Indoff
MARKETING PROGRAM OVERVIEW
Indoff Table of Contents What Does Indoff Marketing Do? 01 General Advice and Personal Assistance 02 Email Marketing Program 01 Web Solutions 01 Promo for All 01 Marketing Collateral 01 Social Media 01 Company Information: Marketing Contacts: 11816 Lackland Rd St. Louis, MO 63146 800-486-7867 314-997-1122 indoff.com Michael Dormagen - Marketing Director 800-486-7867 x 1243 michael.dormagen@indoff.com T.J. Panula - Marketing Coordinator 800-486-7867 x 1209 tj.panula@indoff.com
What Does Indoff Marketing Do?
The Marketing department exists to help support Indoff Partners in their sales efforts. We do this by creating materials for our Partners to use while managing our online presence and assisting where possible. We offer a wide range of services which we will cover in this book. That said, the Marketing department does come with its limitations as well.
While we are willing to help Partners with nearly anything marketing related, we also need to make sure that the projects we take on have the most impact on the company at large instead of on individual efforts. This means that we tend to look for projects that ALL Partners, a whole division, or all Partners selling to a certain industry can take advantage of. As such, we are willing to assist Partners personally with their critical projects and presentations but need to prioritize our efforts.
One of the top perks of being an Indoff Partner is the freedom you have. The freedom to sell what you want, to whom you want, the way you want, at the price you want. As such, many of the marketing collateral pieces we create need to be generic, without promoting specific brands and without referencing prices as these choices vary from Partner to Partner. The main objective of the materials we create are to help facilitate the introduction of solutions we offer and keeping you top of mind with your customers.
That being said, our marketing department is focused on the Company or division as a whole while always supporting the Partners.
General Advice & Personal Assistance
Across our 5 divisions, there are a wide variety of solutions and products our Partners offer. There are numerous factors that determine how to best market our offerings. Even within a division, our Partners have varying opinions toward what and how to best message and market to their customers and prospects. While we don’t pretend to be experts in all things marketing, we have a good understanding of many of the tools and strategies currently available. Ultimately, we are here to support your sales efforts.
Additionally, we are always available to discuss ideas regarding the Indoff marketing program, new sales materials and content for the Partners, as well as general advice and tips as to how you can help promote yourself and engage with your customers. Marketing yourself requires money, time, and effort which is why we strive to build a brand that benefits all Partners in addition to your personal sales efforts. There is no easy button. Most digital marketing efforts require consistent and on-going work to maintain an impact. This effort would be required by the Partner. For example, if you want to have your own website, or want to post weekly blogs, etc. you must first determine if you will dedicate the time required.
We understand that there are times when Partners may need more one-on-one assistance. Some examples of where we have assisted Partners on their individual efforts include:
• promoting an award or recently featured news article.
• creating a specific marketing piece for a solution the Partner focuses on.
• assistance for a local trade show (e.g. fliers specific to that event/audience.
• assistance with PowerPoint.
These are projects that we can take on between our normal activities while also providing a fair opportunity for other Partners to utilize us as well. If you provide us with the content, we’ll help with the work. While we wish we could help everyone build and maintain their websites, provide individual email blasts each week for each Partner, create custom catalogs for every Partner based on their preferences, etc., that is not feasible. If you have specific, personal marketing needs, please reach out to us to discuss, and we will let you know of our ability to assist.
Email Marketing Program
The email program was designed to keep our Partners top of mind with their customers. The emails appear to be coming from you and not Indoff Inc. They contain your name, number, and email address, not corporate. These highlevel pieces show your customers the breadth of products and knowledge we have access to. Any responses received will be forwarded to the Partner that the contact is assigned to.
We typically refrain from mentioning any specifics in our emails regarding pricing or vendor. If we do, it’s extremely rare, and we make all the Partners aware, so you have an opportunity to opt out if you’d like. Again, these are high-level awareness pieces to keep you top of mind. These emails do not drive sales of specific items.
Each month we provide an updated schedule for the next month’s email campaigns, which includes the full preview of each email. You are in control of what your customer receives. It is your responsibility to opt out of any emails you do not want your customers to receive by contacting the Marketing department and letting us know. For example, if you do not like the topic of the email, then please tell us that you do not want that email sent to your customer. If you do not want certain customers to receive a specific email, let us know the address of who should not receive it. Your normal email schedule would resume the following week. This also means that if you believe we are emailing too often, it is your responsibility to opt out of the emails we create to slow down the pace. To summarize:
• We can delete an entire campaign.
