Spotlight

New ERA Officers
Principals' Sales Meetings

Jack Berman

Make a memorial donation to the Manufacturers' Representatives Educational Research Foundation (MRERF) ...

To All ERA Members and Friends:

It is with the deepest sadness we must report that ERA Hall of Fame member Jack Berman passed away on Friday, Dec. 4. He was 94. Services will be held on Wednesday, Dec. 9, at 1 p.m. Pacific time at the Hillside Memorial Park and Cemetery, 6001 Centinela Ave., Los Angeles. (Please call 800-576-1994 for details.)

It is extremely difficult to put into words the powerful legacy that Jack has left us. His commitment to educating salespeople and his love of the rep profession have influenced several generations of reps and the entire sales world. He began working on ERA conferences in the 1960s, developed the round table workshop format still in use today and was our workshop coordinator for decades. During his "first" career, he was the national sales manager of Shure, operated a hugely successful rep firm in southern California, and was the only person to serve as president of the Electronic Distribution Show (EDS) twice - first as a manufacturer in 1947 and then again as a rep in 1969. Jack's 80th birthday was celebrated by our entire industry at an ERA event at EDS in 1995, and he was ERA's special guest at EDS in 2008.

When he retired as a rep, Jack founded Berman Information Services and continued to teach, write and contribute to the rep community. He served as ERA's director of education and wrote the Better Repping column for The Representor for 20+ years. In 1975, Jack was only the sixth member inducted into ERA's Hall of Fame. He earned countless other awards from ERA and other organizations, including election to the Audio Hall of Fame in 1981. ÊWhen the Certified Professional Manufacturers' Representative (CPMR) program was introduced in the mid-1980s, he was one of the first faculty members.

Jack was an inspiring, eloquent figure in our industry and a genuinely delightful person to know. He loved taking long morning walks, which were his time to conjure up ideas to explore and write about. He and his wife Pearl were also avid, talented ballroom dancers, and one of their most memorable experiences was being cast as dancing extras in the movie "Out to Sea."

ERA's retired CEO, Ray Hall, was one of Jack's closest friends for nearly 50 years. He says, "Jack was a true coach rather than a professor or lecturer, and by far the most important 'mantra' he's left us is 'You don't sell things to people. You help them buy.' That's what Jack was all about."

At this time, Jack's family has not indicated preferences for memorial donations or other remembrances. We will provide that information as soon as it is available.

ERA ANNOUNCES NEW OFFICERS

The Electronics Representatives Association (ERA) has announced that its Board of Directors elected new officers during its March 20th meeting. The officers, whose terms began at the conclusion of the Board meeting and run through the spring of 2011, are:

• Chairman of the Board
  David Rossi of Empire Technology Group, Skaneateles, NY;
• President
  Robert Walsh, CPMR, of Coakley, Boyd and Abbett, Inc., Framingham, MA;
• Senior Vice President/Fiscal and Legal
  Mark Conley of O'Donnell Associates North, San Jose, CA;
• Senior Vice President/Education
  Ted Curtin, CPMR, of Repworks, Inc., South Hadley, MA;
• Senior Vice President/Membership
  Brad Starr, CPMR, of Performance Technical Sales, Raleigh, NC;
• Senior Vice President/Groups
  Paul Nielsen, CPMR, of Brainard-Nielsen Marketing, Inc., Elk Grove Village, IL.

The March Board meeting closed out 12 years of service as a national officer for the outgoing ERA Chairman, Mike Kunz, CPMR, of R. W. Kunz Associates, Inc., St. Louis, MO. He expressed his gratitude to his fellow officers, board members, the ERA staff and CEO Tom Shanahan, then added, "Our association is healthy and thriving, something Wall Street can't say ... I leave the governance of ERA in great hands, and I thank you for allowing me to serve these past 12 years."

Your Principals' Sales Meetings

As ERA's Marketing Committee, we are requesting your help in promoting the educational programs of our association among your principals and your fellow reps.

Specifically, we hope you will join us in contacting principals who will be
holding national or other sales meetings any time this year and requesting a few minutes on the agenda to remind reps about ERA's educational opportunities. If you feel it's appropriate, link to a sample e-mail you can send as a follow-up. (You can also "borrow" from the sample message for your initial communication.

We are confident that your principals will view your initiative favorably.
This concept has been very successfully implemented already this month at three national sales meetings.

ACTION ITEM: Once you have approval from a principal to schedule time on a meeting agenda, just notify Tess Hill (mailto:thill@era.org) of the name of the company, date of the meeting and number of reps expected to attend. You will be sent copies of a quick-reference, one-page handout.

We deeply appreciate your help and support. Bringing more reps into the educational "loop" of ERA benefits every one of us and our profession as well.

Many thanks!

ERA Marketing Committee
Dan Parks, CPMR, Committee Chair, West Electronic Sales Team
(dan@westelec.com )
Alan Ahern, D. A. Crowley & Associates (aherna@dacrowley.com)
Ted Curtin, CPMR, Repworks, Inc. (ted@repworks.com)
Tom Griffin, Catalyst Sales (tgriffin@catalyst-sales.com)
Rich Hobby, CPMR, RAH Associates (richh@rahassoc.com)
Paul Nielsen, CPMR, Brainard-Nielsen Marketing (paul@bnmsales.com)
Mark Rossi, CPMR, Empire Technical Sales (mrossi@empiretechnical.com)

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SAMPLE MESSAGE TO PRINCIPALS
(to be adapted as you see fit):

Dear ________________;

Thanks for talking to me about your upcoming sales meeting.

As I mentioned, in addition to being your rep, our firm is a member of the Electronics Representatives Association (ERA), the 73-year-old organization that provides many business education programs for both reps and manufacturers.

We are members because we firmly believe that the continuing education of our personnel is mutually beneficial. It enhances our professionalism and improves our value as your field sales team.

Would you please support ERA by taking just a few minutes at your sales meeting to remind your reps about the educational opportunities our association offers and to distribute a one-page ERA flyer? I will provide the flyer for your review in advance of the meeting. Or, if it is more convenient, I will be happy to speak to the reps during the meeting.

We will deeply appreciate your support. By helping to spread the word about ERA's programs, you will send a powerful message confirming the value of continuing education for ALL your reps.

Thanks again, and I look forward to hearing from you.

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