What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?

For many years I sold, installed and supported ERP software written specifically for wholesale distribution clients.  I lived, ate, slept, breathed distribution.  I worked in every aspect of the company including, sales, purchasing, accounting and customer service.  One of the age long conversations was about keeping manufacturing and distribution as separate entities.  When manufacturers started selling direct to the end user, breaking the distribution chain, there were lots of problems and lots of companies very upset.  It is virtually impossible for a distributor to compete directly with a manufacturer.  Typically the manufacturer did not have the infrastructure in place to support a direct sales team.

Fast forward a number of years.  I have left the software industry and moved in the trade show exhibit, retail, museum and event space.  We are a distributor in that industry.  We research and source the best of the best products in the industry.  We keep on top of trends so that we can best service our clients and prospects and help them look the best they can.  We feel this allows us to be objective in product recommendations and can truly listen to our customer or prospect to recommend the best possible solution without being tied to a specific brand or product line.

As part of our offerings we provide printed graphics, fabric, vinyl, sintra and many other substrates.   We work with a few providers but all of the providers that we use DO NOT sell direct to the end user.  We have a couple of companies that call on us quite regularly to try to get us to sell their printing.  We always tell them the same thing.

When our client's job is on your production floor, what is to stop a sales rep from seeing it and thinking, hmmm I should be calling on that client, I can give them better pricing.  We had a rep that I personally knew from college try to get me to buy from them.  We sent a couple of jobs to them because of my relationship with her.  A couple of months later, she emailed me asking me to price a shipping case.  She sent me a picture of a case with OUR logo sticker right on the case.  I questioned her and told her that this was clearly our client.  She said she was given this account when she started with this company.


If you have read any of my posts you know how important trust and relationships are to me.   So, she wanted me to sell her products, but yet she was selling her products to our customers.  How does this make any sense?  Why would I ever trust having my customer's work in their facility for their reps to poach?

There is another company that has wanted our business.  We have had similar issues with them.  We decided to give them a shot and to quote a job.  We sent them the details and we got "the" phone call.  He said, "Lori I had to call you about this quote request.  This company is a current client of ours and we are bidding on this job also."  Do you think we got that business? No, I am sure as they knew we were bidding they undercut their pricing to be sure their price was less than ours.  As much as I love saving a customer money, we are in business, like everyone, to make a profit.

I just found out that one of our long time product providers in another industry is also selling direct to the end user.  I am deeply saddened and disappointed by this.  I will be digging deeper to find out the truth on this one.  We have been led to believe that they only sold through a distribution channel.

So I put this right out there to all of you companies that are selling direct to the end user and through a distribution channel.  Until you decide which you are going to be, we are not interested in doing business with you.  We will compete with you.  And, I will be bold enough to say, we will win many of those deals.

If there is one thing in business that I despise more than anything else is companies that are deceitful.

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Lori Hanken has been in sales and marketing for over 30 years.  She is passionate about service and providing value to her vendors, prospects and clients.  Lori is currently co-owner of Total Displays with her husband David.  They help people look great at events, trade shows, in retail, museums and develop long partnerships with customers and suppliers.  If you would like to learn more, email her at lori@totaldisplays.com.  Connect with her on LinkedIn here.

Read other Total Displays Blog posts at http://totaldisplays.blogspot.com/

Gate Keepers - Friend or Foe?

In today's world of immediate gratification it is rare anymore to even find a company with someone to answer a phone.  With the trend of auto attendants more and more companies are opting to not have a live person answer the phone.  Personally I think that is a mistake, but that is a topic for another day.  As a result of dial by names and auto attendants, I am finding less and less the traditional "gatekeeper" of old.

I will date myself, but at one time in my professional life, I was that gatekeeper.  This was before cell phones, before LinkedIn and before email.  Yikes, yes I am truly that old.  Back then, when someone was incredibly demanding and would call for the president of the company, they would demand his home phone number.  99% of the time I would politely tell them that was against company policy.   Generally speaking though people would take a phone call from anyone that called.  It was simply a matter of saying, "No thank you, I am not interested".  

So today, much to my surprise I came across a rather rude gatekeeper.  Today I was calling on a large, local financial services company.   I had already been in contact with a person at that company and had built a relationship with them.  Unfortunately they had left the company.  So my conversation went something like this:

GK:  Hello, can I get your name please?

L:  Lori

GK:  Are you a current financial services client or are you looking to become one?

(Note:  I am actually a prospect for them and they were treating me as such initially)

L:  No I am actually calling for a different reason.  I was working in the past with Sue Jones.  She is no longer there and I understand that Joan Johnson has taken over those responsibilities.  I am trying to reach her to follow up on the work I had done with Sue.

