“We are the local experts of our market, when you look at being the local expert, it’s our job to understand the construction market. What are they building? How are they building? What is the code? What is the local code? You know, a lot of us probably have relationships with a lot of the inspectors,” explains Brian Morgan, principal at the Morgan Group.
I sat down with a group of Canadian manufacturer’s representatives in the mechanical trades to discuss their role within the industry and to learn more about what exactly they do. On the call were Jason MacKenzie, managing partner at Equipco Ltd., Michael Misasi, principal owner at Centon Sales, Brian Morgan, principal at the Morgan Group, Stephane Stonely, owner of Ventes Techniques Nimatec Inc., Bryan Richardson, president of Centon Sales, Rich Palser, president of Palser Enterprises Ltd., Jeff Blair, president of Barclay Sales Ltd., and Jeoffrey Laberge, sales director at Ventes Techniques Nimatec Inc.
Most of these individuals are veterans in the industry with many years under their belts with their respective companies operating within Canada between 36 and 71 years.
Manufacturer’s representatives possess a very unique position within the mechanical trades. They are responsible for anything from shipping to receiving to training to quoting to troubleshooting to customer service to marketing. The list honestly could go on and on. Typically, these services that are provided comes down to the specific manufacturer t he agent is representing.
This role has seen quite a shift in the industry over the years. “Manufacturer’s reps have evolved in the industry from the old days,” explains Blair. “We actually pull the business to the distribution channel versus in the old days where we just pushed the product to the wholesaler.”
Nowadays, the agent is even responsible for social media, “We do a lot of social media as well. We’re expected now to be creating content or posting content on all the different platforms. That’s part of the job that we wouldn’t have had to do before,” shares Palser. “There’s really a team behind all of us.”
As Morgan describes it, “We are the outsourced sales and marketing for representatives in the manufacturing world in a geographic territory. We have the rights to promote and sell those products within the territory that we serve. Our role on how we do that is to go out and create the demand for those products in the local market through working with distributors, contractors, developers, owners and engineers.”
Contractor relationship
The manufacturer-agent relationship is very multifaceted. They have to cultivate relationships not only with the manufacturers they represent but also with the wholesaler and the contractor.
One of the benefits for the contractor to develop a relationship with a manufacturer representative is because they are the closest direct line of contact to the manufacturer itself. “We are not what I would call a one trick pony,” shares Richardson. “We can solve 10 or however many of their problems under one umbrella. You become that much more important. If you’re repping 10 lines, you’re 10 times more important to that contractor than somebody who is a direct sales representative for a manufacturer.”
To put this into perspective, “As a manufacturer rep, we tend to want to package our offering out into the marketplace,” explains Misasi. “A factory representative might only focus on faucets during a meeting. On the other hand, Centon covers a wider range, discussing faucets, bathtubs, toilets, kitchen sinks, the plumbing behind the walls, washing machines, and more. This approach allows you to expand the conversation, making you more valuable to the contractor, developer, and wholesaler. They depend on you as a one-stop shop, reducing the need for multiple calls to different suppliers for various products.”
Since many of the products within this industry are so technical in nature, it can be easy for a contractor to get lost, which means that job site visits are quite a common occurrence for each agent. “We would have to go to site to confirm the help with the install or to confirm some warranty or technical issue,” explains MacKenzie. “That would be another reason why they would reach out to us to go to site and check things out.”
Oftentime,s it’s the manufacturer’s rep that will go to the site and help fix the problems or mistakes. Building on that trusted relationship between the manufacturer agent and contractor is very important. “Smart contractors have direct relationships with manufacturer reps,” shares Blair.
The manufacturer rep’s role often starts right at the start of the project and will go right to the end. “So, with an architect, an engineer, developer, installer, jobsite, and warranty; we’re involved in every step along the ways,” says Laberge.
Expanding on Laberge’s response, Morgan states that their role doesn’t end at the completion of the job, it goes beyond that. “We’re even involved when they have to do service or maintenance on it down the road… We may be stocking service parts so that if something happens to a piece of equipment, they can get it back up and running really quickly. If they require training on what to do or on how to upkeep and service it, we’ll do that type of training and everything as well. So, even once the sale is done. I think all of us on this call have teams that are committed and invested in working with the contractor beyond that to make sure their customer is being looked after, and their equipment is being serviced and fixed and looked after for the long term.”
Collaboration within the industry is quite common between manufacturer agents across the country. “We bounce ideas off each other. What works in B.C. doesn’t mean it’ll work in Ontario. Sometimes somebody in B.C. or Alberta or out East will have a great idea that we didn’t even think of,” shares Richardson. “When you do work with other rep agencies, sometimes it’s already set in stone what products are going to be on the job, so you’re not fighting over that anymore. Now it’s just, how can we work together to help navigate this building or this challenge.”