• We can delete specific contacts for a specific campaign.
• We can lessen the frequency your contacts receive emails.
• We cannot customize the actual content or schedule for each individual Partner
The Partners are our eyes and ears on the ground. You know the voice of your customer. If you have an idea for an email campaign that involves a topic or product that ALL Partners can take advantage of (company-wide or per division) we would love to hear from you. We welcome your ideas and insights. If you can provide us with some additional content alongside your ideas, such as a news article or images, it is a significant help.
Lastly, you are free to join or leave the program at any time. If you’d like to join, at a minimum, we will need your customers’ email addresses. If you have additional information such as their name or company, we’ll include that in our database. If you do not have this information already stored the Marketing team can provide you with a template. If you’d like to leave the program at any point, simply let us know so we can opt your customers out of our messaging moving forward.
Mondays – Material Handling
Tuesdays and Thursdays – Business Products
Wednesdays – Commercial Interiors
Thursdays – Energy Solutions
Web Solutions
Websites are an essential part of business in today’s world. They not only help explain who you are and what you sell but also provide an avenue for people to engage with you and get in front of people who may have never heard of us before. Today’s buyer, who doesn’t have a go to vendor, begins their buying cycle with a Google search. Websites, Indoff.com and our 3 other websites are a focus of our efforts. We use a wide set of tools to help analyze the data on our sites, see customer trends, and track our efforts to better rank on the top search engines. All of this is done to let buyers know who we are so that they will contact our Partners and, hopefully, put more money in their pockets.
On top of driving traffic to our corporate site, we also offer Partner specific sites. These are called “Web Solutions”. We can assist you with creating a website that specifically promotes the services and offerings you focus on. These websites are customized to either market you or to provide your customer with an e-commerce site.
• eCommerce website: to facilitate sales online by connecting directly to Confluence behind the scenes. They are highly customizable and can feature any number of products and product categories. These pages are fully functioning eCommerce stores that you will have full control over. They are excellent for company stores.
• content website: traditional websites that typically consist of 5 pages and speak to who you are, what you do, testimonials, a gallery of your previous work, as well your contact information.
These websites are fully customizable to fit your needs. You would be in full control of the content that is hosted on the site as well as any updates to it. As previously mentioned, these websites won’t provide much benefit if you are not willing to direct your customers to it or spend time creating content to increase the ranking as well as updating the site regularly. We mention this not to steer people away from creating sites, but to acknowledge the time and effort it will take the Partner to maintain these web pages. These websites are your responsibility to manage the site. Once the initial layout is completed, our work is complete. We will provide some basic training before handing the keys over to you. From that point on it’s your site to manage, promote, and update. We will always be available for assistance or reminders of how things operate but the actual maintenance of the site is the Partners responsibility.
Promo For All
The promotional products industry is growing rapidly and as such, Indoff has created the “Promo for All” program so that all Partners have an opportunity to capture additional revenue and grow their relationship with their customers. This program allows our non-Promo Partners the ability to earn commission on promo sales without having to learn the promo industry, manage the sale, enter the sale or do anything other than providing us with contacts.
Margaret Wiggemansen was hired to spearhead the program and comes with years of experience in the promo industry. If you have a customer interested in promotional products, Margaret is more than willing to hop on the phone and discuss their needs. She will make recommendations to your customer as well as help show them proof(s) of the product so they can see it before ordering. Turnaround times are quick, and her customer service skills are unmatched. If a deal is completed, then the Partner will receive 40% of the gross profit for simply helping facilitate the deal.
We offer an email program that will send communications to your customers every 2 weeks, which highlights an upcoming opportunity to purchase promotional gear. The emails are sent from a program called Outbound Engine, which focuses on emails for the promotional products industry. They are highquality pieces meant to drive sales and communications from your customers. You can join this email program at any time by sending your list of email contacts to Margaret or the Marketing Department and we’ll handle it from there. If for any reason you decide you no longer wish to participate in the program, we can opt you and your customers out of the emails.
For our promotional products Partners, we now offer design services: the creation of new logos, vectorization of existing logos, banners, product mockups, and more. Each of these services comes at a small cost that can be deducted directly from your marketing budget and come in vastly cheaper than you would get these services elsewhere.
Marketing Collateral
Collateral is the physical form of marketing you can leave with a customer or use to help facilitate a deal. A lot of the collateral we offer is a great tool to introduce customers to Indoff by explaining who we are, how we operate, and what we have access to. These are also great pieces to use when attempting to cross-sell between the divisions with existing customers. We are limited in the types of collateral we can create due to the Partner Program and as such we cannot create things, such as catalogs, where pricing or certain vendors are shown due to the vast discrepancy between our Partners.
