MANA Is the Association for Professional Manufacturers’ Agents and Those Who Aspire to Be Professional
Experience tells us the professionalism level differs significantly among manufacturers’ agents. At one end of the spectrum, you find highly professional agents businesses and it goes down from there. We also know that the professionalism level does not correlate with agency size. Some one-person agents businesses operate at a highly professional level and some multi-person reps operate at a much lower level.
The more you develop as a professional manufacturers’ representative, the more successful you become.
Contents
- Plan Your Way to Rep Success
- Connect with High-Quality Principals That “Get It”
- Developing/Pioneering New Markets with Professional Manufacturers’ Representatives
- Negotiate Agreements That Work for Both You and Your Principals
- Work With Principals as Trusted Partners in Profits
- Learn to Sell Professionally
- Analyze Your Lines for Profitability
- Leverage Technology to Maximize Productivity
- Grow Your Business By Hiring Employees or Sub-Reps
- House Accounts, Split Commissions and Other Territory Management Issues
- Work Effectively With International Principals
- Plan For Your Succession and Sell Your Rep Business
1. Plan Your Way to Rep Success
Professional manufacturers’ representatives create business plans that take them from where they are today to where they want to be. Without a plan, how do you know where you will end up?
Unless your business generates far more profits than you know what to do with, you need to make continuous improvements. Changes made according to a plan succeed at a much higher rate than just “winging it.”
Use the resources below to create a plan that raises your success and profitability.
RESOURCE | TYPE |
---|---|
Business Planning for Reps (14 minutes) | Video |
Ten Tips for Manufacturers’ Representatives | Video |
SCORE — Business planning with mentors | Website |
SCORE: One Page Business Plan | Webinar |
Why Does a Rep Need a Business Plan | Agency Sales |
Sample Manufacturers’ Rep Business Plan | Word Document |
Sample 3-Year Revenue Plan | Spreadsheet |
Introducing the Business Model Canvas (BMC) | MANAcast |
Business Planning | Teleforum |
Sales Reps and Manufacturers — Adversarial or Cooperative? | Teleforum |
Leadership and Cultivating a Healthy Culture | Teleforum |
Download the Sample Organizational Identity Statement from the above teleforum | Word doc |
Strategies for Rep Success | Special Report |
Financial Management for Small Business | Online course |
WHAT TYPE OF BUSINESS ENTITY?
RESOURCE | TYPE |
---|---|
C Corporations | Agency Sales |
Limited Liability Companies (LLCs) | Agency Sales |
S Corporations | Agency Sales |
WHAT ABOUT INSURANCE NEEDS?
When you successfully implement changes as a result of the plan you created, your profitability definitely goes up. You also feel more confident that your business will grow, last and add substantially to your retirement account when you retire.
2. Connect With High-Quality Principals That “Get It”
When high-quality principals that “get it” search for manufacturers’ representatives, they interview multiple prospects. Professional manufacturers’ representatives know how to market themselves so they are the ones signed up by these great companies. Use the resources below to learn how.
RESOURCE | TYPE |
---|---|
Backselling (5 minutes) | Video |
The Fatal Unforced Error — Why the Big Line Went Away | Podcast |
The Principal Is the Customer | Podcast |
Marketing Your Manufacturers’ Representative Business to Attract High-Quality Principals | MANAcast |
Marketing your manufacturers’ representative business | Teleforum |
Sample Manufacturers’ Representative Profile | |
What Do Manufacturers Look for in a Rep? | Agency Sales |
Backselling — What Does It Take to Work? | Agency Sales |
Backselling Pays Off — Big Time! | Agency Sales |
Professional manufacturers’ representatives conduct thorough and diligent interviews to insure the prospective principals possess the potential for long and mutually profitable relationships.
RESOURCE | TYPE |
---|---|
Selecting the Right Sales Channel Partner (10 minutes) | Video |
Selecting the Right Representative or Principal | Special Report |
Preparing to Interview for a New Line | Podcast |
Selecting the Right Principal | Teleforum |
Principal Evaluation Work Sheet | Spreadsheet |
Adopting 3Rs When Vetting Prospective Lines | Agency Sales |
The Rep-Manufacturer Rules of Attraction | Agency Sales |
Revamping the Selection Process | Agency Sales |
Professional manufacturers’ representatives prepare for the interviews by knowing what questions high-quality principals ask them. Read the Our 53 Best Interview Questions When Hiring Manufacturers’ Representatives Blog.
