12 minute read
SELLING WITH KAHLE
Measuring partnerability
I’ experience that a salesperson can visit an account once or twice, and make some valuable observations about the partnerability of that account—the likelihood of that account developing into a partner one day.
In my seminars, I’ll often ask the group to develop a list of plusses and minuses. Plusses are characteristics or behaviors of the account which increase the likelihood of the account developing into a partner. Minuses are the opposite—characteristics or behaviors of the account that decrease the likelihood that it will one day develop into a partner.
1. Good rod ct ser ice fit
Let’s say you offer 10 products. Brill Brothers Manufacturing Co. can use all 10, and all of them are important to their business. ones Industries can use two of your 10, and neither of the two is really central to their business. Who is the better product service fit? Clearly, it’s Brill Brothers. Notice the two issues for product service fit: the degree to which an account can use your products or services the degree to which those products services are important to them.
2. Personal chemistry.
This speaks to the personal relationship between you and the customer. On one hand, a professional salesperson ought to be able to build positive business relationships with anyone. On the other, it’s a whole lot easier with some people. If most of the important people at Brill Brothers like you, are comfortable with you, and trust you, it’s going to be much more likely that they will grow into a partner with you than ones Industries, where there is just a little tension between you and most of the important people there. The personal chemistry isn’t the same.
3. Good management.
ou don’t invest your money in stocks that are doomed, and you don’t invest your time in losers either. If a company appears to be well organized and well managed, chances are it’s going to grow or at least survive. On the other hand, those that are characterized by high employee turnover, bad attitudes, sloppy and unorganized facilities and no plans are likely to struggle in the future.
4. Compatible philosophy.
Some accounts are strictly price buyers. That’s great if your organization strives to be the low-cost provider in commodity markets. ou’d have a compatible philosophy. owever, if your company positions itself as a value-added provider, or the high-quality choice, then you are never going to be comfortable with, or important to, the “buy the lowest price no matter what” philosophy. The more compatible your philosophies are, the greater the likelihood that will develop into a partner one day.
5. Personal respect and accessibility.
In some accounts, all vendor salespeople are viewed as “peddlers” and dealt with accordingly. These are the accounts that give you 1 minutes in the conference room with a junior purchasing agent and then dismiss you. Others give you the plant tour, show you their future plans, introduce you to the P’s, and solicit your thoughts and ideas. They see you whenever you say you have something of value for them, and they respect your insights. That’s good.
6. Pay well. It’s a real waste of time to invest high quality selling efforts in an account, successfully solve some of their problems, and achieve a good sale, only to discover that your credit department won’t approve it. Or worse yet, they do approve it, but the account doesn’t pay. Better to try to discern that before you invest a lot of your time in them. cally reject such an offer. As a result, the buyers face ‘adverse selection’—the only sellers who will accept $750 are those unloading lemons. “Smart buyers foresee this problem. Knowing they could be buying a lemon, they offer only $500. Sellers of the lemons end up with the same price they would have received were there no ambiguity. But the peaches all stay in the garage. “Information asymmetry” kills the market for ment” to Cool Inc., one of your accounts. This account is progressive, always looking for the next advantage, and willing to listen to any good ideas. On the other hand, it’s a family-held business, and the CEO is dictatorial. e does have some professional managers reporting to him, however, and that helps. Turnover is a bit of a problem because of the CEO’s abrasiveness. All in all, you decide the plusses outweigh the negatives on this issue, and you give Cool Inc. supplies of small-knot, dense, Douglas fir veneers). The “market for lemons” is likely having a major effect on the size of this market today. Overcoming the Market for Lemons How can individual panel producers overcome this “lemons market” problem, their industry’s “race to the bottom,” and depressed industry sales levels? They can offer 7. Ind stry or com any s ecific items There can be a number of very specific issues that are important to your industry or your company. For example, one of my client was a division of a Fortune 00 company. One of their criteria was whether or not the account owned equipment produced by one of the other divisions of the company. If so, it would be easier to talk with them and specify their supplies. If not, it would be more di cult. Another client was a regional petroleum supplier. One of their criteria was the distance from the customer to their nearest distribution facility. Because of the relative importance of freight costs, if the account were geographically close to their facility and far away from a competitor’s, that was good. The opposite was bad. To implement this strategy, take the seven general characteristics discussed above and mesh them with at least three criteria that you create. These new criteria should be specific to your company or industry. If you did that, you’d have a list of 10 criteria. ou could rate every one of your customers on each of those 10 criteria. Think of a scale from 0 to 10, with zero indicating that worst expression of that criteria, and 10 the greatest. For example, let’s apply the criteria of “good managelong, frigid winter climate, coupled with a short summer season, produces hardwoods with very tight growth rings. This creates lumber with outstanding color and fine texture, which is ideal for applications ranging from furniture, cabinetry and doors to flooring, paneling and more. This region supplies nine primary, widely used species, including: ash, basswood, cherry, hickory, hard maple, red oak, soft maple, white oak and walnut. Appalachian Region: Superior Quality Spanning several states, including Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, irginia