concerning the relationship. Communicate with regularity and be sure to anticipate and answer all questions concerning what the relationship is all about.”
Rep Route Is Ideal for This Manufacturer
A fairly small, single-product manufacturer recently shared his rationale for working with independent manufacturers’ reps. According to the manufacturer,“ We’ re only 12 years old, but we’ ve been able to boast of a five to six percent annual growth rate. We’ ve finally reached the point, however, that we’ re looking to move to the national stage and our thinking is that it would be cost prohibitive to tackle that task with a direct sales force. We’ ve determined that it would be extremely difficult to devote sufficient funds to provide in-the-field support to a network of full-time salespeople. In addition, my personal experience has been that if I was able to get at least five to 10 minutes of a purchasing agent’ s time, I’ d count myself as being lucky. To achieve the impact we’ re looking for, we need more feet and time on the street.
“ The first thing we did was to contact three independent rep firms with the goal of exploring what they could do for us. Right out of the box these firms provided us with the market intelligence and relationships with buyers and potential buyers that we know would take months for us to develop on our own.
“ We were smart enough ahead of time to know that a direct salesperson would only get minimal time with purchasing decision-makers. From day one, the reps we were working with reported to us that they were gaining plenty of face time— certainly enough to fully present our product— to customers and prospects. I have to assume that their ability to garner as much time as they do is owing to the fact that they represent several lines, and because of their contacts they have plenty of opportunities to meet customers’ needs.”
It’ s still a little early in the game, but this manufacturer maintains that“ Just based on the number of questions we’ re fielding on our reps’ behalf, we’ re certainly getting a lot more exposure than we would have with any other means of going to market.”
Maximizing the Reps’ Performance
When Agency Sales asked a manufacturer recently what he does in order to maximize his reps’ performance in the field, he offered the following:“ I guess I’ d say my starting point in my relationship with reps was joining MANA. From there, I read what the association recommended and attended a manufacturers seminar. Then I went on to try something new for our company. I hired one of our best rep performers as a consultant. I know I could have put together a rep council, but I decided upon this approach because this rep— in addition to always nailing his numbers and being a terrific communicator— has never held back when he has an observation or suggestion on how to better our relationship and our performance in the field.
“ When he started as our consultant, some of our people were a bit unnerved. It wasn’ t unusual that we’ d hear the question:‘ This guy is working for us. Why do we need him inside telling us how to run the business?’