Insurance for Manufacturing Sales Reps

Professional liability insurance for manufacturing sales reps can help small business owners feel more confident and empowered in their line of work.

Professional liability insurance, sometimes called errors and omissions insurance (E&O insurance), is insurance coverage for claims against businesses that provide professional and personal services — for manufacturing sales rep businesses such as yours. 

When is it important to have professional liability insurance as a manufacturing sales rep? Listed below are a few hypothetical scenarios that you may face in this line of work. 

• Wrong advice: You recommend a new material to a large customer to replace a competitor’s material that the customer has been using for years. The customer decides to try the new material, which works well during the manufacturing process. Once the completed product is in use, however, the material begins to fail, and the customer has to recall large quantities of their product. The customer sues you for the costs associated with replacing the faulty material and the damage to the company’s reputation. You could be protected by a professional liability insurance policy, which covers these costs.

Your customers rely upon your recommendations, but they can quickly turn on you if the recommended products don’t perform as expected. Feel more confident with each piece of advice you offer with a Hiscox insurance plan on your side.

• Negligence: A popular material you represent is recalled for quality control issues. One of your clients who purchased a large quantity of the material suffers significant losses due to delays in shipping their product. The manufacturer of the material pays some of these costs, but the production company sues you for the rest. Your professional liability policy may cover you for these costs, in accordance with liability limits.

Situations such as this may be out of your control, but that doesn’t mean that a client won’t hold you responsible for delays and costs. When you trust Hiscox with your small business insurance needs, you protect yourself from claims of negligence, regardless of whether they are truly valid claims or not. 

Browse our website to learn more about professional liability insurance and make an informed decision about your business needs. You can also call us to ask questions about our manufacturing sales rep insurance quotes.
 

Another type of insurance that Hiscox provides and that is relevant to manufacturing sales reps is general liability insurance. Since traveling to meet with customers and manufacturing companies is often an integral part of this type of work, manufacturing sales reps may be at risk of claims that have nothing to do with the professional services they provide. 

General liability insurance, sometimes called commercial general liability (CGL), could protect your business from another person or business’s claims of bodily injury, associated medical costs, and damage to property. These are the types of claims that can arise when you attend a routine meeting, invite clients into your office, or even go out to lunch during the workday. 

Here are a few examples of situations that commonly occur for sales professionals. 

• Bodily injury: A client comes to your office to sign a contract for a new product line that your manufacturer produces. The sidewalk leading to your office is icy due to a recent snowstorm, and the client slips and falls, injuring himself. His medical costs could be covered by your general liability policy, up to the limit of your liability. 

Slip-and-fall accidents don’t just happen at home and large corporate offices. If you secure Hiscox general liability insurance, you can feel confident with each client that walks into your office. Contact us to learn more.

• Property damage: While touring a manufacturing plant with a prospective customer, you accidentally spill a cup of coffee on a piece of electronic equipment, damaging it beyond repair. Your general liability policy may cover the cost to replace the equipment, up to the limit of your liability.

Accidents like this can happen to even the most experienced manufacturing sales rep, and it’s difficult to estimate the cost of property damage once it’s been done. Fortunately, a Hiscox policy may cover property damage claims such as this one. 

• Personal injury: One of your employees is at lunch. He talks to the owner of the shop about one of your clients in a false and unflattering way. The client learns of this discussion and sues for slander. We may cover the subsequent claim up to your limits of liability and pay for an attorney to defend you if necessary.

Hiscox general liability insurance plans for manufacturing reps may even cover claims made against your business because of the actions of your employees.

Learn more here about general liability insurance costs.