With all of the changes going on in the market lately, I’ve been ruminating on what this means for our industry and specifically independent manufacturer reps.

The market has changed, but I think some things, at their core, remain, or should remain, the same but perhaps they are named differently.

The obvious has changed:

• Speed of business due to customer demands and technology
• Product knowledge due to changing / new products and generational change. After all, if you’ve had people in the business with 20-40 years’ experience and they retire and are replaced by young, or new, people to the business, it takes time to learn the product versus supply information.
• Consolidation at all levels of the channel – manufacturers, reps, distributors and even contractors.
• The influence, and impact, of “out of market” buying influencers (engineering firms) and buyers (contractors in another region.)
• Contractors desiring “value-added services” to reduce their operating costs or supplement labor
• The profitability of the business, hence requiring scale to generate gross profit dollars to support a “growing” business.

But, as I was thinking about this, I also reminisced about “the good old days” and what has sustained the electrical distribution industry.

With this, I’d like to share what has sustained me and guided my beliefs over the years as I managed my agency. I call this:

My Postulates as a Rep

1. Relationships are the single most important focus. When I took over our agency, I had a distributor advisory board, friends of my father, who was very ill. They told me to set our goals as specifically as possible regardless of the manufacturers we represented. They assured me for various reasons, manufacturers would come and go, but customers stay. The manufacturers may not care about reps, but they need customer.
2. Treat your people properly, hire the right people and don’t micromanage. Those people will stay with you. A few years ago, we had 5 associates retire, each with over 30 years together. You develop relationships by maintaining those that have them.
3. “Don’t give away long term for short term victories.” Lying once to a customer loses years of effort. Be your customer’s advocate but remember you are a manufacturer’s representative. That doesn’t mean you follow blindly. Know your customer’s needs and match when possible, what makes sense to them.
4. Loyalty counts when loyalty is given. There is less of it but needs to be earned constantly. Given all the new ownerships and changes in our industry, never change your morality but maintain your strategies. A drowning victim will always push the person trying to save them down so that they may breathe. Often business reflects that, so control your environment by controlling the narrative. Don’t leave your success to others by not following through.
5. In business, often respect and loyalty are created by fear and leverage. The more control you have, the more likely you will be involved. If you control the situation to a positive extent, you don’t need to address it, it’s clear. Make sure your actions on a manufacturer or distributor’s behalf are known by the decision makers.
6. Everyone needs to know your plans and actions that are involved in the outcome you need to happen. COMMUNICATION is the second most imperative focus after relationships and the single most important element to develop those relationships.
7. Reps need to advocate for themselves with management, not only sales. In today’s environment salespeople have far less importance in the manufacturing hierarchy. Decisions are being made by money and production people. I have spoken to various sales managers who are no longer invited to management meetings. If you are only communicating with salespeople, you are missing the mark. My opinion … this is something that NEMRA fails to address by their effort continuing to focus on salespeople / sales management rather than by visiting with major manufacturers and promoting the total rep advocacy.
8. Any agency needs to be more than sales to local distributors. Those rep agencies going national or regional present cost savings by addressing more than the sales successes. They are certainly showing the various capabilities of addressing those markets their manufacturers pursue, however marketing, training, management, warehousing, IT capabilities and willingness to change, grow and think as a manufacturer are imperative. The ability to have relationships and strategic planning with regional, national and international customers including contractors, utilities and individuals are also imperative as these divisions continue to grow in size and importance.
9. Expansion is critical to success. When I started, we believed the fewer manufacturers the better. Loyalty and the amount of time dedicated was imperative. We had a limited number of customers—-the electrical distribution network. Now the expectations create an unlimited number of customers with shrinking commission percentages. The only method of success is to expand geographically, expand into other industries or to expand the number of manufacturers with fewer now available. Lessening overhead is seldom an option given the expanded customer base.
10. It starts with people. When starting a branch (if you are a distributor) or expanding into a new territory, product category, or market segment, hire the manager first making sure his/her philosophy matches what you want. Everything else comes after.
11. Who you buy / merge with matters. When buying or merging: 2 weaker companies combined don’t make a strong one. A weak and strong generally weakens the strong one. A strong and strong becomes stronger yet. The same also goes for a rep when evaluating manufacturers and deciding whom to represent.

When you are in management, either leading an agency, manufacturer, or distributor or even for your own department, having a set of beliefs, some use the word “values”, helps in setting your plan for success. While some may be refined over time (nothing stays static and the sign of a good manager is adapting to changing times), your foundation needs to be solid.

What principles guide your agency—and which have helped you stay grounded as the industry changes? Share your postulates and the experiences that shaped them in the comments.

Team Discussion Exercise: Identify Your Firms Guiding Principles

Use these prompts in your next team meeting to turn shared experiences into a practical set of principles.

1. Reflect individually. Each person names one principle from this article that resonates and shares a real agency decision that illustrates why it matters.
2. Find common ground. Compare examples. What commitments should guide how you treat customers, manufacturers, and one another—even when short-term pressures make them difficult?
3. Define your principles. Agree on three to five concise statements. For each, describe one observable behavior and one trade-off you are willing to make to uphold it.
4. Put them to work. Test the statements against an upcoming agency decision. Record one action, assign an owner, and agree when the team will revisit the principles.

Interested in how CMG can help? Ask about RepCare and how else we support independent manufacturer rep firms.