they want to use the council to correct it. Instead, we should always be working on ideas on how to work better together to grow our businesses, not on individual problems.”
Common Concerns
Communicating with principals and wisely participating in rep councils aren’ t the only areas of importance to Keller— and all reps for that matter. In some other areas, Matthews shares how much his agency has in common with so many of his rep peers:
Succession plans— Just as he joined the agency more than 30 years ago to succeed his father in law, Matthews explains that there is a plan in place for the future of the agency, the basics of which have been communicated to principals.“ Each of our principals knows that at some time in the future, I’ ll be bought out and by whom, and we’ re all on the same page.” Shared territorial development fees— Matthews explained that this is a subject that has been discussed within the agency but adds,“ We haven’ t encountered this contractually yet. I think that most of the time when an opportunity to represent a line arises, it is not coming with significant business in the territory, and, they often don’ t understand the amount of time and effort to be invested by the sales team before any business is booked. On top of that, every time you pick up a new line you can’ t delude yourself into thinking that the synergistic fit is going to be so perfect that it reduces that amount of time and effort that needs to be invested before the orders arise.” And, when that new line does present itself, Matthews adds,“ When I think there might be a fit, I’ ll send it along to our team for consideration. In addition, with a prospective new line, we’ ll make a couple of calls in the territory in order to determine if there is some potential for that line. In the end, we’ ll decide as a team whether to move forward with it.” Education and training— If anything reveals Matthews’ belief in the value of continuing education and training, it’ s the CPMR designation that appears after his name. In addition, when it comes to product training,“ That’ s something we want and rely heavily on our manufacturers for. Let me add to that the value we see in joint sales calls with our manufacturers. That’ s something we appreciate our manufacturers investing in. When they do, we are eager to accommodate them and push them across the regions within our territory to meet with customers and add to the product, factory and applications knowledge of our team.” Social media— Matthews explains that LinkedIn and the agency’ s website( www. KellerIndustrial. com) are the two most valuable online tools for the agency.“ We’ ve found that LinkedIn is a very valuable sales tool. We’ re heavily into synergistic selling and building long-term relationships, but our customers have ever-changing staffs and structures. It’ s amazing how efficiently LinkedIn can help us understand the roles( and often new names) within the companies we call on.” Also, Matthews commented on how quickly the standards for a website have evolved, and, is in the finishing stages of the agency’ s website overhaul.“ Presenting a modern, thoughtful website is an important part of letting potential principals know the professionalism with which the business is run.” MANA membership— When asked about his agency’ s long-standing membership in MANA, which recently passed the 60-year mark, Matthews notes that when“ I joined the company in 1987 and then became a partner in 1996, I simply inherited our MANA membership. Having