INDEPENDENT REPS PART 2 - WHERE DO YOU FIND THEM?

What seems ages ago, we went searching on the Internet for reps. We emailed a couple, never heard back, or when we did, they did not want to rep our products. Why not? We will never know. We have been told that it’s because no matter how good your product is, reps just don’t like to touch new products because it’s too much work. I can’t back that up with any solid evidence. Our banker recommended us to a couple of local reps, clients of hers, but neither of them called us.

We went to a public trade show and a rep stopped by. He was interested in our products, made all sorts of pie-in-the-sky promises, then promptly disappeared from planet earth after the show and we never heard from him again. Lucky for us, he did not take any product or money with him. As green as we were, we probably would have given him whatever he wanted.

Others I know have been contacted by reps who saw their products in a store already, or online. Reps like this, I think, because they know the product is sellable.

Lately, a number of chat rooms and forums for specific industries have been popping up, where manufacturers, reps, retail business owners, and industry buyers chat, trade info, and scout prospects and products. One woman I know recently picked up a rep this way. These forums can be as specific as baby carriers and as general as toys. I have not yet discovered one for our industry, but it is probably only a matter of time.

Ultimately, we did not find any reps, they found us at the buyer shows we attended. We currently utilize three agencies. So far, the arrangement is working well, and we like the individuals with whom we deal.

I am sure there are other avenues for getting in front of reps (winning awards, Oprah contests, maybe a plug on Donny Deutsch). One way is to piggyback on an existing product. If you have a friend or family member making a similar item or in the same product category, you can probably contact the reps they work with to see if they might be interested in repping your product as well.

Another possibility is introductions by your booth neighbors at trade shows. We have actually seen this one work. For the most part, your booth neighbors are just as passionate about what they do as you are about what you do, and they love to share information and introduce you to their reps, especially if they know you are just starting out.

At our Chicago show, we spent three days next to Lightning Nuggets. A plug here for Lightning Nuggets: they manufacture fire starters from waste wood products and recycled paraffin. They are an excellent company, and we keep in touch with them. You can buy their products at Lowe’s, Fred Meyer, and maybe Home Depot. They were very nice, heard about our rep woes, and then proceeded to spend the next two days teaching us all about the world of reps. We came away from the show with priceless knowledge and the confidence that we could indeed “do” the independent rep thing.

I will cover what we learned about hiring reps in my next entry.

INDEPENDENT REPS PART 1 – THE HORROR OF IT ALL

Most startup manufacturers are led to believe that gathering a harem of reps around you is the holy grail, and that if a rep shows any interest at all, jump on board! Please, please do not leap just yet.

Horror stories abound about reps. One horror story I especially liked was the rep who demanded lots of samples and then ended up selling them at flea markets. Luckily, the client found out and stopped sending him samples before too much financial damage was done. I was chatting with one of my B Team buddies this morning, who relayed the story of the rep agency that took 80 samples off of her hands, after which she never heard from them again.

Most horror stories I have heard regard scads of samples provided, or scads of money paid, after which the rep is never heard from again. It is enough to make anyone recoil in horror at the thought of even acknowledging the existence of independent reps. This is unfortunate, as there are some excellent reps out there. Sorry reps, but if you are reading this blog, I can’t undo the damage that those who have gone before you have done.

We now work comfortably and confidently with three rep firms. In the next entry or two I will tell our tale, which I hope most of you will find useful.