and West irginia, the Appalachian region produces a wide range of hardwoods species—all with one thing in common: superior quality. Thanks to the region’s climate conditions—warm summers that assist with tree growth, and cooler spring HARD MAPLE is popular throughout the Glacial Region. good cars.” Structural wood panel buyers rely upon qualified inspection and testing agencies like the APA to routinely test and certify the quality of the products they buy. This creates an incentive for individual panel producers to “push” the standard. A passage from Ackerloff’s famous paper: “There are many markets in which buyers use some market statistic to judge the quality of prospective purchases. In this case there is an incentive for sellers to market poor quality merchandise, since the returns for good quality accrue mainly to the entire group whose statistic is affected rather than to the individual seller. As a result there tends to be a reduction in the average quality of goods and also the size of the market.” When the industry is young, industry production technologies vary little and raw materials are relatively homogeneous (e.g., OSB), this isn’t a major problem. But it is a serious problem when the inspection and testing agencies find it difficult or impossible to keep up with a very rapidly changing industry. An example would be today’s overlaid Douglas fir plywood industry. There are rapid changes underway on both the demand side (e.g., much higher alkalinity concrete mixes are now essentially “pulping” conform panels) and on the supply side (e.g., much reduced a rating of “ ” on the “good management” criteria. o this for every criteria, account by account, and you’ll have a way to measure and compare their partnerability. ere’s an example of a set of criteria developed and applied to Cool Inc.: company-specific product performance guarantees. Another approach is to more aggressively brand products. In either case, the mill’s products need to be clearly differentiated from their competitors’; as we discovered earlier, industry-wide, third-party quality certification is important but not sufficient. Like car buyers, panel buyers won’t chance paying peach prices when they may actually be buying a “dressed up” lemon. For some structural panel producers, product differentiation requires a major change in company culture. For instance, it is very difficult to produce innovative, differentiated products for the end use market if the company doesn’t also adapt a different supplier-buyer mindset. Supplierpartners are often critical to the structural wood panel producer’s differentiation. As industry competition comes to focus more and more upon only one of the “4P’s of marketing”—price— “lemons” tend to proliferate and industry sales volume tends to decline.
and fall seasons with cold winters, which allow that growth to be gradual—hardwoods from the Appalachian region feature tight growth rings, strong fibers, and consistent colors and grain textures. This leads to strength, durability and beauty in the lumber, in addition to excellent width and long length characteristics.
Primary species include ash, cherry, hard maple, red oak, soft maple, white oak, basswood, beech, birch, walnut, poplar and hickory, which are great for high-end furniture, millwork, cabinetry, doors, flooring and paneling, and more.
No matter the region they come from, there are many North American hardwoods species to choose from. The decision as to which one to use comes down to the Rating for: Cool, Inc. application and overall quality and look of the project.
By: Mary, sales rep • Date: June 4, 2021 – Don Barton is vice president of sales and marketing for 1. Good fit Northwest Hardwoods, Tacoma, Wa. (northwesthardwoods.com). . Personal Chemistry Management 10 . Compatible Philosophy . Personal respect accessibility . Pay well . Aggressive growth plans . Positive history with us . Ability to use products from our other divisions 10. Open to our input
Total –Roy Nott is president of Surfactor Americas LLC, Aberdeen, – Dave Kahle is a high-content consultant, instructor, presenter and author of 12 books, including ow to Sell Anything to Anyone Anytime. Reach him at dave@davekahle.com.CHERRY is among the major hardwoods of the Appalachian Region. Wa., a German-owned producer of overlays, glue films, and press cleaning films for the global wood panel industry, with manufacturing operations in Finland, Germany and Malaysia. Reach him at roy.nott@surfactor.com.
The beauty of the forest is yours to sell
Fencing • Decking • Timbers • Dimension • Siding
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LONGTIME San Diego area store is up for sale—again.
Recent Buyer Puts San Diego Landmark on Sales Block
Less than three years after buying the business, the operators of a century-old San iego area hardware store have put it up for sale.
Michael eEmidio and Michael Grimes purchased OB ardware, Ocean Beach, Ca., from Carl and Carolyn Weidetz in 01 . eEmidio now plans to move out of the area in the fall to be closer to family. e would like to find a local buyer to continue the operation and has given himself a deadline of une 1.
S S c ires SoCal s
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“We are thrilled to welcome Brian, Nizam, and the entire B Wholesale team to the SRS family,” said an Tinker, president and CEO of SRS istribution. “The company represents a rare opportunity to partner with one of the largest and most respected independent distributors in the industry.”
Employee Shot Chasing Thief
A Phoenix, Az., hardware store employee who gave chase to a shoplifter was accidentally shot by a bystander who said he was aiming at the thief.
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No charges have yet been filed in the incident.
The Wood Industry Resource Collaborative launched a new industry-wide career awareness campaign, “ ou Wood,” to communicate wood industry career pathways and attract new talent.
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The program was developed by several industry trade associations led by AWFS, Woodworking Machinery Industry Association, and Wood Machinery Manufacturers of America, in partnership with Nashville, Tn.based Industrial Strength Marketing.
“This campaign is the culmination of over three years of communication, research and hard work,” said WMMA CEO Fred Stringfellow. “Companies in the industry are still struggling to find skilled workers as they grow to meet demand. We are
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