DSR of the month Matt Palmieri from Gordon Food Service and guest host Tony Gonzales from Shamrock Foods discuss working with brokers, manufacturer’s reps and working with your peers.
Palmieri explains how he uses brokers and manufacturer’s reps as his own sales force and how important they are to him growing his business. He says he learned a long time ago the more people you have on your team, the more you’re going sell.
How do you use Brokers or Manufacturer Reps?
Matt is fortunate to have a great broker community in Pittsburgh. Matt has three or four reps out selling for him and depending on what they are showing, he may or may not join them. He has relationships with these reps because they are there on his behalf. He gives them specific instructions on what he’d like done and the reps report back to him at the end of the day with what they showed and the reactions, then Matt follows up on whether they liked it or not. They are like his own sales force. When he gives them feedback, they are more apt to get out there and do it again for him. He doesn’t have the time to take samples into his customers anymore, so he really counts on them. It’s a great working relationship that benefits them both with the brokers and manufacturer reps needing to fill out their CRM system with the info their manufacturers need.
Working with peers makes a huge difference:
Credit Manager – Communication. Matt may not have gotten a check, but if he tells him that and his plan to get it, he will work with Matt more.
Transportation team – Makes or breaks an account because they see the customers more than he sees them. The drivers are with customers a minimum of two times a week. The driver’s relationship with customers is especially important. Therefore, he treats his driver team well because they care about the customers and make such a difference in accounts. That is a part of the culture at GFS.
Inside Sales & fellow DSRs – Gordon has boundaries on territories so the DSRs are not fighting over prospects. The reps communicate with each other 5-6 times a day about problems they may be having with a product or customer and help each other out with ideas and advice.
Team Selling – They even team sell to help each other when their sales funnel is dry, or they are having trouble breaking into an account. It makes it kind of fun because they have a different style so it may help open an account that you haven’t cracked yet. You can share ideas about the prospects.
Advice for greenhorns and veterans:
FOLLOW UP. Do not become complacent. Being complacent can lose accounts.
Be a Resource and SELL SOMETHING!
