The Rep Connection

Why I Love to Find My Competitors' House Accounts is one of the most popular articles ever to appear in Agency Sales magazine. In this podcast the article's author, Doyle Evans, president emeritus, Pinnacle Marketing, Inc., Raleigh, North Carolina, discusses how accounts his competitors try to service without a manufacturers' representative are low-hanging fruit for him to convert to his principal...

Sales force outsourcing is booming in Europe, says Christian Rebernig, Secretary General of the Internationally United Commercial Agents and Brokers ( www.iucab.com ). Known commonly in Europe as commercial agents rather than manufacturers' representative or manufacturers' agents, companies that provide European sales representation to worldwide manufacturers enjoy productive political and economi...

Olympic relay runners routinely pass the baton with graceful finesse, never missing a step. Handoffs from Baby Boomers to Millennials tend not to go that smoothly. Those Olympic athletes have a distinct advantage over the Baby Boomers and Millennials. The athletes know in advance who will pass the baton, who will receive it, and exactly where in the race the baton will be passed. Baby Boomers and...

Some people can't bring themselves to visit a dentist. Others struggle to get themselves into their accountant's office at tax time. And for many, fear of the unknown keeps them from reaching out to a lawyer whose specialty is manufacturers' representative law. In this episode attorney Matthew Benson discusses the kind of conversation he and most MANA-associated attorneys have with MANA members be...

You've caught the interest of a manufacturer who needs a representative. The phone interview went well, you're made it onto the short list of candidates, and the final face-to-face interview is coming up fast. The days when you can "wing it" are gone, say GSA Optimum President John Beaver. What kind of research should you do? What kinds of topics should you cover in your presentation? How should t...

It's more than making sure the T's are crossed and the I's are dotted. A good rep/principal agreement requires strategic thinking before the first clause is even written. In this episode attorney Daniel Beederman reviews the strategy underlying the creation of a successful rep/principal agreement.

The rep was doing a great job for the manufacturer, but the certified letter just arrived in the rep's office anyway. Why did this happen? Not for the lack of sales activities. Not for the lack of sales. It was for the lack of Backselling. Bottom line, the rep did a great job with customers but a terrible job with the manufacturer. The manufacturer only knew what the rep was telling her, and the r...

What's it like to be a rep or work with reps in Canada? It's the same as it would be in the United States, but it's also different. In this podcast we speak with Canadian rep Craig Lindsay, President of Pacesetter Sales & Associates, who share the misconceptions and misunderstandings manufacturers and reps have about how reps operate in Canada. Among the challenges Craig's firm has mastered is ser...

At a joint meeting of the Manufacturers' Agents National Association (MANA) and the Electronics Representatives Association (ERA), MANA's CEO Charles Cohon shared his predictions for the rep industry.   "I think the best way to explain why we are here today comes from Nvidia cofounder Chris Malachowsky, who was quoted in Forbes about his firm's success.    "He said, 'There's a California surfing c...