January | 2024

When manufacturers call me looking for help finding reps, I suggest that they take a lesson from gold miners. If you are looking for gold, start by looking for quartz. Gold often occurs in between quartz crystals. Looking for quartz can help you find gold you otherwise would have missed.

How do you look for “quartz” during a rep search? Let me give you an example, and for the sake of this example, I will oversimplify. Let’s say you’re a manufacturer of nails. You do a search for reps who sell nails and the list is disappointingly short. It’s actually even worse than that, because the reps you found who sell nails already have a built-in conflict on their line card. They already represent a nail manufacturer: when you call them, many can’t represent you too. Instead, you need to look for “quartz,” and search for reps who sell fasteners. Now you find reps who sell screws, nuts and bolts, but don’t have a line of nails. Perfect fit! But just a start. Broadening the search, you also search for reps who sell complementary non-competing products. This takes some thoughtful reflection on your part. What kinds of reps would have great contacts to sell nails? Reps who sell hand tools, like hammers, would have great contacts to sell nails.

I suggest that manufacturers ask themselves, and perhaps some of their best customers, “In addition to my products, what else do my best customers buy?” Then they can get some categories that give better results.

If you are a manufacturer who needs help finding reps or a rep who needs help getting found by manufacturers, reach out to MANA by email at mana@manaonline.org.

As a manufacturer who partners with manufacturers’ representatives, we hope you create relationships with your manufacturers’ representatives that work well for both of you and last a long time. Your manufacturers’ representatives create high‑trust relationships with customers who then purchase what you supply because of that trust, and as a result, your business becomes profitable. A win‑win for both.

History indicates that not an insignificant number of those who purchase manufacturing businesses who outsource the sales function to independent manufacturers’ representatives terminate the manufacturers’ representative agreement following the completion of the sale. Why might they do this? They look at …