The ECIA Independent Manufacturer Rep Council conducted extensive surveys of North American based distributors to identify the Best Practices used by manufacturers and their local representatives in the training of distributor personnel.
Over 1,000 individuals were surveyed over a five-month period. From the insights gained from that research, the Council then developed extensive model training materials that can be customized for training programs for specific components.
The program includes recommendations for customized market-based product training: time and length of training; the audience; pitfalls to avoid and key issues for distributors to consider when requesting their training preferences. The Council has also prepared template worksheets to maximize the training ROI: pre-meeting agenda preparation; post-training action items and post-training results report.
“A collaborative approach in the creation of trainings assures effectiveness and greatly increases audience participation and ROI,” explained Alan Ahern, Manufacturers’ Rep Council Chair and president of Crowley Associates. “We are grateful to all the participants in the survey and want to emphasize that this is a working document that will be continuously updated with new, fresh, innovative ideas that are presented back to the ECIA.”
“One thing that no one can afford to waste these days is people’s time,” noted David Loftus, CEO and President of ECIA. “By relying on the in-depth survey data, we are confident these recommendations will enable manufacturers and reps to optimize the time spent in training distributors on product specifications and markets.”
The Executive Summary, survey results and training templates can be found on the ECIA website, Model Distribution Training page.
