in a rapidly expanding territory lets me know the same thing, then I might be less inclined to look at them favorably.”
Implementing a Novel Approach
A second manufacturer who participated in the previous conversation took note of the mention of having a rep in an expanding territory. Taking that as a starting point, he noted that he had recently been successful in signing with reps in his more productive territories. His next step was to make an impact in the less-promising areas. Here was his approach:“ When we started to appoint reps for our less productive areas, none of them worked out all that well. It wasn’ t necessarily their fault; there just wasn’ t enough business to sustain a rep’ s interest and enthusiasm. However, we did notice that many of these territories were located adjacent to our major territories that were being served very well by existing reps. We decided to offer the territories to the reps next door. At the beginning, most of them weren’ t all that interested. They already knew what the potential was and what it would cost to get the business. But we moved on by offering them a slightly better incentive to make up for the increased expense of getting the business in the poorer performing territory. Once we did that, they came on board. This has been productive for us and it has helped the agents get additional lines in those territories that are far more productive than our line will ever be.”
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Jack Foster
Jack Foster, president of Foster Communications, Fairfield, Connecticut, has been the editor of Agency Sales magazine for the past 23 years. Over the course of a more than 53-year career in journalism he has covered the communications’ spectrum from public relations to education, daily newspapers and trade publications. In addition to his work with MANA, he also has served as the editor of TED Magazine( NAED’ s monthly publication), Electrical Advocate magazine, provided editorial services to NEMRA and MRERF as well as contributing to numerous publications including Electrical Wholesaling magazine and Electrical Marketing newsletter.