Maybe You Can Help?

 I’m searching for a new name for what my company does. Many of you reading this experience my company in different ways. We do a lot of stuff.

Most of you know me as a “manufacturers’ representative”. Likely that means I am a hired-gun sales dude, slinging products from the “next big thing”. And that is exactly how I got my start – selling guitar effect pedals. Part of me wishes I was still doing that…wandering around trade shows looking for factories with poor sales skills and great products.

But, on my way to work one day (meaning from one bedroom to another bedroom called my “office”), things changed. Things changed and my industry became frustrated with “commissioned sales.” That frustration was only one tiny part of a huge change in the way people select things to consume. Everything changed. So did my company.

My factories all originally hired me to do one simple thing: sell more stuff.  It sounds pretty easy, doesn’t it? Here is what it morphed into – and where I need your help to name it.

“Sell More Stuff” became:

• Business development – both channel and commercial users

• Channel management

• Engineering and design

• Integration support

• Commissioning

• Programming

• Technical support

• Customer service

• Distribution

• Training

• Events

• Data Analytics

• Systems monitoring

• Service contract management

This is the stuff we “officially” do. And there is even more stuff than that. And instead of just me doing it, it’s a team of 20.

So, what would you call a company that is built to not only bring great products to market, but ensure they are deployed properly, profitably, and repeatedly for our channel partners?

What would you call a company that can take a widget that only a few people are buying or know about, get it placed in the hands of numerous fortune 1000 consumers, write it into an architectural specification, then support it, operate it, train on it? Oh and we’re independent and can deliver all of this in context. What would you call that operation?

Are we reps?

I think we’re much more than reps. We’re not manufacturers. We’re not integrators. We’re not end-users. We’re not consultants…but we are kind of all of that.  We’ve kicked around “professional services organization” and “technical services provider” but honestly, I hate them.

I have gone so far as to visit one of my favorite websites – a job-title BS generator that kicked out “dynamic web liaison” or “future accountability producer.”

So, we really do all those things on the list. And we break many of them out with kitschy names. But ultimately, what we do is help make products live a long happy, successful life.

So PLEASE HELP US name our job.   NAME IT and win a custom Farm AV tennis visor.  Or tens of dollars in cash.