Transforming the Rep Industry — Part 1

Celebrating MANA’s 75th anniversary last year led me to reflect on how MANA has transformed how reps and principals work together. In this two-part series, I look at ways MANA has changed the rep industry just since I became MANA’s CEO and president in 2011.

Rep Search Reinvented

MANA’s Board of Directors set a goal that MANA would create the industry-leading platform for connecting representatives and manufacturers. MANA now has revolutionary smartphone app and browser-based matchmaking that outperform any other platform on the Internet.

Market Development Fees

MANA’s educational campaigns have dramatically changed awareness of Market Development Fees (MDF). Reps I spoke to in 2011 who were taking on pioneering lines often worked for free until orders started to flow because “that’s how things are done.” Thanks to MANA’s work to champion change, now most reps considering a pioneering line know to ask for MDF, and many manufacturers offering pioneering lines expect to include MDF in their contracts.

Academic Awareness

Two common complaints from reps are: Recent college graduates reps’ principals hire as regional managers know nothing about reps. Recent college graduates reps try to recruit for their own companies won’t go to work for a rep because they know nothing about reps. The solution is to get information about reps included in academic curricula. However, the only way to get academic decision makers to include information about reps in academic curricula is with the credibility that comes from having articles about reps appear in academic journals, which has not happened since the 1980s. MANA played a critical role in turning this situation around, and in 2022 articles about reps appeared in The Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management and Industrial Marketing Management.

Next Steps

Next month in Part 2: Strategic partnerships, extended post-termination commission, line card profitability analysis, and international connections. MANA’s Board of Directors recently sponsored a very well-attended networking breakfast with MANA members and MANA’s staff close to O’Hare airport. After breakfast, Daniel E. Beederman, MANA’s legal counsel, made a presentation on rep contracts. The presentation was followed by additional networking and Q&A with MANA’s Board, staff, and Beederman.

Changing Tune for a Rep Career

Just as so many others before her, Jamie Benson never really set out to become an independent manufacturers’ rep. Her first dream was to become a big-shot singer-songwriter-musician. According to Benson, “I think you either have the rep business in the family or you somehow stumble into it. As for me, I grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, and spent the hot summer afternoons in my bedroom learning how to play the guitar and recording myself on my tape player. I fantasized about playing on a great big stage with bright lights and a crowd of fans singing along with my songs.”

Marketing Independent Manufacturers' Rep Agency

When it comes to marketing an independent manufacturers’ rep agency, the number-one weapon appears to be the existence of an effective, professionally developed website. That was the consensus from a group of MANA members who participated in a week-long series of MANAchats devoted to the subject of marketing your manufacturers’ representative business. At the outset of the conversation about rep websites, the point was made that approximately 80 percent of MANA members have websites that are easily found by manufacturers who access the RepFinder®, MANA’s online directory.

WCM Industries, Inc.’s Steve Woodford Honored With 2022 AIM/R Golden Eagle Award

Steve Woodford, president of WCM Industries, was honored with the 2022 Golden Eagle award by the Association of Independent Manufacturers’ (AIM/R) membership during a gala celebration at the rep association’s 50th Annual Conference at the Gaylord Rockies Resort in Aurora, Colorado on Friday, October 14. Woodford accepted his honor at the biggest event of the year for AIM/R, which took place in his organization’s backyard. WCM Industries, Inc., is based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Each year, AIM/R membership nominates individuals from manufacturing for the Golden Eagle award. These individuals are often executives who embody all the core values of supporting independent manufacturers’ reps.