Finally, learn the professional action to take when a manufacturer makes an initial effort to contact you to learn your interest in representing them.
RESOURCE | TYPE |
---|---|
Responding to Manufacturers is the Professional Way to Conduct Business | Agency Sales |
Rather than wait for manufacturers to contact you, MANA manufacturers’ representative members can find prospective principals by logging in to the member area of the MANA website and using the LineFinder®, the directory of MANA principal members. In most cases you will be able to view the manufacturers’ website to see if the territory that interests you currently has a manufacturers’ representative assigned or is open.
3. Developing/Pioneering New Markets With Professional Manufacturers’ Representatives
When a prospective principal asks you to represent them in a new market where there is no existing business, the rules change. You need to take into account the extra time and effort it takes to develop that business. And more time and effort equals more cost. Taking on a new pioneering line without extra compensation creates financial risk to your business.
The resources below help you learn how to successfully negotiate the extra compensation for your missionary efforts.
RESOURCE | TYPE |
---|---|
Developing New Markets With Professional Field Sales Reps | Special Report |
Developing New Markets With Professional Field Sales Representatives (7 minutes) | Video |
Sample Clauses for Contracts Between Manufacturers of Missionary Lines and Pioneering Reps | Microsoft Word doc |
Market Development Fees — An Expense or An Investment That Brings a Substantial ROI? | Microsoft Word doc |
Developing New Markets With Professional Manufacturers’ Reps | MANAcast |
Developing New Markets | Teleforum |
Guidelines for Developing New Markets With Independent Sales Representatives | |
The Need to Invest in the Rep’s Efforts | Agency Sales |
Market Development Fees | Agency Sales |
Working With Reps to Develop New Business | Agency Sales |
Should Reps Blaze the Pioneering Trail? | Agency Sales |
Use these resources to help educate prospective principals on the need for extra compensation to develop pioneering lines. Explain to them that professional manufacturers’ representatives refuse to take on pioneering lines without it. Sure, they can sign up reps who take on any line, but how much do they sell?
4. Negotiate Agreements That Work for Both You and Your Principals
CREATION OF A MANUFACTURERS’ REPRESENTATIVE/PRINCIPAL AGREEMENT
RESOURCE | TYPE |
---|---|
Manual for the Creation of a Rep-Principal Agreement (Includes Sample Agreements) | Legal |
List of MANA Member Attorneys | Legal |
Key Elements of a Rep Agreement | Podcast |
Negotiating Better Contracts | Video |
ERASCal Presentation on Manufacturers’ Representative Contracts | Video |
Simplified Commission Rate Ranges | Survey |
Commission Survey | Special Report |
Negotiating the Termination Clause | Teleforum |
Create Fair and Balanced Written Agreements | Teleforum |
Negotiating Contracts | Teleforum |
SPECIAL CLAUSES
RESOURCE | TYPE |
---|---|
Extended Post-Termination Commission Clauses (7 minutes) | Video |
Example of Rep Menu Services for Missionary Line Launch | Legal |
Sample Letter to a Principal Concerning Product Liability Coverage | Legal |
Product Liability Protection for Agents — By the Numbers | Article |
Extended Post-Termination Commission Clauses (7 minutes) | Podcast |
LEGAL
RESOURCE | TYPE |
---|---|
First Visit to a New Lawyer: What Happens before the Clock Starts | Podcast |
Intellectual Property Protection Guideline | Legal |
ISSUES
RESOURCE | TYPE |
---|---|
What to Do When a Principal Terminates an Agreement (5 minutes) | Video |
Concern With Split Commissions Never Ends | Agency Sales |
U.S. and European Rep Law | Special Report |
An Introduction to Bankruptcy | Special Report |
What to Do When a Principal Terminates an Agreement (5 minutes) | Podcast |
5. Work With Principals as Trusted Partners in Profits
RESOURCE | TYPE |
---|---|
Analyzing the Manufacturers’ Agent-Principal Relationship | Special Report |
Open Doors By Building an Effective Rep Council | Special Report |
Sales Reps/Manufacturers: Adversarial or Cooperative | E-Book |
Working Together as Trusted Partners in Profits (7 minutes) | Video |
Working Together as Trusted Partners in Profits (7 minutes) | Podcast |
Working as Partners in Profits | MANAcast |
When Customers Want to Work Directly With the Factory | Teleforum |
How to Establish and Benefit From Rep Councils | Teleforum |
Effective Communication With Principals | Video |
The Need to Educate Principals | Agency Sales |
Are Call Reports Effective? | Agency Sales |
The Ideal RSM and How RSM-Reps Can Work Well Together | Teleforum |
An Introduction to Bankruptcy | Special Report |
Guidelines for Planning the Business Year | |
Passport Into Territory | |
Call Reports, Manufacturers’ Reps, and Independent Contractor Status | Blog |
6. Learn to Sell Professionally
Ever hear the expression “Natural Born Salesperson?” Don’t believe it. You can learn sales skills and if you never took a sales course, time to rethink. Sales skills evolve over time, so even if you took one a long time ago, time to go again. Those who go through current sales training outsell those who never went and those who went a long time ago. Think of taking a sales course today as like getting a master’s degree rather than a bachelor’s degree. If you never took a sales course, then you get the bachelor’s degree.
