by Charles Cohon, President and CEO, MANA
A perpetual stew, also known as forever soup, is a pot that is never or rarely emptied all the way, and ingredients and liquid are replenished as necessary. Foods prepared in a perpetual stew have been described as being flavorful due to the manner in which the ingredients blend together, in which the flavor may improve with age. — Wikipedia
The year was 1947. Harry S. Truman was president of the United States, and a group of manufacturers’ reps decided to band together to exchange best practices and elevate their industry’s professionalism.
The best practices that those reps shared in 1947 included protecting their commissions, negotiating rep agreements, and coping with house accounts.
Those discussions were the first ingredients in a perpetual stew of best practices that have been simmering at MANA for 75 years. Since then, we’ve stirred additional best practice ingredients into the pot, including:
- Writing rep business plans.
- Finding the best lines to represent.
- Developing new markets with pioneering lines.
- Negotiating win-win rep agreements.
- Analyzing your line card.
- Leveraging new technologies.
- Managing house accounts and split commissions.
- Working with international principals.
- Forming rep councils.
- Planning to sell your rep business.
With 75 years of best practices to choose from, the pot eventually started overflowing. So we curated the ingredients into a list of our most valuable best practice resources. The result was two curated lists in the member area of MANAonline.org:
- For reps: 12 Steps to Rep Professionalism
- For manufacturers: 9 Steps to Selling Through Independent Reps
The very best from 75 years of collecting the best practices, all in one place and all included in your MANA membership.
It’s food for your brain and for your business success. Soup’s on; come and get it, available exclusively to MANA members.
Charles Cohon, CPMR, is CEO and president of MANA. In 2016 Cohon earned the Certified Association Executive (CAE) designation after completing American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) coursework and testing. Cohon also earned an MBA with honors and with concentrations in strategic management and entrepreneurship from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and was founder and owner of a very successful Illinois manufacturers’ representative firm for nearly 30 years before joining MANA.