DSR of the Month
For 28 years, Joe has kept himself motivated on those CRAZY days by thinking about keeping a roof over his family’s heads. He says you have to push your way through those CRAZY days that “just blow up on you” when things don’t go as planned. Many things cause this craziness, such as Salesman errors like putting the wrong product code in on an order; miss-picks; shorts on the truck; and customers running out of product because they were busier than expected. These problems happen just about every day, so knowing he has a family to take care of keeps him moving forward.
Fischetti gets started around 5 am every morning doing his paperwork and research on products for his customers. Joe also gets pricing for bids on products like Equipment and Supplies which happen to be his favorite category to sell.
Equipment and supplies became Joe’s favorite category to sell because, back in 1987 when he was working for Rykoff-Sexton, he had a trainer who taught him how to sell these items, and to know which product each kind of customer used. Fischetti also learned that many DSRs do not focus on this category because of the training involved with learning how to sell them.
Joe uses the www.afdr.org Product Library to help him find information on many branded products by using the product photos and training videos to help him learn. He explains you need to know everything about a product/the product’s story.
This Hall of Famer still has many of the same customers he’s had since his first year in 1988. Sitting in the front row at sales meetings and taking notes has helped him to learn more which helps him to share information with his customers and together, make more money!
ATTENTION Greenhorn DSRs, Joe says the best thing you can do to help yourself is to learn about products, and the best place to start is with your company’s TOP 200 items sold. Then find a category that you really love, become an expert with those items, and then go out and sell the heck out of those items!!
DSRs, Be a Resource…and Sell Something!