12 Steps to Rep Professionalism

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.

WHAT TYPE OF BUSINESS ENTITY?

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.

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.

Professional manufacturers’ representatives conduct thorough and diligent interviews to insure the prospective principals possess the potential for long and mutually profitable relationships.

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.

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.

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.

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?

CREATION OF A MANUFACTURERS’ REPRESENTATIVE/PRINCIPAL AGREEMENT

SPECIAL CLAUSES

LEGAL

ISSUES

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

Consider working with a sales coach. Nicki Weiss, who does the MANA teleforums provides coaching services.

SalesWise | A Sales Platform for Salespeople

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.

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.

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.

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.