improve a poor situation, or even how to make a good situation better."

Finding a Substitute For E-Mail

After much consultation with its reps, one manufacturer has altered the way he communicates with his outsourced sales force. "I had fallen into the habit of automatically relying on e-mail when it came to getting in touch with my reps on a number of issues. After I heard from a number of them that they hadn't received a communication, I decided to delve a little deeper. To a person, they admitted that unless they were expecting something specific, e-mail just wasn't a good way to communicate. Like so many other businesses, they were getting deluged with e-mail, most of which was spam or otherwise worthless. One even admitted that it had become common for him to have hundreds of e-mails every Monday morning. The best he could do was scan for anything important and just discard whole quantities of e-mails. While I suggested that one solution was to create a second e-mail address to be used only with their principals, the majority admitted that the two best ways to get their attention were regular mail and fax."

The View From the Other Side

Among the many nominations we've received for our series of articles on the "Perfect Principal," which has been running in Agency Sales for more than a year, was one for a manufacturer who had begun his career years ago as a rep. Here's how the rep explained it: "Since he began on our side of the desk, he knows and appreciates how we operate. As a result, the relationship he's established and maintained with us is one of mutual respect."

When we contacted the manufacturer, naturally he was pleased with being included in the article series. He also agreed with the benefits of having started out as a rep, but he added that the experience also was a help when it came to knowing how to motivate reps. "I know how they feel when:

* The manufacturer makes a decision and doesn't communicate with them.

* Fails to live up to its promises.

* Doesn't provide the type of back-up support they need."

He added, "For me it's been easy working with reps, but part of that has to do with the fact that I made sure I picked the right ones to work with from the very beginning. I saw in them the same qualities I possessed. That's how I wanted to go to market."

Updating the Checklist to Head Off Problems

A manufacturer that prided himself on his attentiveness to the needs of his reps pointed in the direction of a checklist he keeps as a major aid. According to the manufacturer, "Whenever I contact any of my reps, either in person or on the phone, I have easy access to my checklist, which contains a number of positive and negative elements. For instance, if I receive a comment thanking me or complimenting the company for our quick response to a problem or the cooperative actions of one of our inside people, I make a quick note. Likewise, and just as important, if there's any mention of a late shipment or commission or a quality problem, that's my lead to take quick action. By using the checklist as my action springboard, I've been able to head off many problems that if left unattended would have seriously hindered our relations with reps - not to mention with our customers."