SALES COURSES/COACHES
The manufacturers’ representative educational research foundation (MRERF) offers a three-day program aimed specifically for manufacturers’ representatives.
MRERF CSP (Certified Sales Professional)
If those dates or locations don’t work for you, here’s a site that provides information on the top 20 sales courses. Find one here that works for you.
Top 20 Companies With Sales Training Courses
Others:
Growth Dynamics — growthdynamicsonline.com
Please note: MANA does not guarantee or warrant the services provided by these coaching services or their qualifications. You are responsible for performing your own due diligence before selecting any of them. MANA reserves the right to add or remove a coaching service from the list as it deems appropriate in its sole discretion.
TELEFORUMS
Teleforums are hour-long conversations with people who know the topic. Podcasts are shorter interviews with knowledgeable people.
RESOURCE | TYPE |
---|---|
Connecting With Customers in the Digital Age | Teleforum |
Selling to Millennial Buyers | Teleforum |
Ask the Right Questions | Podcast |
Tools to Accelerate Your Sales | Teleforum |
100 Sales and Marketing Stats That Will Blow Your Mind |
AGENCY SALES MAGAZINE: Each month, Agency Sales publishes sales articles. Make a commitment to invest time to read those and implement what you learn. You do get a significant return on the investment.
7. Analyze Your Lines for Profitability
Guidelines for Developing New Markets With Independent Sales Representatives.
RESOURCE | TYPE |
---|---|
Line Card Profitability Analysis | Workbook |
Line Profitability | MANAcast |
Line Card Profitability Analysis Presentation | Video |
Stop Wasting Your Time on Your Worst Lines | Video |
Surviving a Change in Management | Agency Sales |
Evaluating Principals for Fun and Profit! | Agency Sales |
Line Card Review and Revamp Can Mean Huge Growth | Agency Sales |
8. Leverage Technology to Maximize Productivity
RESOURCE | TYPE |
---|---|
Connecting With Customers in the Digital Age | Teleforum |
Technology — CRM and Other Tech | Teleforum |
List of Software Providers and Website Developers | List |
2016-2017 ERA Swap Shop — Software and Applications | List |
Data Show Most Salespeople Are Dinosaurs When It Comes to Social Selling | Agency Sales |
Some Social Media Guidance | Agency Sales |
Social Media — More People Use It Than We Know | Agency Sales |
Websites Prove You’re in Business | Agency Sales |
Authors Tout Need to Use Social Media — and Its Tools | Agency Sales |
The CRM Struggle | Agency Sales |
9. Grow Your Business By Hiring Employees or Sub-Reps
RESOURCE | TYPE |
---|---|
Succession Planning • Attracting and Retaining New Salespeople | Special Report |
Hiring Partnering With Sub-Reps | MANAcast |
Hiring Salespeople for Your Manufacturers’ Representative Business | MANAcast |
Hiring Salespeople | Teleforum |
Q&A from Hiring Salespeople Teleforum | Word doc |
Hiring Sub-Reps | Teleforum |
Hiring Salespeople — How to Find Good Candidates, How to Interview | Teleforum |
Compensation Survey 2005 | Agency Sales |
Sales Agency/Sub-Representative Agreement Guidelines | Legal |
MANA no longer offers a Specimen Guidelines for Use Between Sales Agency and Employees.
