Step 1 · Range
The products, and which are excluded.
What we do, in detail
Four things, none of which involves owning the goods.
Program 01 · SIC 46160
Agency representation
Representation works when the boundaries are drawn before it starts: which territory, which customers, which products, and whether authority extends to concluding a sale or stops at negotiating one. Those four lines decide what commission is earned on and what happens when a buyer in the territory places an order with the principal directly. Leaving them vague looks like flexibility and turns into the argument that ends the relationship.
Step 2 · Territory
Area and customers, written down.
Step 3 · Authority
Negotiate only, or conclude as well.
Step 4 · Commission
Rate, trigger and payment dates.
Step 1 · Fit
Which buyers this range is for.
Step 2 · Approach
To the person who decides.
Step 3 · Present
Samples, prices and lead times.
Step 4 · Account
Opened with the principal, not with us.
Program 02 · Opening accounts
Buyer introductions
Most ranges fail in a market because they were shown to the wrong buyers, not because they were wrong. A price point that works for independents will not survive a multiple's margin expectations, and a range built for one will be rejected by the other for reasons the supplier reads as a rejection of the product. Part of this job is saying which buyers a range suits before a season of samples is spent finding out.
Program 03 · The dull half
Order follow-through
An order transmitted and then forgotten is how agencies lose accounts they worked a year to open. The Regulations require a principal to tell the agent whether a transaction has been accepted, refused or not executed, and there is a reason that duty exists: the agent is the person the buyer telephones. So transmission is followed by confirmation, and a delay is reported to the buyer by us rather than discovered by them.
Step 1 · Samples
With specifications that match them.
Step 2 · Order
Transmitted the same day.
Step 3 · Confirm
Accepted, refused or not executed.
Step 4 · Delivery
Chased, and delays told early.
Step 1 · Draft
Territory, products, commission, notice.
Step 2 · The end
Orders arriving after it, and notice.
Step 3 · Restraint
Written, limited, two years at most.
Step 4 · Signed
By both, and a copy to each.
Program 04 · Settled at the start
The agency terms
This exists as a stated service because so few agencies have it. Either party is entitled to a signed written statement of the terms on request, and the simplest way to honour that is to produce one at the outset. Four things go in it that people argue about later: what commission is earned on and when it falls due, the notice period, what happens to orders that arrive after the end, and any restraint clause — which is void beyond two years however it is drafted.
A range to bring to the UK, or a territory to cover?
A free first conversation, with no obligation. We will say honestly which buyers a range suits before anyone spends a season finding out.