The question is based on a false premise - that if manufacturers were to take on more order fulfillment and customer service functions, it would free the rep from from doing so. Unfortunately, factories that already do these things logically expect greater rep calling presence, especially with end users and specifiers. Reality, however, is that even when immediate, real time answers are available to them via factories' internet-based systems or toll-free telephone, distributor employees still seek direct such inquires to reps via telephone and email inquiries instead. Partly, it is because it is too much to expect that everyone involved at the distributor level will keep track of passwords, user names, etc. for each factory's system passwords. But also, people want to talk to people they know. Reps who have declined as policy to provide full service if factory systems for distributor use are in place, are viewed unfavorably at the distributor front-line and even management level.

IF and this is a big IF this was to happen we would transfer the cost of these functions to increase our outside sales staff which would ultimately increase our sales. This afterall is what everone wants.

Our business deals nearly exclusively in commodity products. Even so, there are products within our "A" lilnes that are of the specialty nature and therefore require repeated face to face time with specifiers, contractors and distributors. If we were able to spend less time with order enty and expediting, I would shift those hours saved from inside sales staff to outside sales staff in order to have more available time to promote those specialty products. In terms of personnel, we would end up with more outside staff and less inside staff. Having said that, I do not believe that, no matter how robust a customer service group any manufacturer has, it can never be as effective as a local rep's people are when it comes to order expediting, problem solving, etc, and I do not believe a complete transition to a manufacturer provided customer service function is practical for all manufacturers in the forseeable future.

This is a dream question. I doubt if this type of arrangement will ever happen. Manufacturers have never looked to hire more people to perform service functions; why should they when there are relatively inexpensive ways to utilize their rep force? If this "system" were in place, I believe the customers would continue to call the local rep for information of all sorts. After all, that's the result of the relationship that has been established. Further, if only some manufacturers relieved the reps of these functions, what about their competitors? They most certainly would take full advantage of the "empty room." If a rep hires people to take on the order/inquiry functions, and others to do solely sales, he takes a big risk if the sales effort doesn't get off the ground or the mfrs aren't competitive or cooperative. Bottom line is that this question is not logical in today's market, and most likely not in tomorrow's. It is wishful thinking. The best solution is for the mfrs to compensate for the additional work and stress the rep endures. That would be less expensive than their hiring more inside staff. (Comment re: mfr websites for inventory/ordering - some are a nightmare, and some are A1. We have both on our plate.)

For us this task or process is not the biggest log that jams up the flow of water. Our largest 2 principals, which accounts for over 50% of our sales and income, already perform most of the order entry and have great order acknowledgement and shipment notification. For us as a rep and many of my NEMRA counterparts receive way too many phone calls from lazy inside people asking for Price and Availability instead of using the vendors equipped web sites. I bring it up with distributor management and they know they have a problem and are not willing to change the consistent offenders. We will encourage them to go to the web site and they have all kinds of excuses.

In as much as we warehouse, the fulfillment service is something we want our hands on. We only warehouse a couple of our "A" lines but the order entry process of the other lines is very time consuming and counter productive. We pride ourselves in having the latest and up to date computers and systems yet, many of our manufacturers are charging into the 20th century. Their order entry systems are very slow. Their shipment tracking is very slow. Their stock checks are very slow. Their websites are not updated and still they are driving us to them. The manufacturers systems become the biggest problem of the process , although the process as a whole is very time consuming. We spend, on average, 8-12 man hours a day with the order processing, and tracking procedure. We wouldn't mind being a part of checking orders for correctness before sending them on for order entry. If we could free up most of the 8-12 hours a day it would allow us to better follow up on and solicate orders. It would also allow us to add another person or two to our sales staff. Both options are income producing , pro-active steps to better business for all. It amazes me how manufacturing, with their "own" cost cutting meassures of shifing more and more of the paper work to the rep is costing them dearly as well as the rep. Both parties only make money when something is sold and paid for. Selling isn't taking place while we continue to get increasingly diluged with clerical expectations above and beyond what the job generates on its own; all for the sake of the manufacturer becoming "more effecient" in their efforts to become more service oriented. Sales make the world go round. We are looking for time as much, if not more, than we are looking for orders; knowing that if we have the time, the orders will follow. Am I missing something here? Oh ya! Have we mentioned the cut in commissions as compensation for the added clerical responsibilites?

Our experience is that manufacturers, almost by default, must be egocentric to be successful and are thereby, generally incapable of giving the necessary degree of sensitivity and persistence that is the basis of truly good customer service. One of the primary contributions a manufacturers rep provides is to buffer customer's from the client's own self-absorbtion. If we thought our clients truly understood that and could change their culture to provide the same customer care, we would abandon that role in a heartbeat. Without such confidence, we cringe at the thought of losing that role.

We have all ready begun the process even though few of our “A” manufacturers have eliminated most of the clerical functions I include as: expediting, order entry, quotations when we have no authority to quote, trucking problems, shipping problems, returns, co op advertising forms, etc. Our inside sales people are now specialists in the true sense of product managers. They are taken to customers or specifiers, layout jobs, teach our people and customers about product innovations; lead sales meetings at customers; take off jobs and are “in-house” assets utilized by customers and our own people. They create business, support and relationships by being proactive and not clerks. The type of person now being hired by us gets compensated similarly to outside people and given their status and background certainly adds value to our company and the manufacturers we represent.