Attitudes Are Important
“ Considering the regional manager’ s attitudes toward the rep is very important. As I already mentioned, you need for a regional manager to know and appreciate the role of the rep. Over the course of my career, I can recall some regional managers who approached dealing with reps from their own perceived position of power. Many of the regional managers come from positions where they’ ve been managing direct salespeople. As a result, they operate from a position of being able to hire and fire people. That isn’ t the case with reps. We’ re independent businessmen and our goal is to make money.”
Asked if attitudes can change, the rep was quick to offer a resounding“ Yes.”“ I remember one regional manager who took on the job with no experience working with reps. The first thing he had to come to grips with was you can’ t talk to a rep the same way to talk to a direct salesperson. He came in with the wrong attitude, but give credit to him, he learned very quickly and turned out to be one of the best regional managers we worked with. Bottom line, he wised up and got the message.”
In conclusion, the subject of how to schedule customer visits when a regional manager comes to town was addressed.“ Once again, I’ d refer to the importance of the regional manager knowing and appreciating how the rep works. If he’ s simply coming here to show his boss he’ s getting out of the office, then I’ ll just take him on a‘ milk run’ of easy customers and we’ ll fill the week that way. On the other hand, if he truly has something to offer and gives me plenty of time to schedule the week, we’ ll go to the customers who need attention and we’ ll get something done. Remember, it’ s all about performing activities that allow us to make money.”
This unplanned golf-course conversation with the rep served as a starting point for a bit of research on the subject of manufacturer regional manager-rep relationships. A quick review of some past articles in Agency Sales reveal the fact that this conversation has been conducted before. For instance, a good 10 years ago, John Haskell( aka Dr. Revenue) almost predicted our golfing rep’ s conversation when he wrote“… Regional sales managers seem to be devoid of knowledge of how a rep firm functions. When company leaders are questioned about the nature of their rep’ s business, they are generally uninformed and unconcerned. Manufacturers need to ask themselves about the value of the regional sales manager function.”
And, just six years ago, here’ s what one MANA member had to say about the contributions that sales managers can provide:“ One thing that is important to my customers when I bring a sales manager into a customer facility is that the customer always wants to know‘ what is going on in their industry,’ in other regions of the country, or more increasingly in their global market. The customer hopefully knows their local regional market. Customers view sales managers as a knowledge base for what is going on in the bigger industry. When a sales manager is knowledgeable of industry-wide trends, or industry‘ movements,’ then he or she immediately adds value to the customer. That’ s the sign of a real pro. They view the sales manager and sales rep as valuable resources— the orders then seem to naturally follow.”