Martin Bros., John Royer, DSR of the Month
From meat cutter at a grocery store to the DSR Hall of Fame, John Royer who has been a DSR for 16 years says that pleasing his foodservice customers is much more difficult than it was to please his customers in the grocery store. His customer base is in and around Des Moines, Ankeny and Ames, Iowa.
Royer explains in detail how he prospects as hard today as he did when he first started because he’s still building his business. This Hall of Famer uses his Corporate Chef, Chemical Specialist and the entire team at Martin Bros. as a part of his selling team to help him and his customers learn and make money. Recently, John had a prospect he had been working on for over three years who needed help with “ticket times.” Royer engaged his Corporate Chef to help the prospect with that need, and now has just shipped the first order to that customer.
John works hard to secure the Center of the plate, the dish machine/chemicals and beverage equipment business in all of his accounts to be assured that he really owns those accounts. Over the years, his experience has proven that if you have these items in an account, most customers will look to you to be their primary supplier.
Royer explains that the knowledge he’s gained over the years has made him a better business partner for all of his customers, but has also given him the confidence to call on big customers. In the audio of this show, he explains to DSR Dave how he now goes after accounts, the big, good ones that he would never have gone after when he first started. He focuses his efforts on these larger accounts because they are worth 3 to 4 times that of the smaller accounts. John says that the small accounts are as much work as the big accounts when it comes to making will calls, order guides, following up, order maintenance, and sampling products.
John really does his homework by, first, being a customer to prospects so he can focus on the needs a prospect might have. He goes after items that a prospect might be having a difficult time finding. He says that because of the relationship Martin Bros. has with DOT Foods, he has just about any item a prospect or a current customer might want.
