Our business is very personal and I think you've seen that yourself out in the field. To have 17 and 18 years with manufacturers, to have their confidence and be able to do the job for them through good times and bad, well, we're very proud of that. Bob believes the agency has succeeded, survived hard times and prospered on the strength not only of the service, training and education it offers its customers, but on the individual and combined strengths and expertise of its staff. Because the agency has just eight employees, everyone must be able to handle any situation and be knowledgeable in every line. The addendum to that, Bob says, is that each employee must be empowered to act on any customer's behalf to avoid any potential delays or lapses in service.
Ongoing training is key.
If R.J. only sells Panasonic power tools, then our other manufacturers aren't being served, and they need to be served. That's expensive because it means we all have to go to manufacturer training programs, but it also balances our organization, so I can step right in if Mark or R.J. has conflicting schedules, and they can do the same for me. We don't transfer all the relationships, of course, but we do transfer all the knowledge, and that's very important because our role, really, is to be an educator. That education extends from working with manufacturers to discover and promote their products' true unique benefits to demonstrating those benefits to end users on jobsites. And, in addition to distributor inside and outside salespeople, that training also extends to distributor owners for whom product profitability and serviceability can be as important as performance.