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Manufacturers' agent / Manufacturers' rep services FAQs
How do you know agents or reps will work for me?A number of factors are at work to determine whether manufacturers' agents or reps will work for your organization. First, if you are selling catalog items, don't waste your time, the Internet is taking over that function. If you are selling custom engineered products or services, agents will most likely work well as long as a good "fit" exists for their customer base and complementary lines they already carry. The customer usually only cares that a vendor provides support, solutions, quality, on-time shipment, and value. They don't care if the sales person is an agent or a direct employee. If the "fit" is good and you support agents properly, they will be successful sellers for your organization. Can Koch Group really find high-performing manufacturers' agents?Koch Group consultants have been working since the early 1970's identifying, screening, meeting with, and contracting with manufacturers' agencies on behalf of our manufacturing clients. In most years, we interview by phone several hundred agencies. Depending on our assignments, we meet face-to-face dozens to hundreds of manufacturers' reps. We match an agency's needs to those of our clients and provide with a selection of 5 to 8 manufacturers' agencies to meet with, face-to-face, in the territory to make a final selection. Many of the reps our clients have selected have provided many millions of dollars of ongoing sales to them, per territory. Can we attract high performing manufacturers' agents?Yes. We have learned that every manufacturer, or industrial service provider, can attract high quality agents, if they are willing to be a good principal and support their agents properly. Follow this link to see how Koch Group's decades of agent expertise can benefit your organization's search for, or use of, manufacturers' agents. How is Koch Group different from other agent recruitment firms?That's a good question. Koch Group industrial marketing consultants have been identifying, screening, interviewing, and contracting with, high performing manufacturers' agents for nearly 40 years. Our proprietary techniques provide a very thorough look at a geographic area and market segments our clients are interested in.' Most of today's agent recruiters use a combination of database searches and "good old boy" network lists that they have developed. We start fresh and go into a desired territory looking for ideal matches among hundreds and sometimes thousands of potential agencies. The agencies we identify fit and are currently successfully selling in the territory. We telephone screen the most likely targets to ensure a "fit" exists between their customers and lines and what our client requires. We then schedule face-to-face meetings in the desired territory to determine which agencies are match up to or exceed their phone or paper resumes and which offer the best chemistry for our clients. Long-time agencies repeatedly tell our clients their recruitment by Koch Group is the most professional they have ever experienced and their desire for a new principal was never stronger based on the contact, information provided, and meeting presentations made.
How long does an agency recruitment project take to complete?Initial, first time, agency recruiting projects require some one-time market research that can take a number of weeks or a month. Once required market research activities are completed, all agency recruiting projects take about the same amount of time - 90 to 120 days - depending on holidays that may be on the calendar during the project. Koch Group's agent recruiting process is very rigid in its schedule as we have learned over decades of experience, how much time is required to perform needed tasks and how much time must be allowed to accommodate existing agency selling or appointment schedules. Can't I just run an magazine ad or recruit at a trade show?Yes you can and many manufacturers do just that - until they get very frustrated with the results. The simple fact is with the tough economy and reduced manufacturing sales, manufacturers' agents are being bombarded with offers to represent manufacturers in unprecedented numbers. Professional, successful, agents will not consider a new line unless it offers an excellent fit for their customer base and existing lines. They do not want to dilute their sales efforts for a line that may not offer excellent opportunity. In order to get an agent's attention today, you have to stand out among the many, possibly hundreds, of companies knocking on their doors. Koch Group can show you how to do just that - be the principal they want to represent! How do you screen manufacturers agents?Koch Group has developed time-proven processes to extract information from manufacturers' agents or reps. Most agents are very busy sales people and don't like to take time away from their selling efforts. However, we are usually able to speak via phone to screen an agency for 45 to 60 minutes on our initial contact. During that time we examine them closely for "fit" with our client's requirements. We determine their size, geographic reach, market focus, lines carried, those lines of most importance to them, what departments they actually call on to sell to, how much time they have for a new line and many other pieces of information. This information allows us to determine if a "win-win" relationship can be put together. Koch Group's screening is very thorough and sometimes agents are initially a little hesitant to answer all of our questions. Eventually, we do get the information our clients require to make a top of the line agency selection. Can Koch Group help us to identify what commission to pay an agency?Yes we can. We access commission survey data that indicates what a minimum, average, and maximum commission should be, by market segment, and by type of end-user. We will position your commission percentage where it belongs to attract and keep high-performing agencies.
Do you help us contract with the selected manufacturers' agent or rep?Koch Group can and does provide contracting help. Some clients have large legal departments to write their contracts. We offer to review those as many company legal departments have little working knowledge of what truly does and does not belong in an agency-principal contract. We also help negotiate tricky agent demands if clients require that assistance. We have developed a variety of standard manufacturers' agent contract over our decades work and we are glad to make those available to our clients for their use. Regardless, we recommend clients still have their lawyers review the final contract documents. Why would I use a manufacturers' agent when I can hire my own direct sales person?If you can truly afford the cost of a direct sales person - salary, benefits, and travel expenses, you will have total control over your selling efforts. However, one of the many benefits of using manufacturers' agents is you don't pay a salary, or benefits, or travel expenses, just commissions for created sales. Another key benefit is that the agency, if they are a high performing one, has developed key relationships with buyers in the market segments you want to penetrate. You need to ask yourself how long it would take for your newly hired direct sales person to develop a 20-year relationship. When you properly support an agency, your company effectively is renting the already-developed agency-customer relationships. You can take total advantage of the positive results the agency has provided to its customers over many years by being one of their principals. Agents offer a quicker access to new sales development than new direct sales personnel. We have a few agents. How do we know if they are any good?Koch Group specializes in evaluating existing agency or rep networks. We schedule a call with the owner of each agency and ask them about 20-25 open-ended questions we have pre-approved with our client. Based on those responses Koch Group personnel will evaluate how well each member of an agency sells, if the lines they carry are complementary, if their customer base matches well, how many lines they carry, if there are territory conflicts, if they have principal issues, and many other pieces of information. We will tell you who your good agents are and who are not! Can you supply us with a list of good agents for our markets?Many companies call Koch Group looking for a ready-made list of market or industry specific agencies. It is not that simple. Koch Group personnel conduct an extensive search using proprietary and otherwise available hard copy and electronic resources to develop a list of good industrial agencies within a specified geographic boundary. We then contact and screen interested agencies developing a final group for our client to interview and choose from. There is no off the shelf answer. Isn't it true that manufacturers' agents are really the last resort?Nothing could be less true! In the U.S. alone there are well over 100,000 manufacturers' agencies working. If we apply the 80/20 rule, which is probably unfair, that means there are at least 20,000 excellent agencies working at any time. Only some of those agencies will be a good "fit" for your company carry the right complementary lines and calling on the right customer base, but some of the best sales personnel in the country are manufacturers' agents. In a study conducted in the 1990's, the U.S. Department of Commerce estimated that in a good year, over 70% of the industrial good sold in this the U.S. were sold by manufacturers' agents!
If you would like more information about our industrial marketing services for manufacturers and industrial service providers, please use our contact form or email us at info@kochgroup.com.
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