The Rep Connection

Entrepreneurial Harvard Business School students often use outsourcing as a tool when they launch new ventures. To explain how the selling function can be outsourced, Harvard Business School invited Manufacturers' Agents National Association (MANA) CEO and President Charles Cohon to speak to its MBA students on how to find, recruit, contract with, and work successfully with independent manufacturers' representatives. Special thanks...

Peter Zafiro, General Manager, LinMot USA, Inc. is an experienced hand working with manufacturers' representatives and in this episode of Outsourcing Selling he shares how he views working with reps.

"I've gone to market with a variety of business models over the years. I've worked with factory direct-only salespeople, hybrids of direct and independent reps and with independent reps only," says Zafiro. "What I've found is that I ge...

Years ago, your principal signed a rep agreement with you that protected your commission earnings, so you invested time and hard work to grow that line. Now your principal wants you to sign a new rep agreement. What should you do?

In this podcast attorney Randy Gillary shares his recommendations on how to evaluate a principal's proposal to re-write your rep agreement. Principals don't re-write rep agreements because they feel the r...

In this podcast Charlie Ingram, Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Eriez Manufacturing, gives representatives a chance to see themselves as a manufacturer sees them.

For representatives' benefit, Charlie shares his perspectives on sales reports, rep councils, international sales meetings, manufacturers' recruiting practices to locate and onboard new reps, 50+ year representative relationships, and ways representatives can protect...

Sometimes a new owner makes things better for reps. More often, a new owner eventually challenges legacy reps to prove their value, or even fires all its reps to save on commissions.

Whether the outcome is positive or not positive, the news that your largest principal is always jarring, and the first thing that comes to reps' minds when that news breaks is "What do I do now?"

In this podcast, attorney Thomas J. Kammerait of the law...

In this podcast the first woman member of MANA's Board of Directors, Michelle Jobst of Jobst Incorporated, Eden Prairie, MN, discusses her recent Agency Sales magazine editorial The Untapped Talent Pool and her own experiences as a woman working in the manufacturers' representative industry since 1994. Opportunities for women, and opportunities to capitalize on the untapped skills of talented woman entrepreneurs are growing, says J...

The year was 1947. Harry S Truman was president, the World Series was televised for the first time (the New York Yankees beat the Brooklyn Dodgers in seven games), Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier, and on October 17, 1947, the Manufacturers' Agents National Association joined the community of not-for-profit trade associations.

Fast forward to July 1949, and MANA members discovered the first, 24-page issue of The Agent and Repr...

Manufacturers' representatives are thriving in North America, but that's not the only place where sales force outsourcing has robust support. European manufacturers' representatives, known there as commercial agents, are flourishing on the other side of the Atlantic.

In this podcast we speak with Olivier Mazoyer, president of commercial agent company AJM Forces de Ventes Associées about his company and how commercial agents work in...

Business networking groups bring together business owners from a wide range of businesses. A veterinarian, a real estate agent, and a restauranteur could be part of the same networking group, with their only common interest being the desire to bring their business problems to a fresh set of eyes.

But what if you could assemble a group who had deep, detailed knowledge of your business and industry instead of choosing your group from...

Manufacturers' representatives famously coddle their customers, the people and companies that buy products from the manufacturers listed on the representatives' line cards.

The manufacturers listed on the representatives' line card, often referred to as the representatives' principals, are the entities that send the representatives monthly commission checks.

Too often representatives remember to sell to the companies that buy produ...

Last year Mexico imported approximately $182 million from U.S. companies. One of the ways U.S. companies can pursue their own slice of that $182 million pie is through manufacturers' representatives in Mexico.

In this podcast MexicoRepresentation.com President Ed Juline describes how U.S. manufacturers can engage with Mexican manufacturers' representatives and clears up some of the misconceptions U.S. manufactures have about best p...

"Questioning is the prequel to selling," says Manufacturers' Agents National Association Board Member Stephen Fowler. "The RIGHT questions should discover the RIGHT answers. Questions uncover facts, beliefs, timing, and circumstances.   Open minded, curious, goal-directed, RIGHT questioners have interest, enthusiasm, respect and need a special sympathetic intelligence. Armed with the right answers they map the trip and se...

I've heard of manufacturers' representatives going to court and being awarded past due commission on a million-dollar order. I've even heard of manufacturers' representative s going to court and being awarded a million-dollar commission. But this is the first time I've heard of a manufacturers' representative going to court and being awarded a $76,877,889.41 commission judgement.

In this podcast manufacturers' representative Don Ha...

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 principals' products.

In the article, Doyle ...

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 economic climates, says Christian.

IUCAB is ...