{"id":833,"date":"2015-03-28T16:52:05","date_gmt":"2015-03-28T21:52:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.rephunter.net\/"},"modified":"2018-04-12T14:12:52","modified_gmt":"2018-04-12T19:12:52","slug":"not-daniel-boone-cant-pioneering-says-manufacturers-rep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oofdah.com\/blog\/not-daniel-boone-cant-pioneering-says-manufacturers-rep\/","title":{"rendered":"Manufacturers Reps Say “I Am Not Daniel Boone, I Can’t Do Pioneering”"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Charles Cohon<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWell, that\u2019s what I used to say about pioneering lines,\u201d says Ralph, a manufacturers\u2019 rep. \u201cI have a well-established line card and I just couldn\u2019t justify taking time away from those lines to promote a product that wasn\u2019t bringing in any income. But a manufacturer who really wanted me to rep his line came up with a very creative program that changed my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

How did the manufacturer change the rep\u2019s mind? With a joint territory development fee.<\/p>\n

Joint Territory Development Fees<\/h3>\n

\u201cMy company is a powerhouse in the Eastern U.S.,\u201d says Jim, the manufacturer, \u201cbut we have no existing business in California, which made recruiting a California rep for our product a huge challenge. And when I started my conversation with Ralph \u2018no existing income\u2019 was pretty much a deal breaker for him too. I did find reps who would take on my line with no existing income, but they didn\u2019t operate at the same high level of professionalism as Ralph\u2019s firm, so I really pushed for a program that could justify having Ralph add my company to his line card.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ralph agreed, adding \u201cWhen I call on a customer they are usually pretty open to having me present three or four of my product lines. So when I do my mental calculus and choose to present products V, W, X, and Y to that customer but leave out product Z, it\u2019s based on maximizing my income from that call. And if I have a line on my line card that produces zero income, it\u2019s just not going to make the cut and get included in my sales calls.\u201d<\/p>\n

Until Jim learned about joint territory development fees, his conversation with Ralph would have ended abruptly when he revealed that the territory he was recruiting for had no existing business. But now, thanks to innovative thinking in the manufacturers\u2019 rep industry, Ralph and Jim were able to strike a win-win agreement that made sense for both of their companies.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was pretty simple once we each watched MANA\u2019s Developing New Markets With Professional Manufacturers’ Representatives<\/em><\/a> video,\u201d Jim said. \u201cBottom line, we put together a joint plan that estimated Ralph\u2019s cost of having Ralph launch our line in his territory, agreed on reasonable reports so I\u2019d know where my money was going, and we split the cost 50\/50, with my company sending Ralph a monthly check for our half for one year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sharing the launch costs 50\/50 meant both Ralph and Jim had \u201cskin in the game\u201d and that the launch cost would not be 100% at Ralph\u2019s expense, and by the second year Ralph had Jim\u2019s line well established in his territory. For both companies, it was time and money very well spent.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\"CohonHeadShotJPG-125x208x70\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Charles Cohon is CEO and President of the Manufacturers\u2019 Agents National Association (MANA), a non-for-profit trade association that provides educational materials to agents and principals to help them find great partners and work together as professional partners in profits. He can be reached at <\/em>ccohon@manaonline.org<\/em><\/a>. MANA\u2019s web site is <\/em>www.manaonline.org.<\/u><\/a><\/div>\n


<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Charles Cohon \u201cWell, that\u2019s what I used to say about pioneering lines,\u201d says Ralph, a manufacturers\u2019 rep. \u201cI have a well-established line card and I just couldn\u2019t justify taking time away from those lines to promote a product that wasn\u2019t bringing in any income. But a manufacturer who really wanted me to rep his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,10],"tags":[21,13],"class_list":["post-833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sales-rep-agreements","category-sales-rep-commissions","tag-joint-territory-development-fees","tag-manufacturers-agents-national-association"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oofdah.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oofdah.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oofdah.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oofdah.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oofdah.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/oofdah.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oofdah.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oofdah.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oofdah.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}