Wherever you are right now I want you to stop, close your eyes and think really hard. Do you know if the front door to your business is open? If you want to know for sure, call a rep.

For the dealers and distributors in my territory, I know the answer – and I don’t even need to close my eyes. As I sit here tapping away on my keyboard, I can tell you if their business door is open to me. I don’t have to drive there, look through their front window or tug at the door. Trust me. There are no supernatural anomalies or crystal balls hanging around my office. I can tell with the utmost certainty whether the door is open or closed because of past dealings and their reputation in the industry.

I’m not unique; every good rep knows what I know. It is our job to recognize where the best opportunities are and where it is best for us, and the suppliers that we represent, to aim to do business. It’s also our job to know where we are wasting our time.

Information Exchange

Most people and businesses in our industry are engaging and welcome the knowledge, the products and the networking that reps bring to their companies. Their doors are open to reps because they seek out relationships within the industry that have the potential to better their organizations. They understand that reps are walking through their doors with more than just a new product tucked under their arm.

Don’t get me wrong; selling product is the foremost reason that a rep calls on you. Selling feeds your family and feeds mine, too. However, there is much more to benefit from maintaining open communication with reps.

I consider the basic exchange of information to be the prime reason for having an open door policy. The rep knocking at your door is most likely exposed to markets and businesses outside of your own. Taking the time to share a conversation and hear what’s happening in other places allows you to collect data that may be important to your business.

Maybe a rep will share an experience, an idea or a bit of information that you can use to advance your company. When I sit down with a dealer/distributor, my conversations often veer to tangential subjects. I end up discussing new technologies that I have seen in the field or news about industry players. Accounting, IT, human resources, marketing and other subjects usually end up intertwined in my product discussion. These are opportunities for both you and me to possibly uncover small treasures in shared knowledge.

I regularly rely on relationships within the industry to exchange information. I reach out to those that are open to me and they do likewise.

Though it sounds odd, the people I connect with are not always the ones I sell product to. I have strong links to dealers/distributors that have never bought a penny’s worth of product from me, but their doors are always open and I take opportunities to walk through them. Why? I do this because the exchange of information is good for all of us. I still strive to make them a customer one day, but until we find the right fit of product and need, I am more than happy to share the benefits of the informational exchange.

Open doors lead to opened opportunities, and being open to this exchange by welcoming reps into your business is true networking. We would all agree that networking is crucial for business in general, but we need to be more focused and realize how important it is to our own businesses.