Sell the System
Tell your customers and your principals how your business works.
The rep business is very different from other service businesses. Yes, reps are looking for orders. Yes, reps call on different types of customers. Yes, reps are in the middle between the customer and the manufacturer.
The problem is that there is very little information disseminated to the public or in business schools about reps. Somehow reps seem to slip through the cracks. They are lumped in with“ salespeople.”
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Also, the selling“ process” is neither widely understood nor appreciated.
Multiple-Line Selling
The idea of multiple lines being“ represented” by one salesperson is not easily understood. The concept that there are real advantages to multiple-line-selling is not something that most people get.
Sell Within Your System
When a sales manager or regional manager comes to visit with a rep firm there is often very little understanding of the rep’ s business. In many cases the factory person does not know anything about how the rep’ s business works. The individual salespeople who represent their company are a bit of a mystery to the manufacturer’ s personnel.