Because of the wide variation in state laws governing employee relationships and commission compensation, MANA has determined that a one-size-fits-all Specimen Guidelines for Use Between Sales Agency and Employees no longer works. If you need help creating an agreement to use with your manufacturers’ representative business employees, we strongly recommend you contact an attorney. Access the MANA Rep-Savvy Attorney member list and contact information in the member area of the website under the “Legal and Consulting” heading. |
Legal |
A Manufacturers’ Sales Agents’ Guide to the Use of Independent Contractors | Special Report |
Employment and Sub-Rep Independent Contractor Agreements | Teleforum |
Compensation Strategies for Reps | Teleforum |
Checking References: Just Confirming the Decision to Hire or Not? | Agency Sales |
The Ongoing Search for the Right Sales Fit | Agency Sales |
Hiring With an Eye to the Future | Agency Sales |
Agencies Finding, Recruiting and Hiring New Salespeople | Agency Sales |
Steps for Finding the Right Salesperson | Agency Sales |
10. House Accounts, Split Commissions and Other Territory Management Issues
Unfortunately, some principals decide to convert accounts you developed into house accounts, serve them on a direct basis, and stop paying your commission on those accounts. They take this action on the false belief that they save money by doing so. The CFO looks at the commissions they send to you and concludes they will get the same results more cheaply with a direct sales person. Or, they decide they can service an existing account from afar without a salesperson now that they already have the business. They neglect to consider the reason you successfully book large orders is your customers trust you and buy from you. Will the direct sales person they hire be as successful? Won’t a competitor who calls on a regular business take it away?
Use the resources below to learn how to effectively market your value (Backsell) to principals. Once they truly understand and appreciate the value you provide, the chances they create house accounts significantly reduces.
RESOURCE | TYPE |
---|---|
House Accounts, Split Commissions and Other Territory Management Issues | Teleforum |
Backselling (5 minutes) | Video |
Going Direct (6 minutes) | Video |
My Biggest Principal Was Just Sold. What Do I Do Now? | Podcast |
Why I Love to Find My Competitor’s House Accounts | Agency Sales |
Why I Love to Find My Competitors’ House Accounts | Podcast |
Backselling to Principals | Teleforum |
Sample Manufacturers’ Representative Profile | |
Compensating for Trade Show Duty | Agency Sales |
Manufacturer or Rep: Who’s Responsible for Generating Sales Leads and How? | Agency Sales |
Maximizing the Value of Field Visits | Agency Sales |
Concern With Split Commissions Never Ends | Agency Sales |
Backselling Pays Off — Big Time! | Agency Sales |
1949 Rep Article Rings True Today | Podcast |
Use the above resources to help educate all of your principals on the significant risk they take when they create house accounts. Do it now, before it’s too late.
Another issue that manufacturers’ representatives face deals with “Split Commissions.” You book the order in your territory but your customer wants the products sent to another manufacturers’ representative’s territory. How does the principal handle the commissions?
Read the Agency Sales article below to learn how others split commissions when a sale involves multiple manufacturers’ representatives.
Concern With Split Commissions Never Ends | Agency Sales |
11. Work Effectively With International Principals
RESOURCE | TYPE |
---|---|
U.S. and European Rep Law | Special Report |
Working with Foreign Principals | Teleforum |
Working with Asian Principals | Teleforum |
Enforcement of a Contract With an International Entity | Agency Sales |
Another Peek at the Sales Representative Agreement and the Global Distribution of Goods | Agency Sales |
Tips From the Real World of Working With International Principals | Agency Sales |
Export 101 — Selling to Mexico Through Manufacturers’ Representatives | Podcast |
Canadian Reps — The Same but Different | Podcast |
12. Plan For Your Succession and Sell Your Rep Business
RESOURCE | TYPE |
---|---|
Selling a Manufacturers’ Agency Business (7 minutes) | Video |
Selling a Manufacturers’ Agency Business (7 minutes) | Podcast |
Valuing the Rep Firm | Special Report |
Succession Planning • Attracting and Retaining New Salespeople | Special Report |
Valuation and Sale of a Manufacturers’ Representative Business | MANAcast |
Download the Questions & Answers from the above teleforum | Word doc |
Succession Planning | Teleforum |
Buy, Sell and Merge Your Rep Firm | Teleforum |
Beginning Succession Planning | Agency Sales |
Successful Succession: A Second Time Around | Agency Sales |
Succession: Planning Makes Perfect | Agency Sales |
Succession Planning and Valuing/Buying/Selling/Merging Representative Firms | Agency Sales |
More Advice on Succession Planning | Agency Sales |
What advantages do professional agents enjoy?
- They attract higher quality principals to represent
- They manage to survive and thrive in tough economic times
- They achieve a much higher profitability and success level
- They retire comfortably
Read the Agency Sales article: “MANA’s ‘Steps to Manufacturers’ Agent Professionalism’ Program”