A major reason for manufacturer representatives’ effectiveness and value
The Manufacturers’ Representatives Educational Research Foundation (MRERF) defines synergy in their Outsourcing Field Sales manual:
Synergism is the joint interaction of agents which, when combined with each other, increase each other’s overall effectiveness. Synergistic selling refers to the sales interaction between lines and products, which increases the sales of each.
Let’s break that down. For our purposes, agents refers to the products, or lines of products that a vendor offers. So when a product from Vendor A is combined or bundled together with the product from Vendor B, when being shown to a customer, both vendors are able to make a sale where neither may have succeeded before. The customer gets more for their dollar, and less time in meetings, and rep firms get more lines into the store.
A Rep firm is able to provide additional value to a vendor in many ways, but one of the greatest emerges largely from the synergy created through their multiple lines. Because manufacturer representative firms like Three Sixty Sales carry products in their portfolio that are complementary in nature, the presence of each line benefits the other lines that are represented. It’s a win-win-win situation.
Synergistic selling helps open the door for product lines that might otherwise have been difficult to get through. And it adds value for Customers like Target with one-stop shopping. This partnering relationship exists at different levels with the Customer.
Because of the synergy of a manufacturer representative firm’s portfolio, rep firms are able to leverage existing business to introduce new products or new manufacturers to customers, and they can often create greater market share and faster market penetration for all of the lines they represent.
Three Sixty Sales focuses on several specific categories like home décor, housewares, toys and food. This way it can structure its portfolio of products in a synergistic way that is appealing to its customers. Learn more about the categories that Three Sixty Sales covers by visiting the Categories page on this site. Or give us a call to see how synergistic selling can work for you.
