The job site is often charged with activity, but the level of excitement is raised even higher when the rep from Cutler Industrial Sales, Inc., arrives on the site. Cutler has put together a demonstration truck and trailer and the Islip, N.Y., manufacturer's rep firm has been bringing a traveling exposition to its customers for the past two years.

Cutler Industrial Sales represents a wide range of MRO supplies, cutting tools, abrasives, and machine tool accessories. President Robert Cutler says the truck has been useful not only to bring the tools to construction job sites and manufacturing customer locations, but has been a great addition to open houses and training sessions at distributors' facilities.

"The demo truck allows us to bring the tools right to the end-user," says Cutler. "We can communicate the value better when we offer a great hands-on experience of the lines we represent, and that is what the customers really want."

It's also a great service to the lines that Cutler represents, he says. It allows the rep to bring the manufacturer's best products to the hands of the customers, rather than just a catalog and a list of features.

"Manufacturer's reps are increasingly supporting their manufacturers and distributors at the end-customer level," says Cutler. "Manufacturers and distributors are both trimming down their sales forces and look to us to provide increased support."

Manufacturer's reps focus on perhaps a dozen lines while distributors carry hundreds of lines. Therefore reps have always provided in-depth technical support to distributors and end-customers.

Increasingly, the reps have been taking on a larger share of the marketing role, and its expense, for the manufacturers they represent. Whether it's outfitting a demo van, testing product solutions at the customer site or a high-quality computer program and printer to produce flyers and brochures, it's clear that reps are responsible for doing more to market their manufacturers' lines.

Reps no longer can sell their products merely on merit of lowest cost, says Andrew J. Feucht II, president of the rep firm Voight Enterprises, Inc., Vancouver, Wash.

"We have to communicate the value of our products, and that requires cooperative marketing efforts with our manufacturers," says Feucht. "It is certainly an added cost, and we look for added compensation for these services."

Feucht says he supports activity-based compensation programs. Since reps are providing a real service to their partners, more manufacturers are starting to understand that value and compensate accordingly.

It is essential to find the right partners, reminds Feucht. He looks for companies that share a similar philosophy. "We have narrowed our focus and put our lines under greater scrutiny," says Feucht. "By assuring we are going in the same direction, we make both our agency and our manufacturers stronger."

Voight Enterprises also looks for distributors that can make things happen in the field, says Feucht. The rep agency follows sales leads offered by the distributor and undertakes joint sales calls.

"We sell to the customer on many levels so workers, supervisors and purchasing agents take ownership of the program and understand the value the distributor brings to the relationship," says Feucht. "Then we assure that the distributor continues to follow through after the sale."

Communication is becoming increasingly important, he says. From the manufacturer to the distributor and the end-customer, reps need to use every tool in their repertoire to facilitate that communication. While reps are spending more face-time than ever with end-customers, they are relying on technology to help them bridge the chain.

The manufacturers expect more end-user visits and distributors want more joint sales calls and product support, agrees Cutler. At the same time, manufacturers are calling for increased reporting and better information.

"It feels like they're bogging us down with paperwork when we need to be out selling," says Cutler. "Of course, the manufacturers need to get information on their territories and they look to us." Cutler and his associates are linked into their CRM system. He says it's expensive but increasingly important to have a robust IT system.

Mack Sorrels agrees that the IT backbone of a rep firm is becoming essential in providing communication up and down the supply chain. Sorrells is the president of Mack W. Sorrells Co., Inc., Rockwall, Texas.

"The balance of providing service at the end-user level while providing more for our manufacturers is getting difficult," says Sorrells. "Sophisticated CRM and IT systems allow us to meet with these challenges."

A manufacturer's rep is really an outsourced sales employee for the manufacturer, points out Sorrells. However, a rep agency, as a business, must be more accountable than an employee, he adds.

"A rep agency must communicate its role as a highly professional business," says Sorrells. "For this reason, there are many reps that are way ahead of their manufacturers in IT systems and communications."

The initiation of an advanced CRM system at Sorrells' firm even led to a restructuring of the business operations. Each of the firm's five reps had a separate territory, but now the company uses a team approach facilitated by the IT system.

"It allows any of us to pick up where the last left off to provide better service to our customers and better representation to our manufacturers," says Sorrells.

While IT systems can facilitate communication, communicating is still done by people. Sorrells recommends investing in training in the arts of communication.

"Reps will need to get instruction and become skilled trainers," says Sorrells. "Telling is not training."

To communicate with and train distributors, reps will need to offer more than just telling the features and benefits of products, says Sorrells. He says he used to present on the basis of features and benefits, but has learned the value of real training from a 135-hour course in which he became an American Society for Training and Development-certified trainer.

"We talk about the specific value our products can offer in applications the distributors face," says Sorrells. "They become informed and can apply what they learn with their own customers and understand the value they can offer."

The level of professionalism in rep firms is increasing on every level, and business is growing. More manufacturers are reducing their sales force or dropping them altogether, says Feucht. A part of communicating that level of professionalism for many firms is participation in the Certified Professional Manufacturers' Representative program developed by the Manufacturers Representatives Educational Research Foundation.

Feucht says that CPMR training helps to ensure the high level of professionalism necessary to sell to even the largest of distributors and end-customers, that often do business through integrated supply contracts.

In integrated supply, there is often less technical support provided by the distributor and the rep must fill that void. It takes a higher level of professionalism and salesmanship to service these accounts, says Feucht.

It is important that reps employ every tool at their disposal to facilitate communication in the supply chain. The job hasn't changed that much over time, it just requires a bigger toolbox.