The industrial-PVF manufacturers rep isn't a dying breed. In fact, it's evolving at breakneck speed.
Somehow in the last decade or so, the term middleman has been reduced to a four-letter word in the minds of many people. And perhaps no one has been caught in this pinch as much as the manufacturers representative -- the middleman to the middleman distributor. In this era of doing more with less and squeezed vendor lists, the future of manufacturers reps looks grim.
Well, maybe. If you define the manufacturers rep as the guy who drives from one distributor to another to discuss golf scores and buy lunch, he probably is an endangered species. But these days, any rep worth his mileage deduction knows that his job calls for a lot more than glib gab and steak sandwiches. Relationships are still the name of the game, but so are technical expertise and willingness to train distributors'own sales teams.