Although we cannot always create custom collateral for individual Partners, we are open to feedback and information regarding the collateral the Partners need. If there’s a particular time of year when certain products sell more often or perhaps certain industries need to be targeted, then we want to know. Additionally, if you have a good opportunity for a sale and you’re simply in need of something more specific to help speak to the customer, then we are happy to assist you in that effort as well. The more content and context you can provide, the faster the project will go and the more willing we will be.
Divisional Slicks
Case Studies
Indoff “ Freedom is everything at Indoffselling what want, selling to whom want, when I want, and at the price want. That quality of life is the glue holding together the Partner Program since 1991. - David Perry Material Handling Chesapeake,VA Indoff Material Handling Partners enjoy the following benefits: 50% commission on the gross profit (sale price minus material, freight, and labor) of every sale paid on invoice. Commissions are paid at the end of the month following the month of the invoice - not when the customer pays. Compensation W-2 status with company 401K Access to hundreds of manufacturers Vendor Opportunities You choose the vendors that fit your customers’ needs You have the ability to add vendors to our vendor list Ability to work with local suppliers, installers, fabrication shops, and engineers Weekly e-marketing pieces Marketing & Technology Resources Annual marketing budget - purchase catalogs and promotional items use as you see fit Personalized SMO Catalogs Lead generation from online catalog Personal marketing site to take your business online Cross Selling Opportunities Indoff’s multiple divisions provide a unique opportunity to expand offerings to your customers, and network with fellow Indoff Sales Partners Indoff “love working for Indoff. I can be Indoff Promotional Products Partners enjoy the following benefits: PROMOTIONAL PRODUCTS 60% commission on the gross profit of every sale paid on invoice. Commissions are paid at the end of the month following the month of the invoice - not when the customer pays. Compensation W-2 status with company 401K Supplier Opportunities Indoff Preferred Supplier List End Column pricing ASI and PPAI membership Overseas Resources ESP Web FREE yearly subscriptions to the industry’s premier marketing tool Ranked priority product search featuring Indoff preferred suppliers Daily updates of every product in the industry from 3500+ of ASI’s most respected suppliers Access to view over 3500+ supplier catalogs Marketing and Technology Resources 24/7 access to Indoff’s online order management system Unlimited sample cost sharing Customized website featuring Indoff’s Preferred Suppliers Personal Marketing sites and Company Store sites Cross Selling Indoff’s multiple divisions provide a unique opportunity to expand offerings to your customers, and network with fellow Indoff Sales Partners. In-House Support Indoff offers available sourcing, order management & customer service In-house design services for a fee ind-005-D Indoff “ Joining Indoff was the best decision I ever made because it allowed me the freedom and flexibility to sell the way want. get to be a consultant for my clients and have the freedom and flexibility to operate like a business owner without the overhead and headache of running my own business.Commercial Interiors Warrenton, VA Indoff Commercial Interior Partners enjoy the following benefits: COMMERCIAL INTERIORS 50% commission on the gross profit (sale price minus material, freight, and labor) of every sale paid on invoice. Commissions are paid at the end of the month following the month of the invoice - not when the customer pays. Compensation W-2 status with company 401K Weekly e-marketing pieces Marketing & Technology Resources Annual marketing budget purchase catalogs and promotional items use as you see fit 24/7 access to Indoff’s online business management system Confluence Personal marketing site to take your business online Cross Selling Indoff’s multiple divisions provide a unique opportunity to expand offerings to your customers, and network with fellow Indoff Sales Partners. Access to over 800 furniture manufactures in corporate, healthcare, education, hospitality, multi-family, and commercial real estate. Vendor Opportunities You choose the vendors that fit your customers’ needs You choose the product niches in which you wish to specialize You have the ability to add vendors to our vendor list Ability to work with local suppliers, installers, and designers
