The Friend Zone

By: Tama Underwood, Associate Editor



A Distributor Asks:
One of my reps brings in more business from his network of friends and family members than from strictly professional relationships. I’m considering shifting some of these friends-and-family clients to another rep with him still receiving some commission from each. I don’t want to lose these clients—or the rep—in the short-term, but if this rep were to leave the company one day they would surely go with him. What should I do?

Lorey Gallop-Wintz, MAS
Owner
Help Is On The Way
UPIC: HIOTW: First of all, distributors have no guarantee that any of our reps will be with us tomorrow, and experience tells us that the majority of the business stays with the rep, not the distributor. It is my belief that if you attempt to take any of the sales commission from this rep you will lose the rep and the business. I would urge you to leave the situation alone, otherwise you may end up with a lose-lose situation.

Jack Mushin, CAS
Director, Sales & Marketing
Promotional Products of New England 
Reps leave distributors every day, and from what I have seen it has always been because the rep was not treated to their expectations. I left a company, along with a top salesman, and I recently saw another rep who left a big company. Even professional relationships become friends with your rep and will follow them when they leave you. Treat them special, give them bonuses and let them share in some of your year-end incentives from suppliers. Then you will not have to be paranoid. In the meantime, you are profiting from their friends and family.

Joanne Worrall
President
JPR Consulting, Inc.
UPIC: jprconsl
Why would you try to break something that seems to be working well? Surely you can’t honestly believe that if this rep left your company his friends and family would stay with you—of course not. This isn’t just a business of getting orders and selling stuff. This is a business of relationships, with the best promotional products reps making themselves a resource to their client base. We build our best sales results by first building a trusting relationship with our customers. As we become more familiar with their needs, we can better consult to them on promotional products and ideas. And the more we are proactive with them, the more we become part of their marketing team. It’s a win-win for both of us. Anyone can sell some promotional “stuff” to a stranger, at least once in a while, but it’s a great rep who makes himself part of his customers’ business family. In my opinion, if you try to share these customers with another rep, you’re likely going to alienate that rep and possibly the customer(s) too. Instead, why not incent this “friends and family” rep to mentor the other salespeople on how he gets his network to work for him?


Manita J. Bartels
President
The Calvert Co., Inc.
UPIC: CALVERT
Be happy he has friends and family that buy from him. Of course they would leave if he went somewhere else. Take them away and see how fast he leaves and takes them with [him].


Mary Dowling, CAS
Owner
Dowling & Associates
UPIC: DOWL0001
Considering your rep networked his family and friends with positive results, it would be a no-win situation for both parties. It would be a sure bet that the rep and his clients would leave if you followed through with this.


If this rep is carrying the bulk of your business, you may want to re-assess the other reps’ account activity. I would focus on bringing in more business rather than focusing on the possibility of the rep eventually leaving.
Rich Battaglino
President
Gotham Promotions
UPIC: GOTHAMPR
Consider granting minor ownership if his sales are that strong. This will cement the relationship.

Sara Galbiati
VP Of Sales
InnoPack USA, Inc.
UPIC: innopack
I would not switch those clients to other reps. The reason they are buying from your firm at all is because of their personal relationship with their friend. Of course they would follow him; they are friends.
If you are worried about him leaving, do everything possible to make his stay with you as cushy as possible. Ask him what perks would help him do his job better. Offer him better commissions when he meets certain sales targets. Let him know that you want to do everything you can to back him up. If you make his job easy for him, he won’t try to go somewhere else.

You’ll start losing the customers if you switch them to other reps. You are missing that the fundamental reason they went with your salesman is because he is awesome and convinces everyone he knows to buy. You can’t easily replace that quality.


Tricia Woods, CAS
Regional Sales Manager
Universal Creative Concepts-Midwest
UPIC: UCC
Golden Rule: People buy from people. If I were the rep to receive the newly transferred clients and expected to service them while not receiving the full commission, that would not sit well with me.

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It’s Not Too Late
Have your own two cents to add to this reader question? Leave your advice in the comments section below.

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A Distributor Asks:
We recently questioned a $1,300 freight charge from a major supplier by providing quotes from an online freight quote center. The factory dropped the charges by $500 even though we showed that the discount should have been $800. We paid the product portion of the invoice within five days, but the factory would not release any further orders without full payment for the freight. We tried via phone, factory rep and e-mail to resolve this situation. The supplier’s vice president of customer relations said its invoice should be sufficient proof for an end buyer who questions a bill. We ended up discounting the freight bill by an additional $200 for the client. Was there a better way to handle this situation?

What’s your answer? E-mail answers along with your name, title and company name toQuestion@ppai.org by July 31 for possible inclusion in an upcoming issue of PPB magazine.