Saturday, February 12, 2011

The Rep/Supplier Relationship


In about 2 months the Incentive Manufacturers and Representatives Alliance (IMRA) wlll convene for its annual Marketing Conference. This year we're meeting in Nashville, and it's appropriate that we are there, the home of lyrics like "all my exes wear Rolexes" and "she got the gold mine, I got the shaft".

I've been doing some thinking about the rep/supplier relationship and there are some parallels between it and a good country song. Or, at least, SOME country songs. To wit:

  • There's the "you did me wrong" song--reps are perceiving that suppliers are changing the rules, placing "unfunded mandates" of customer service onto the reps;
  • And the "I'll be OK without you" song--suppliers are diverging their paths on how to approach the market--some chasing end users more aggressively, others hiring new types of reps (retail, promotional product multi-line) to get to the business;
  • We can't forget the "I've got somebody new" song--as new entities (like large 2-step electronics distributors) enter our business, they provide a different model for reps--they may no longer need those "exclusive" arrangements in certain categories;
  • And finally, we must pay homage to "I remember how it used to be" songs--as reps and suppliers come to grips with a changing landscape and how it impacts their future, we pine for a simpler time when it was lemonade and swimming holes, First Kisses and the Fourth of July.
I'm guessing there will be some sad songs sung in Nashville--the recent optimism is still perched on the shaky ground of whatever this "recovery" may be. And I also think we'll hear lots of steel guitars twanging about the future of the market. But I find my favorite country songs to be those that combine humor with the pathos, like my hero, Hank Williams Jr., who once opined:

"They called the cops to take me in
and I said 'you're never gonna do it, friends'
and they just smiled and said 'oh yes we will'
now a stick to the head and some kicks to the shins
and several bites by Rin Tin Tin
and I couldn't wait to get into that jail"...

Now THAT's an Attitude Adjustment...


Pete

posted by Pete Mitchell at 11:13 AM

1 Comments:

Blogger Barb Hendrickson said...

And don't forget that old favorite, "It Starts with Goodbye"....

There will be a rep/supplier Town Hall meeting at the IMRA Conference that asks the question: Is the rep/mfg relationship sustainable?

The reality is that the mfgs are losing staff, the customers have already lost staff, and that leaves the bulk of the necessary admin/customer service to the rep: the one that is working on the lowest (and declining) margins. When (not if) we get to the place where reps can no longer afford to represent lines, where does that leave the mfg? And where does it leave the customer who requires service that the mfg doesn't have the staff to provide?

We need to share information as to what's working and what isn't; how we can best work together to remain valuable to the customer. We don't just need to think outside the box: we likely need a new box.

6:50 PM  

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