Alright, so you've got your product ready for market. Everything is going great, and you're almost ready to start selling it. You've decided to use independent sales reps to further your product's sales, but... now what? How do you proceed? What you really want to do is build a network of independent reps! Now how do you do that? You could try classified advertisements in various local newspapers, and that might work for you. But more likely you will end up spending hundreds if not thousands of dollars on ads that only run for a week, or maybe even a day, and result in being inundated by responses from people who are not at all related to what you're looking for. Most of them won't even be sales reps! So you decide to look online to see what other options there are. That's where RepHunter comes in. The first step in the process is finding sales reps in the right markets and communicating with them, which is what we do! When you subscribe to our service, we GUARANTEE you contacts with manufacturer's reps.

The next step is all you! Getting reps to take your line once you've contacted them is crucial, and it's extremely important for you to create the right impression of your product for the sales reps so that they WANT to represent you. You need to be able to "sell" your product to your sales reps, or how can you expect them to be able to sell it to retailers?

The most important step in this whole process is screening. Once you've gotten in contact with independent sales reps and convinced them to sell your product for you, you need to make sure they are right for you. Basically, can they move your product? Once they accept your line, we recommend that you hold off on long-term agreements, and in the short term use a simple Letter of Intent. This functions as a "handshake in writing" which protects both yourself and the rep, in case of disagreements. It also fills the important function of putting your rep into a probationary period, allowing you to easily map out your expectations.

A letter of intent could be nothing much more complicated than a one page email, identifying the basic points of the original probationary working agreement. In it you should identify:

• The probationary time frame


• Mandatory communication schedules


• Progress milestones


• A clear cut vision of your expectations for the probationary period

But what if a rep decides they aren't a match for you? You still aren't completely out of luck in that avenue. In this case, you should send a response email, thanking the rep for considering your offer, clearly describing why your opportunity is a good one, a request to contact you should they find a home for your product in the future, as well as a request for names of anyone they know that may be interested in your line. A small finders fee can help encourage this last point. As in so many burgeoning areas of business these days, networking really is key.