Donnie Maccini of Colony Foods in Lawrence, Massachusetts is AFDR’s September DSR of the Month for 2022, earning him a permanent place in the AFDR DSR Hall of Fame. Donnie’s territory is in and around the North Shore and the greater Boston area which Lawrence is a nearby suburb. Maccini lives about 25 miles from the warehouse.
Donnie started his foodservice career working in the warehouse because he needed a job, and one of his friend’s father owned a small foodservice distributor named Bay State Foods. Eventually, they made him a truck driver and he ended up working there for six years before they were bought out by AGAR Supply Co. in Taunton, MA.
AGAR gave Maccini the opportunity as a DSR where he said, “I didn’t last very long, I pretty much failed and they let me go.” The sales manager told me that I was not cut out for the job. Maccini said there was not much training offered at AGAR, it was basically “learn on the job.” Dave said that was normal for many distributors and it is no wonder that so many fail.
That did not stop Maccini in his quest to become a DSR as he went to Colony Foods and got a sales job. That was 20 years ago and 14 million dollars later, and Donnie Maccini has proven that he was cut out for the job, he just needed a little more training.
DSR Dave and Donnie talk about how many DSRs start out in the same position but many of them fail because of the lack of training and continuing education about products and the business in general. DSR Dave shares his personal experience of how he was on his 3rd reprimand about six months into being a DSR because he wasn’t opening up enough “new” accounts. He said they gave him a few weeks or else. Thank God Dave’s DSM rode with him and helped him make cold calls, and then the rest was history.
Other topics Maccini and DSR Dave discuss on the MUST LISTEN to audio podcast:
- Learning the business, the first few years
- Pricing products was a challenge in the beginning
- Online ordering helps you sell more
- Selling against the GIANT distributors
- Learning about all the different products and how operators call them by different names
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