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DSR Dan Reilly is the latest inductee into the AFDR DSR Hall of Fame as the DSR of the Month for May 2016 and proudly represents Ginsberg’s out of Hudson, New York.
Dan Reilly’s early beginnings in foodservice started at McDonalds at the age of 16. He then worked his way from the back-of-the-house at Victoria Station to the front-of-the-house doing just about every job. That experience and understanding now fuels Dan’s ability to help his customers make money.
Making the transition from managing a restaurant and placing orders to selling products was a struggle in the beginning of his career as a DSR. He said not everybody wanted to buy from him, or in some cases from the distributor he worked for, which made him feel very uncomfortable and was very challenging for him.
Dan had to learn the hard way that he needed to be his own person and have his own sales style, not the same one that his then sales manager tried to mold him into, like himself. When Reilly implemented the good aspects and style of that sales manager and discarded the habits that did not fit his style, Dan’s sales really started to take off.
Listen and plan. Listen and plan. Listen and plan.
Listen twice as much as you talk, and then take what the customer or prospect tells you and build your action and business plan for them. Reilly actually puts his plan into writing.
This DSR of the Month’s tip on collecting money is to NEVER ask for your money while employees or really any other person is around. Only discuss money and collections with the person you’re doing business with, or the person that has the role of paying the bills, in PRIVATE.
Some of the other topics this Hall of Famer discusses in the Audio interview:
- Don’t try to force a product on a customer
- How he reeled in a really nice, big customer by listening when the customer told him they were happy with the current distributor, and if they needed anything, they would call him
- How the minimum wage hike in Upstate NY is changing the dynamics with his customer’s operations
- What Dan thinks his customers would say is his best asset
DSRs, Be a Resource…and Sell Something!
