Your Relationship with Sales Reps

This is, in a sense, an extension of your relationship with suppliers. It goes far beyond this, however.

• Many newer stores credit the advice, help and support of key sales reps with their initial success. Few dive store owners have a background in business and retailing. Very often, it is knowledgeable sales reps who end up training retailers in the fundamentals of salesmanship, inventory control and marketing.
• Sales reps do more than represent a manufacturer to the retailer; they may also serve as the retailer’s intermediary when dealing with the supplier. Good reps look out for the needs of both their employers and dealers, seeking to make the relationship a “win/win” proposition for all concerned.

Dave Farrar of Gypsy Divers in Raleigh, North Carolina, says, “A good rep can make all the difference. There have been a number of times I’ve chosen one supplier over another, not because I like their merchandise better, but because I knew I could rely on their sales rep.”

But, at the same time, Keith Chesnut of Sierra Diving Center in Reno, Nevada, warns, “Some reps are more interested in increasing your product purchases than they are in sales and inventory levels. This does not support the retailer. It can cause real trust issues and alienate an otherwise useful resource.”

Obviously, it is your relationship with the more professional and less self-centered reps that increases the value of your business.

Your relationship with employees »

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