Fired: All But One Exacq Rep Firm Now Out

In my experience, having worked with, hired, and fired various rep firms they are very interchangable at a base level.

Different firms have particular strenghts or weaknesses. Some are really good with advanced products, some work more with mainstream stuff, some specialize in esoteric or niche products.

Among the ones that have a line card that is some format of "Popular VMS", "Popular Camera", "Popular Access Control", etc. you find that in a given region that firm has 6 or 8 integrators AND end-uders that would practically follow them off a cliff. Within reason, any product that rep frims pitches is going to be widely accepted by that core group.

The thing is, this is true for every one of these firms. So, you also have a big chunk of integrators or end users that follow a different firm, and you're all but locked out of those accounts, due to those people having a different loyalty.

For any given firm then, you have some solid ins, some solid outs, and then a big swath of market that you have to influence. Generally speaking, that influence is driven by the manufacturer in some way. It might be the rep employee showing up and giving the pitch, but in effect ANYONE could give the pitch just as well (with some basic training and product familiarity beforehand of course).

Rep firms might do a couple of regional mini-shows, or a lunch and learn type of event, but for the most part they are not generating a large number of total leads, they are responding to leads. What you find though as a manufacturer is that you are sort of pooling leads with the other manufacturers that rep firm represents. Take the Exacq/Arecont example. Exacq might get a lead they pass off to a rep firm, that firm is also going to try to pitch Arecont, and any of their other products. If the lead becomes a qualified opportunity the rep firm claims to Arecont that they "brought them a lead", but in reality Exacq is the core source of that lead because without the initial meeting setup via Exacq the rep firm might not have ever gotten in there in the first place.

In evaluating rep firms I would often look at what other lines they carried, and their ability to document back time spent on my specific product, and similar things. I never really expected a rep firm to be responsible for hunting, but moreso for farming.

IMO, many of the existing firms like to deny this fact or spin it differently, but they are really first and foremost a reduced cost or "comission only" outside sales team. They are not a marketing organization (as many of them claim) or particularly unique from their next competitor when you look at the larger picture of how they fit in.

Actually I was mistaken. They were judged on attach rate for Illustra cameras, and did not sell them. But they certainly did get told that Tyco was ok with them keeping Arecont.