On the House
Staff -- Gifts & Decorative Accessories, 11/1/2001
According to a recent Manufacturers' Agents National Association (MANA) survey, roughly 71 percent of manufacturers said that they maintain house accounts — accounts that cannot be serviced by any of its reps in the territory. Some 70 percent of reps said that they willingly deal with manufacturers who hold house accounts. This response from the reps represented an increase over the 61 percent who said that they accepted house accounts in 1999. The percentage of manufacturers who keep house accounts remained fairly consistent from 1999 to 2001.
While the majority of reps accept manufacturers' house accounts as a cost of doing business, they express some concerns over the issue. Surveyed reps worried about manufacturers using the setup to take away rep accounts once they become profitable and felt that such accounts undermined the relationship between rep and principal.
