Even today, most companies select their reps based on industry reputation or referrals from other reps or manufacturers. Generally, there's very little concrete information as to how appropriate the reps' agencies are to sell their specific line.
Wilson told Giftware News that the field of consumer products has over 150 classes of trade (types of retailers), and his research shows that most reps are only efficient in eight to ten classes of trade. To complicate matters more, each rep is efficient in a different combination of classes of trade than another.
"You cannot rely too much on interviewing sales reps because their stock and trade is salesmanship. If they want your line, they will tell you everything you want to hear to get it," reports Wilson. Thus he discovered that detailed information had to be collected by a third party in order for it to be more objective.
The cost to a manufacturer of starting a new rep agency with a new set of samples and preparing them to sell the line is astronomical. If that rep agency fails to be successful, the manufacturer risks losing some of his established customers to competitors.
It took 1 1/2 years and $250,000 to assemble information on 40 percent of the manufacturer's reps in the United States. In 1986 when MRP began selling information, it was just a matter of months when Wilson realized that selling information was not enough. "Many of our clients did not know how to work with rep agencies...in fact many of the techniques they were using were suicidal," he says. MRP then developed a complete system of working with agents that gets results.
Companies Cross Country Give High Marks to MRP!
"I don't know where else I would go for the help," explains Deborah Randolph of Randolph and Lark Ltd. (makers of decorative tabletop pottery). "We didn't know how to find the right reps, the time to research was endless. We weren't having much success and had a good deal of rep turnover. When my partner, Isabel Lark, and I saw the MRP ad, we responded."
"Roger Wilson sounded just like what we needed. He was able to show us we were not approaching reps correctly, or motivating properly, or following through. We now have far less turnover and we're doing 2 1/2 times more in sales. Without a doubt, we would recommend MRP. The national program assured us of not missing a territory and we really needed the consulting services MRP provides," she adds.
When asked how Deborah Randolph would describe Roger Wilson, she promptly replies, "He has follow-through and personal integrity beyond reproach. He's a real jewel!"
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