“Being a DSR is not a job, it’s not a career, it’s a passion that you must have to be successful.” ~Joe Jabkiewicz
Joe Jabkiewicz of Performance Foodservice located in Hickory, North Carolina has been inducted into the AFDR DSR Hall of Fame and is the DSR of the Month for June 2019.
Joe’s territory is Charlotte, North Carolina which is approximately 90 miles from the warehouse.
Jabkiewicz got his start in the foodservice business at 13 years old cleaning and washing dishes at the Sirloin Burger restaurant around the corner from where he grew up in Jackson, Michigan. Before becoming a DSR in 1986, Joe also ran a route for a beer distributor and then ran a route for Frito-Lay.
Joe credits a lot of his profound knowledge of the Jan-San category to that first job of washing dishes and cleaning. He teaches his operators on the importance of portion control with those products today.
Joe sells Performance Foodservice brands because he feels they outperform most other brands.
Key Tips for DSRs:
- Build relationships by being trustworthy – it takes time.
- Teach your customers portion control with all Jan-San products, not just food products.
- Be a tool for your customers, a tool that helps them make money.
- If you sell on price, you will lose on price.
- Be your customers’ best employee so they don’t want to be in business without you.
- Joe focuses on how much money he will make for customers as opposed to telling them how much he can save them.
New Prospects:
- Build a resume for yourself to give to a prospect so they can figure if you are someone they want to hire to work with them. Listen to Audio for Joe’s explanation.
- Always prepare for prospects by conducting TOTAL RECON by gathering everything you can. Never shoot from the hip by walking in the back or front door blind!
- Be Honest and humble.
- Ask questions and then shut up and LISTEN!
- Find a need for why a customer should want YOU to work in their business.
- Start building relationships with prospects by finding a common bond with them.
