Golfers and Manufacturers' Representatives: A Comparison

Golfers wouldn’t dream of hitting the links with just irons or just woods in their bags. Many manufacturers’ representatives feel the same way when it comes to the rep associations that support them in their profession. Let me explain.

MANA is a horizontal rep association, so we focus on rep and manufacturer resources that can be applied to any industry that uses outsourced sales forces. Because MANA can serve all reps and manufacturers who use reps, we have thousands of members. Thousands of members means we have the budget, for example, to invest very heavily in RepFinder® rep/manufacturer matchmaking tools and print Agency Sales magazine every month.

Vertical rep associations focus on rep resources for one particular industry. Many times this is a conference specifically for reps in that particular industry. Six vertical associations now purchase MANA memberships for all their rep members, giving their rep members the very best of both horizontal and vertical rep association resources.

• AIM/R, Association of Independent Manufacturers’ Representatives, Inc., plumbing, HVAC/R, kitchen/bath, waterworks, irrigation and related industries.
• HDMRC, Heavy Duty Manufacturers’ Representatives Council, commercial vehicle supplier industry.
• IHRA, International Home + Housewares Representatives’ Association, home, housewares, gourmet, giftware, consumer electronics & hardware industries.
• ISA, Industrial Supply Association, the association for the industrial Maintenance Repair Operating and Production (MROP) channel.
• NMRA, National Marine Representatives’ Association, marine industry.
• PTRA, Power-Motion Technology Representatives’ Association, power transmission and motion control industry.

From all of us at MANA, hats off to the leadership of these six associations for having the vision to be sure their members have both irons and woods in their bags, to help them to effectively manage their professional manufacturers’ representative firms.

Additional Insights and Stories

A recent film, Arrival, presented a tale of potential catastrophe from disruptive change requiring massive adaptation. Aliens have suddenly arrived on earth, their presence mysterious: potentially benign but possibly threatening. Confronted with a new normal, we had to find the right people with the proper abilities to adapt. The aliens offered us a “gift,” but we had to translate their reality to ours. We argued among ourselves whether that the gift was a tool or a weapon. Ultimately, in the movie, we learn the gift was a tool, and that tool was the alien language and alien sense of … Read the rest

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This is the first of a series of book reviews by Peter Scholtens on subjects of interest to manufacturers’ reps that will occasionally appear in Agency Sales. Eat Their Lunch: Winning Customers Away From Your Competition by Anthony Iannarino Hardcover: 240 pages Publisher: Portfolio (Nov. 6, 2018) While the title may not indicate it, Eat Their Lunch is a book about how to deal with a sales world that is becoming increasingly polarized. Right now, the push in sales is to try to automate everything. Because the B2C world is thriving on making everything a click away, sales leadership … Read the rest