Business Opportunities Weblog

How to Find a Manufacturer’s Rep

By on November 16, 2005 in Ideas

vegetables. Photo by Presidente.

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You have just entered the market with a great new product to offer. But how do you get it into the hands of the people who want and need it? That all depends on the kind of sales entity you intend to use. In essence, you have three choices: hire an in-house sales staff, work with an independent manufacturers’ sales representative firm, or use an independent distributor.

In-house sales staff work as employees. A manufacturers’ representative is an independent entity who will sell your wares but does not warehouse or inventory those products. A distributor is an independent firm that actually buys the product from you, warehouses it, and then sells that product to an outlet that sells it to the end user.

You will have to do some homework to identify distributors or sales reps that sell products to stores that can successfully carry your goods. For example, if you are manufacturing disposable medical products, you want to identify distributors or sales reps who sell to outlets familiar with those kinds of products, says Bill Radin, author, consultant, and president of Radin Associates and Radin.com.

One way to identify distributors or sales reps is through Internet companies that match sales reps or distributors with manufacturers. Three such firms are RepLocate.com;RepHunter.net; and Manufacturers Representative Profile, or mrpusa.com. RepLocate allows a manufacturer to advertise its need for a sales rep or distributor. RepHunter.net actually recruits commission-only reps and has more than 7,000 profiles of independent reps on file. Manufacturers pay a small subscription fee ranging from $89 a month to $149 a month for the right to use RepHunter’s database.

Photo by Presidente.

planning sales

Business Opportunities Weblog editor and publisher Dane Carlson lives in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, just 15 miles from Yosemite National Park. He accidentally became a professional blogger in 2001. He has added 12,203 posts to the site.

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  • http://www.globalrepresentation.com Jennifer Weir

    In regards to Internet companies that match manufacturers with independent sales reps, Global Representation — http://www.globalrepresentation.com is another site, with a big international emphasis (they use WorldLingo to translate into 15 languages. Very similar to replocate

  • http://www.goMPGgreen.com Don Vance

    Yes I am looking for manufacturers reps and found 100 beating my door down in a 2 day period from http://www.manufacturers-representatives.com

    They kicked my door down at ……
    http://www.goMPGgreen.com

    because saving 15 to 20% of the CASH people spend weekly on gas and diesel is a NO BRAINER as they say!

  • miss sow

    you can join me in this gold mining business.
    write me here:sowfamily@yahoo.com
    +233276399990

  • http://www.contractauction.com Contract Auction

    You can post or bid on manufacturing jobs for free at http://www.contractauction.com. You can post anything from clothing to machine shop work.

  • Moni

    Looking for Gold buyer who can join me invest in Gold mining.
    If you are interested and ready to work with me, kindly contact me via my email:
    write me here:sowfamily@yahoo.com
    +233276399990

  • http://www.imecolimited.com Rahul Sharma

    Looking for manufacturer representative who can represent our products in power plant, cement companies & refineries, in Philippines, Hong kong, vietnam.

    you can find the product details & our company profile by visiting our website
    http://www.imecolimited.com

    Regards

    RAHUL SHARMA

    IMECO OVERSEAS PVT LTD

  • http://www.facebook.com/mike.thom.921 Mike Thom

    I’ve tried each of these sites and failed miserably. The problem wasn’t the site it was my involvement. Do not make my mistake in thinking that all you need to do is give these professionals data sheets and way you go. No Way. These are your business partners and need to be treated as such. Support, training, sales on your part and marketing too always makes this work too.

  • http://twitter.com/manufacturerrep Manufacturers Rep

    So far my best experience has been with RepEmployment.Com- http://repemployment.com It is a proper job site for searching Independent sales reps and manufacturers representatives and if you are lucky you may get several freebies given by their sales people.

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