To counterbalance that view, he said,“ Here’ s what reps really desire. They want a regular guy who knows his stuff and can contribute to the process. He knows what reps do, but not only that he respects what they do. They understand what it’ s all about.”
Positive Experiences
With a decade and a half of experience in his pocket on the West Coast, this rep offered some anecdotal background to the discussion.“ On a definitely positive side, I can recall a time when we were making a joint visit to a major customer— a distributor. When the discussion turned to the subject of how we could jointly build business with the distributor, the regional manager jumped in and said,‘ If you can take these steps right now, I’ ll guarantee that we can do this and that for you. But, you have to decide now and if you do, we’ ll cement the deal immediately. That’ s exactly what was done and we all left the meeting satisfied. This is what reps look forward to when working with principals. The fact is, however, that too many regional manager don’ t have the power to make those kinds of decisions.”
Unfortunately, there can also be negative recollections.“ Here’ s something that happened years ago and it sticks in my craw to this day,” he said.“ We were making an important presentation to an engineering firm in San Francisco. All together there might have been 10 to 12 people in the room including two from the manufacturer, including the local guy and the regional manager. During the entire presentation the regional manager simply sat there with his laptop on his lap doing his own thing. I don’ t know if he was answering his e-mail or updating schedules, but it wasn’ t productive for us or the customer. We conducted the meeting, stood up and shook hands and left, all with the regional manager contributing nothing.
“ I was quick to let the local guy know that we couldn’ t have the regional manager sit in on any more meetings. Thankfully, given that we’ re a major player with that customer and in a strong position with the manufacturer, we( in the person of our agency’ s owner) were able to pass our complaint up the chain and get the regional manager replaced.”
While the agency was able to achieve a measure of corrective action in this instance, the rep added that being able to do so on a regular basis can be a little“ touchy.”
Strong Rep Performers
“ There’ s a couple of things that you have to keep in mind here. First, if you( the rep) are a major player with the manufacturer and in the market, chances are your complaint will get rapid attention. If you’ re not in a strong position, however, you may not be able to affect a change. A second consideration has to be what happens if you have a bad experience with a regional manager, he gets replaced and moves on to another company that you represent? You’ re going to be faced with the same situation all over again— and bad feelings can linger.”
Before finishing the 18th hole, the rep added two observations to the regional manager-rep relationship discussion.“ I’ d be remiss if I didn’ t comment on the importance of attitudes and the need for careful planning and scheduling when working with regional managers.