A Small Retailers Perspective

Using Sales Reps

In the early stages of marketing your product to specialty retailers, it's best to be the "chief cook and bottle washer" and try to handle all aspects of your business yourself.  This gives you the opportunity to "learn" the business, determine which types of stores are best for your product, and get first-hand information on what their customers think of your products.  As the number of stores you merchandise through grows, however, the time demands of developing retail outlets will drain your energies, which are probably better directed at improving your product line.

You will likely either need to add sales employees to your company or consider extending yourself through the use of independent sales representatives.  The latter is recommended in that it keeps your overhead costs at a minimum and you can contract professional sales people that already know how to sell and who their customer set is.  Reps will act on your behalf, making face-to-face contact with specialty retailers in predefined geographic territories.  They will qualify the stores, demo your product line, and get orders.  You can set them up through the entire country or in selected market areas, keeping other areas as "house" areas.  Their sole means of remuneration is commission on sales placed in their territory, and the percent may vary depending upon whether they get the order direct or the order comes in through your organization.

In my experience with reps, I've found them to be as varied in competence as the products they represent.  A good rep is invaluable, but an inferior rep can be a disaster.  Keep these thoughts in mind when setting up your network:

1. Make sure that the products they represent — and in particular the primary products they represent — are compatible with what you are selling.  Choosing a rep is much like choosing a retail outlet — if the product categories and price points are not in line with yours, the match is not there.  Be careful to choose a rep that has a good collection of related products — some reps are notorious for picking up lines just to have them and cannot possibly be good at selling widely diverse products.
    
2. Make sure that you provide the rep with good sales training aids so that their entire organization can easily understand your product, its options, its price structure and capabilities.  Your sales brochures ideally should be self-standing documents so that even if the rep is not totally on top of your product when he/she enters a store, the literature will guide them through the sales call.  If they don't understand the product line, they cannot sell it no matter how good their sales skills might be.
    
3. Make sure that the rep has extra copies of brochures that they can leave with the storeowner.  Even if they write an order on site, the sales data is important for re-orders and communication to store employees of the new exciting product that will be arriving at their door in the next few weeks.  Nothing is more frustrating than being told that the rep has only one copy of the literature and can't leave it behind.
    
4. Make sure that the rep has quality samples of your product to show and demo.  Remember that a lot of rep firms have multiple sales people and, if it is at all feasible, provide each sales staff member with a set of samples.  You would not make a sales call on a customer without a sample and for the rep to be effective he/she needs the same aid.  In putting together a rep sales kit, think of all of the items that you would have with you if you were making the sales call and include them in the kit — they need the show-and-tell aids even more than you would!
    
5. Don't sever ties with your customer set just because you've established a rep network.  Storeowners are busy people and reps spend most of their time in transit — in many instances it is easier for a buyer to contact the company direct and if he/she so chooses should be treated as cordially as possible.  The buyers are your "customers" and you want to make it as easy as you can for them to buy your products and like your company.  Focus the reps attention on what they do best — visiting the stores, demo-ing the products and securing the initial orders.  If they do more than this, great!  But remember that some of the after-order servicing can be best handled at your end.  Also, don't "punish" the rep by revoking commission on re-orders placed direct with you — they will be less apt to promote your product if you do.

Another good reason to not completely sever ties with your customer set is that it is very common for rep-manufacturer relationships to break down and when that happens your customer set is left in limbo until the next rep is hired — this is much less a hassle when you continue to work with your customers in tandem with your reps.

So how do you find the best-qualified reps to handle your line?  Visit national trade shows — many of them have bulletin boards set up for rep contacts.  Determine which lines you would most like your product shown with and then find out if they use reps and if so, who they are.  If you already have customers in areas that you want representation, call them and find out who they consider their best reps.

Choose reps very carefully and only after you've had face-to-face meetings — they are your personal ambassadors and you want to make sure they are totally on your side before introducing them to your marketplace.