When a manufacturer requires call reports from a manufacturers’ representative, does he or she jeopardize the independent contractor status of the manufacturers’ representative and risk becoming responsible for the employer’s share of social security tax and the federal unemployment tax (FUTA) on commission payments? This is a frequent and sometimes contentious topic between manufacturers’ representatives […]
Once you make initial contact with a list of manufacturers’ representatives who are interested in representing your line, the interview process begins. The interview will probably happen in two phases: A phone interview to establish that there is serious mutual interest and an in-person interview at the representatives’ place of business to help the manufacturer […]
It’s the same reason so many people love Coca-Cola™. Associations. People associate the flavor of Coca-Cola with happy events: a baseball game, a picnic, a childhood birthday party. The flavor launches memories of those happy events, so naturally many people love Coca-Cola. The reason reps love the rep business? Associations. So many of us associate […]
“My principal suddenly wants weekly call reports and quote updates,” said a MANA representative member. “I need to spend my time selling, not writing reports. And isn’t there some sort of IRS rule against call reporting for independent contractors like manufacturers’ agents?” I couldn’t agree with you more that he should be allowed to maximize your […]
“So, how did things turn out with that quote we prepared for Acme Corporation?” Following up and reporting on open quotes is a task principals frequently assign to manufacturers’ agents. And there are any number of apps and cloud-based document sharing tools manufacturers’ agents can use to trigger themselves to follow up on a particular quote on […]
As the largest North American manufacturers’ representative association we often get questions from manufacturers and representatives about best practices and how to maintain long-lasting, mutually-profitable relationships. In this post we share 11 recent questions and our replies. Should the manufacturers’ representative get copied on all the RFQs coming from the customer to the principal? Many […]
Regular readers of Agency Sales magazine know Harvard MBA Bob Reiss as a “super-rep” whose business successes were so innovative that they were featured in a Harvard Business School case study titled “R&R” after the name of Reiss’ rep firm. Decades later, that entrepreneurship case study remains one of Harvard’s top-selling teaching aids used in […]
Outsourcing your sales functions to manufacturers’ reps can be a great way for your company to hit aggressive sales goals while reducing sales costs – everybody knows that. But manufacturers’ reps also bring three surprise benefits that only the most experienced manufacturers know about. Now MANA pulls back the curtain so everyone can take advantage […]
That’s the question a rep asked when I spoke to the Manufacturers’ Agents of Cincinnati (www.maccincinnati.org) in 2011. And it was a fair question to ask. MANA’s RepFinder database gets MANA rep members lots of attention from North American principals, but not nearly as much attention from European principals. It took two years of research […]
MANA is constantly looking for ways to improve the value proposition we offer to MANA members, and our new “Member in Good Standing” web page benefit hits a home run by tackling three common problems faced by our members. My company is a MANA member, and: We do not have a web page. Problem solved! […]
When a major manufacturer of electrical products made the move from a factory sales force to a carefully chosen network of independent manufacturers’ representatives, the entire electrical industry paid attention. For the full story, read the article that appeared in the March issue of Electrical Wholesaling magazine. Schneider Welcomes Reps to Sales Force
One of our benefits as a MANA member is an annual half hour consultation with an attorney known to us as being experienced and knowledgeable about the manufacturers’ agency business and laws that govern rep-principal relationships. The purpose of this short consultation is to enable you to get a quick answer to a general legal question. […]
The probability of a manufacturers’ representative being named in a product liability lawsuit is small. The probability of a judgment being rendered against a manufacturers’ representative in a product liability lawsuit is even smaller. In a non-scientific survey done by MANA, less than eight percent of the respondents said they had ever been named in […]
The 6-digit NAICS (North American Industry Classification System) business code system replaced the former U.S. Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system in 1997. The NAICS system has undergone two revisions since 1997, one in 2002 and the most recent one in 2007. The 2007 revision was essentially unchanged from the 2002 revision for manufacturers’ representatives and […]