Why Dont Companies Have More Than 1 High Profile Rep?

[Lee]

It seems these days many of the major companies in adult have 1 high profile affiliate rep posting on the message boards and it started me wondering, when (and if) that rep leaves, the company they were repping for is going to have a hard time filling that persons shoes.

Why do companies constantly just have 1 high profile rep taking care of their business on the various industry message boards when it is a lot safer to have 2 or more doing the work so that should 1 of them leave, there is always going to be someone there to pick up the slack whilst a replacement staff member is found.

It just seems like companies try to get away with the minimum amount of staff possible when it comes to customer relations over the past few years and i wondered why, given some of the high profile reps that have changed jobs in the past couple of years.

What are your thoughts on this, should sponsors, hosting companies, content providers, traffic brokers and the likes have a minimum of 2 reps on hand to deal with customers on the industry boards as 'standard'?

Regards,

Lee

[IdolKnights]

2 would be better.

I see more of a relationship issue though. Not so much needing to find someone new but to build their relationship with everyone would seem like something that takes longer.

Like AEBN has 4 or 5 people on here. They all have posted and interact with people. But if they had one, that person is here a year then gone over night, The new person would need to not only FYI their new position but have a year of relationship building to establish.

Then you have the whole "I don't like them" because the new rep didn't know your last rep would make the update or whatever custom to your needs. And just sent you the generic whatnot.

[basschick]

high profile reps cost more. not only do they tend to know more about the industry - and have the ability to make money without working for a company - but spending time branding yourself on the boards and at tradeshows is what makes a rep high profile - and it also takes time and money.

one company i know was offering $1500 plus a tiny percentage for their reps, and that's higher than most do these days. one company offered me $800 a month plus 2% of webmasters who signed up under me. i make much more money for less work working for myself. for that money, they expect the reps to be around not only during business hours but also to at least make quick board appearances off hours, be available by phone and icq and sometimes even require that you not have your own sites.

personally i feel that anyone who is truly well-qualified to be a rep in this industry can usually make more money not being a rep. only a few companies offer reasonable pay, good benefits - and then a lot of the companies want their reps in house.

college students, high school grads without much job experience, people from other countries with an imperfect command of engilsh and no experience in adult - these are not the people who make impressive full time high profile reps.

[Lee]

Patti,

You are of course right about them being expensive but, what would have happened if Ounique had more than Don repping at the time, what would have happened if Mancheck had more than Dzinerbear repping...

Both of those companies have just vanished out of the public eye since both of the two staff mentioned left. One is even trying to close shop.

Regards,

Lee

[abostonboy]

I am seeing a trend in the industry now and that is reps are just not staying at a company that long. Every time you read the Industry trash magazines one rep is leaving another company for another.

Why hire two reps when they will BOTH leave after a short time?

But I agree, ever since Don Mike left Ounique, it has become a dreadful place to buy content. Don Mike is one of a kind.

[basschick]

they leave for several reasons depending -

i know of a couple reps who are fairly highly paid for this industry. they were very gently let go because they either weren't bringing in the number of affiliates / customers they were expected to or because they weren't able to do their jobs - by which i mean they were not capable for one reason or another. since they were let go by people/companies who liked them, the word never got out and they were hired by companies eager to get the reps away from the other companies.

and of course, the rest were offered either more money or better working conditions. reps in most other industries are paid far more, but in adult reps are not generally paid for knowledge, expertise or their ability to work well with customers or to help them with issues so of course they'll move on for more $ or hours/benefits/etc that make their lives better.

I am seeing a trend in the industry now and that is reps are just not staying at a company that long. Every time you read the Industry trash magazines one rep is leaving another company for another.

Why hire two reps when they will BOTH leave after a short time?

But I agree, ever since Don Mike left Ounique, it has become a dreadful place to buy content. Don Mike is one of a kind.

[Chilihost]

boards take a lot of time too, so maybe it makes sense for one person to focus on board activities while others work on promoting or running the sites or setting up one-on-one deals directly with webmasters.

[ccjax]

boards take a lot of time too, so maybe it makes sense for one person to focus on board activities while others work on promoting or running the sites or setting up one-on-one deals directly with webmasters.

That is how we handle boards from a provider standpoint -

plus some of the boards do involve a lot of time to sort through the threads where people really want help and/or talk about business
vs.
the 'griping' threads and/or threads discussing Paris Hilton.

[Jasun]

I'm all the man that you need.

I think Whitney sang a song about me.

Honestly, it would be great to have a full time person posting to boards and showing up at parties so I could do the grudge work, but hey... a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.