GK:  What is this in regards to?

L:  Your tradeshows and events.

GK:  Where are you calling from?

L:  Minneapolis?

GK:  What is your phone number?

L:  952-941-4511

GK:  What is the company name?

L:  Total Displays

GK:  Hold on, let me check

L:  Thank you

GK:  Due to her position within the company I am unable to put you through.

Ok, that was a complete new one to me.

So what is a hardy, pig headed sales person to do?  I called after 5 and the gatekeeper had gone home.  I was able to access a dial by name and get my contacts email address.  No I didn't speak with her in person, but the door cracked open slightly.

Now keep in mind, I wasn't trying to reach the president or even a C-Level exec.  I was trying to reach a corporate events manager.

Brand is everything about your company.  It is how you answer the phone, how you treat people, the language you use, your marketing materials and so much more.  People seriously underestimate the depth and power of a companies' brand.

So this experience raises some questions for me?

1.  When your business is a B2C business does it damage your corporate reputation when you are stand-offish or not approachable?

2. With the advent of social media and auto attendants, how important is the gatekeeper?

3.  What does it say about the company culture?

Inquiring minds want to know.

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Lori Hanken has been in sales and marketing for over 30 years.  She is passionate about service and providing value to her vendors, prospects and clients. Lori is currently co-owner of Total Displays with her husband David.  They help people look great at events and trade shows and develop long partnerships with customers and suppliers.  If you would like to learn more email her at lori@totaldisplays.com.  Connect with her on LinkedIn here.

Read other Total Displays Blog posts at http://totaldisplays.blogspot.com/

Your Business Doesn't Matter or Shutting Down a Trade Show Booth Early

Retail sales rep and booth staff at trade shows and events have a lot in common.  But wait, you say, we don't sell anything while we are in our booth.  Really?  You don't sell anything?  Why are you at trade shows if you are not reaching out to customers and/or prospects?

One of the big no no's in the trade show world is to shut down your booth or to pack it up early.  I know, I know.  You have been on your feet for days, you are tired, you are hung over from yesterday (we'll address that in another post) you have a flight to catch.  I have heard it all.  The reality is, your biggest prospect may be coming through late.  You just don't know do you?  Can you afford to take the risk?

Yesterday, I was in a smaller town in MN that has some high-end shopping.  There is a cute little store that I have always loved.  Some beads and charms, cute knit items, jewelry, cards and more.  I have always enjoyed this store.  As we walked in, it appeared that they were getting ready to close. I asked, "Oh are we too late?".  The clerk replied, "Oh no, we don't close for 15 minutes".  

I proceeded to browse through the store.  Each corner where I went to look at products I had to avoid the clerk that was shutting off all the lights and unplugging things.  I am not exaggerating when I say, every time I was looking at something, I had to move out of her way so she could turn things off.  It was Halloween.  I am sure she had a party to go to.  Clearly she had better things to do than to let me and my family look at things and/or purchase something.  Every time I have been in that store over the years, I have purchased something.  Not this time.  I left before the store even officially closed, but clearly she was done serving clients.

In addition to our business, Total Displays, I have a small home based business that I do some exhibiting at small local shows.  So many people pack up and shut down early.  More than once, I have had someone come by the booth at the very end of the show that ended up buying products.

Here is the reality. When you are in your booth or your retail store, you are a sales person.  It doesn't matter if you are paid commission or not.  It doesn't matter if that is what your title says.  You represent the company, you represent the brand.  You need to be professional, always be ready to service a client or a potential client.  If you can't do these things, you should not be in a booth or in the store.  Period.  Honestly, you probably shouldn't have a job with that company.  If your livelihood depended on you making that connection, or making that sale, maybe you would behave differently?

So how does a company avoid having the wrong people in a store or in a booth.  Training!  Train your staff.  Make sure they know what the expectations are for them while they are staffing a booth.  Even if you have trained before, do it again.  Bad habits creep in very quickly.   There are many companies that offer simple booth training classes and workshops.  Total Displays does.

As a company, you spend a lot of money on trade shows.  If you are in retail, you spend a lot of money on a storefront.  What kind of staff do you have working to be sure you get ROI and make money?

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Lori Hanken has been in sales and marketing for over 25 years (yes she is that old).  Lori's background includes training customers on a national basis on CRM, sales, and marketing best practices.  With Total Displays she has developed a number of training courses related to events and CRM usage.  Visit us at www.totaldisplays.com or email her at lori@totaldisplays.com