Gift Rep Sandy

Posts Tagged ‘Sales Rep Agreement’

Some of the areas for potential problems and issues needs to be addressed as they occur in your day to day experience as, often, there is not a way to deal with the ‘unusual’ in an agreement or contract.  Having worked with both non-contracted vendors and contracted vendors, I can tell you, potential problems come up with both scenarios.

Non-Contracted Agreements can work with larger companies that have a set policy established when working with sales reps.  Some of the larger companies I have represented told me they have worked with dozens of sales reps in various different parts of the country without an agreement (and don’t intend to start using them!).  Most of these companies know exactly what they will or will not be able to do and can explain that to you at the beginning.  If you prove your value to them early in your business relationship (by generating good sales and customers for them), they, often, honor you by protecting your territory and customers.  They will see you as an asset to their business and will work to maintain this asset.

On the other hand, new or smaller companies often need the framework of an agreement – especially if they have not worked with sales reps in the past.  Because new or smaller companies have little experience with reps, they may not understand the value of an agreement.  Too many times, they enjoy the sales you bring them, but view you as competition rather than a sales partner.  If a buyer frequently contacts the vendor direct when placing their orders rather than contact you, their sales reps, your vendor may assume that you are not servicing the account.  If vendors see this regularly, they may just fill the order without paying your commission.  When you address this issue in the signed sales agreement, you have some protection, but not always.  Vendors, like buyers, are busy people and often will fill phone orders and forget to give you credit for the sale.  If this issue comes up, you need to weigh the relationship with my vendor verses the one or two sales or small customers. Mostly I decided the relationship was more important.   But honestly, I was never sure if this philosophy was the best approach.  You may want to decide ahead of time how you plan to handle a situation should this happen.

The way you handle a difficult situation can smooth a potential problem between you and your vendor.  I work with producers where I have an arrangement for the vendor to take an opening order for a new customer, but they turn the account over to me for future servicing and re-orders.  No commission is due until I secure a re-order from this store.  Working with an arrangement such as this shows the vendor you are working your best to take care of their customers.  Other options are to ‘train’ your buyers to always contact you for orders.  If your name and contact information is on ALL literature or catalogs you leave with your buyers, they are more likely to contact you rather than calling the vendor.  If this issue is addressed in an Agreement, it helps to clear up misunderstandings before they happen.

Terms of sales are as different as there are companies to represent!  Because each company uses specific but different terms, I found it helpful to devote an entire sheet to the various terms a vendor will extend to new and repeat customers.

Standard terms for the gift industry are Net 30 days – where the products are shipped with invoices due in 30 days.  Most companies require some additional information or requirements for first time orders to a store.  These many include some of the following:

• Prepayment on first order only
• Credit card required for first orders
• Trade Credit Application on file before extending terms
• COD required until credit is established
• Minimum order amount (dollar amounts or quantity amounts)

Within those categories, a vendor may have other requirements or terms, such as:

• Free shipping on orders over $XX
• Free shipping on prepaid orders
• Free display for orders over $XX
• XX% discount for orders over $XX
• 2%, Net XX days, or a XX% if you pay early
• Prepayment required for order over $XX
• Prepayment required for order under $XX
• $XX handling charge for orders under $XX

As you can see, the possibilities are endless.  If you use a detailed questionnaire with your sales agreement, most of these terms can be addressed and listed for future reference.

House accounts are store buyers the vendor has been working with directly within the territory you are servicing.  How you can deal with a producers’ house accounts depends on what your vendor and you decided together is in the best interest of your mutual customers.  Here are some of the options to consider:

• Servicing all of the vendor’s house accounts.  Should you and your vendor decide to use this approach, it is very helpful for the vendor to send a letter of announcement to their customers.
• Servicing only certain specified vendor’s customers.  A list of these customer should be provided by the vendor.
• Servicing none of the vendor’s house accounts.  In this scenario, having a list of these accounts listed in the agreement lets you know which stores these include.
• Servicing the house accounts at a reduced commission level.  This arrangement works as a compromise to the either/or options listed above.

I have worked with vendors using all four of the options listed.  Having a detailed list of which accounts are house accounts and how they need to be handled is essential to the agreement as it will provide the information you need when approaching your potential buyers.