RepHunter’s top 12 advantages of selling your products using manufacturers representatives:
- Sale of one product can “trigger” sales of complementary products. Multiple-line selling creates a synergistic sales opportunity. With a broader, better defined customer base and with more complete coverage, sales reps can get companies deeper market penetration and increased sales in the least amount of time.
- Sales costs are known. Representatives are paid a fixed percent on resulting sales. The ROI of in-house sales varies depending on the amount of sales against a fixed salary cost for a given time period.
- Manufacturers gain immediate access to a well-educated sales team highly invested in industry programs such as CPMR and CSR. Their experience in the field allows them to consult with clients on merchandising and product selection for the locale.
- Manufacturers’ reps have local acceptance. They are familiar in the sales territory and trusted by the customers. As permanent residents of their community, they have a more vested interest in the quality of their products and customers than factory direct salespeople do.
- Faster response time to customer problems. Due to a representative agency location, sales representatives are able provide the “high touch” representation. Buyers feel that it is easier to get in touch with an independent representative when problems arise.
- Provide local market continuity for the manufacturer and end user/customer with business and succession planning.
- Speed of profitable entry into a new market because the relationships between manufacturers’ representatives and buyers. Manufacturers reps know from experience who are those responsible for purchasing as well as the other decision-makers within the company.
- More complete coverage in specific geographic areas and markets are provided due to the sales rep’s familiarity with local preferences. Representatives are quick to identify where new products can potentially be sold. A direct sales force trying to break into a new market or territory may take months or years to acquire similar knowledge.
- More objective evaluation and customer feedback of new products or ideas for improving existing products are gained from sales reps. Since they represent more than one line and do not work for the manufacturer, they can be more objective.
- Experienced reps are pros at providing information and knowledge to dealers and end users. They have years of practice giving product know-how, product training, field and test demonstrations, and consultative selling.
- Manufacturers gain valuable market research and product feedback that cannot be provided from a mass survey or book
- Alert the manufacturer to new trends specific to their territory that might affect their product or positioning in the marketplace.