Sales Reps?

Has anyone used Rephunter.net? It looks like another MFGQUOTE.com. What do you all think? Better yet, how would you find a good sales rep for Screw machine products?

Regards, Ray

Ray, I went in on the free side of Rephunters to get a feel for how broad their scope is as to finding products for reps to sell as I had a product I was Interesteed in finding people to sell. The side where you are looking for reps you pay a fee and hope you get some replies from your ad.I had one reply in 2 years for me to represent a new small widget product which I turned down as I really wasn't looking for things to sell as much as I was testing the waters as to their coverage.Are you the manufacturer of the product? Are you looking for National coverage or local?The reason I was asking, there are manufacturers rep groups that work through one central office and depending on your products can represent you as a large group.However it depends on the type of product.

I’m a Job shop. Most of my customers are local. I have one in Florida and another near Chicago. I get great rates on shipping pallet loads to Illinois so I can compete out there.

My big problem is over 60% of my work is from my old boss. I need to find some more eggs and get some more baskets.

What percent of sales should a Rep get?

Ray

A Manufacturer's Rep typically gets 10% commission on the invoiced amount to a customer or distributor, within a defined territory.

When you find one, you both have to agree upon many things, including:

Defining the boundaries of his territory.
Determine which are his accounts and which are house accounts.
Establish the commission rate for the various accounts and products or services that you will be offering, and he will be covering.
Sales expenses.
When and how commissions will be paid.
How the relationship may be terminated.
And lots more.

IIRC, these guys host a "trade show" every year in Chicago. I went about five years ago, in the Rosemont Convention Center:

http://www.nira.org/

Lotsa luck. A good one can help you make you a pile of money. A lousy one will suck you dry.

Look here:

http://www.manaonline.org/

MANA is an organization of professional Independent Multi Line Manufacturer's Reps. I am one, but in a different business as machine tools are only my hobby.

One of the advantages of a good rep is that you have no fixed cost of sales like you would with an inside sales staff. Your costs are a percentage of sales (commission)so if business is slow, your cost of sales goes down. On the other side of the equation, if business is booming be ready to write some big commission checks, but don't wince too hard because business probably wouldn't be booming without your rep network! One of the things you buy when you engage a rep firm is access to a whole bunch of accounts that you either would never find, or would take you years to develop a relationship with. The rep probably sells them a couple different lines of products and has these relationships in place already, they're his stock and trade.

MANA consists of reps in many industries, from industrial stuff like screw machine products, to guys like me in the home theater business. Their site has a lot of information pertaining to some of the stuff Ferrous mentioned above like determining sales territories, commission rates, etc. Hope it helps.

Thank you for the info and the links.

Termination, seems like that could get messy. It would not be fair to fire a rep and keep the customers he/she brought in. How would you deal with an underperformer? Let her/him keep the existing accounts and continue to pay commission while giving all new work to the new rep?

Or, should I jut move to Canada?

Ray

Most independent manufacturer's work on a 30 day contract. There's usually a clause that allows either party to termiminate the contract on 30 days notice with no cause stated. This works for both sides. Sometimes the rep doesn't perform up to expectations, and then again, sometimes the factory doesn't deliver on it's commitments and the rep no longer wants to represent a flaky factory. MANA can help with all these contractual issues.

What you don't want to do is put a rep on, have him find a few good accounts and then terminate him right away. That could open you up to bad faith suits even with the 30 day clause.

The reality is that sometimes we reps put in years helping to develop a brand of products in our territories and the factory finally gets tired of writing huge commission checks and fires us as sales are now high enough that they can afford to hire a few factory direct sales people and save a chink of change. In those instances, our reward for doing a great job is termination of our contracts. The smart factories that make that move usually come up with some sort of seperation package that amounts to anti-litigation money.

Good reps can do a lot for your business, just play fair with them and don't abuse them and they'll work hard to earn that commission check

How would you find a good sales rep for Screw machine products?

DDYTDY said:

Has anyone used Rephunter.net? It looks like another MFGQUOTE.com. What do you all think? Better yet, how would you find a good sales rep for Screw machine products?

Regards, Ray

Click to expand...

Ray,

There is GETTING the rep, and then there is KEEPING the rep. Lots of time it is easier to identify and hire a rep than it is to keep that rep working hard on your behalf. MANAonline.org is a non-profit association that has a lot of resources that help manufacturers to keep their reps, and they have a particularly good YouTube video that explains the rep system of selling in two minutes at Understanding Manufacturers' Reps - YouTube

Understanding the Rep System of Selling in Two Minutes

Excitable Boy said:

Look here:

MANAonline.org

MANA is an organization of professional Independent Multi Line Manufacturer's Reps. I am one, but in a different business as machine tools are only my hobby.

One of the advantages of a good rep is that you have no fixed cost of sales like you would with an inside sales staff. Your costs are a percentage of sales (commission)so if business is slow, your cost of sales goes down. On the other side of the equation, if business is booming be ready to write some big commission checks, but don't wince too hard because business probably wouldn't be booming without your rep network! One of the things you buy when you engage a rep firm is access to a whole bunch of accounts that you either would never find, or would take you years to develop a relationship with. The rep probably sells them a couple different lines of products and has these relationships in place already, they're his stock and trade.

MANA consists of reps in many industries, from industrial stuff like screw machine products, to guys like me in the home theater business. Their site has a lot of information pertaining to some of the stuff Ferrous mentioned above like determining sales territories, commission rates, etc. Hope it helps.

Click to expand...

New video from MANA explains the rep system of selling in two minutes at Understanding Manufacturers' Reps - YouTube