CASE STUDY The Problem The Davis Community facility was in need of new furnishing for their new addition. The Solution Indoff, The Davis Communities and the residential designer (D’s Interior Design) worked together to fill each space with the proper furnishings. The Company In 1963, retired railroad executive Champion McDowell Davis began with a vision — to create a positive living environment for aging men and women. This vision inspired him to transform his family’s former peanut plantation into what it is today: a 54-acre not-for-profit community where seniors choose to live and where employees choose to work. The Objective To provide the new 14,000 sq. ft. facility with furnishing, space planning, interior design, project management and installation. Benefits Provided healthcare furnishings for a variety of spaces in the new addition, including patient rooms, training and conference rooms, offices, public seating, the family and game room and the dining hall. indoff.com CASE STUDY The Problem The Army National Guard Center project near Pasadena, CA used Lyon doublewide metal door lockers for both equipment storage and in the locker/shower rooms. The storage equipment lockers were nothing but problematic in keeping the doors adjusted and in alignment. When the Bakersfield project for the California National Guard Center was bid, the Guard had the same locker specs in their Pasadena center. In surveying the soldiers’ use of the lockers, it was observed that the first thing the soldiers did after coming in from training was to hang their duffle bags on the locker doors. The existing metal locker doors could not support the sixty pound bags without damage. The Solution Base on recommendations, the California Army National Guard purchased larger lockers for their equipment storage. These lockers are more durable and less costly in comparison to the metal door lockers purchased previously by other centers. The California Army National Guard is one of three components of the California National Guard, a reserve of the United States Army, and part of the National Guard of the United States. The Objective Instead of quoting the specified 36” wide metal lockers with 2 doors, 6’ tall, which would have the same problems with deflection or one with a single 36” door, we recommended an alternative. We recommended 7’ tall welded wire mesh lockers with a single door for greater access to the lockers than a single or double door on a 6’ high metal locker. Benefits Upon completion of the installation, the Army inspector was so happy with the way the wire lockers turned out that they have now become the standard storage lockers for the California Army Reserve Centers. An additional benefit designed for these lockers was the installation of a pole to increase capacity for hanging equipment. indoff.com CASE STUDY The Problem Coldwell Banker, a large Wilmington realtor, needed to build a new corporate office due to the rapid expanse of their business. The Solution Plans were drawn and edited, and when completed sent to the architects for build-out drawings. Color boards came next followed by the bill of materials, pricing, and ordering of the new furnishings. This two year project started with plans of unfinished space and ended with wall decor. Project management and installation were a key component to the success of this project. The Company Founded in 1988 as Wilmington Sea Coast Properties and becoming affiliated with the Coldwell Banker brand in 1993, Coldwell Banker Sea Coast Advantage has steadily and strategically grown from a small firm to the largest and best-selling real estate company in Eastern North Carolina and South Carolina’s Grand Strand. The Objective Indoff’s local Partner, John Kaiser, negotiated a turnkey contract for the Coldwell Banker Sea Coast Realty 26,000 square foot corporate office. Mr. Kaiser interviewed the owners and managers to determine what their requirements and aspirations were for their new corporate headquarters. John also interviewed key employees and agents to get a better understanding of office operations, and then an inventory of existing furniture was taken. Benefits “We highly recommend Indoff and will definitely use them again.” indoff.com - Tom Spencer, VP of Operations.
These provide a brief explanation as to who Indoff is and what we offer, we’ve included a few quotes from customers, as well as a list of our top vendors and product categories for each division.
Case studies show customers that Indoff has decades of experience and has worked with large and small companies alike. It provides validity that we can do what we say.
Provided by a hyperlink, these electronic brochures provide a professional quality visual representation of the type of products we offer based on the division or industry you are specifically targeting.
We can’t help every Partner with every need, but if there is ever a good opportunity and you require that extra professional touch to really make an impact, we are happy to help.
Presentation Assistance
Indoff MATERIAL HANDLING Where Solutions Take Shape indoff.com MATERIAL HANDLING SOLUTIONS Indoff Where Solutions Take Shape PROMOTIONAL PRODUCTS Indoff COMMERCIAL INTERIORS Where Solutions Take Shape indoff.com CORPORATE SOLUTIONS Indoff Overviews COMMERCIAL INTERIORS MATERIAL HANDLING PROMOTIONAL PRODUCTS BUSINESS PRODUCTS APPLIANCES An Indoff Business Products professional brings a full portfolio of products and services to help your company source, buy, and manage your business product needs. Customized Pricing Plans Set-up and Manage Resupply Identify Areas of Saving Online Procurement Next-Day Delivery National Account Programs Since 1964, Indoff has been a trusted supplier of high quality air conditioners, appliances, commercial laundry products, and has developed a large customer base for: Hotel, Motel & Extended Stay Multi-Family Housing Government Student Housing Assisted Living No two companies manufacture or warehouse products in the same way. Engineering expertise for manufacturing or warehouse products is a key value. Our Sales Partners have the expertise and experience in the industry to review your process and develop solutions that work for your situation. Your Indoff Sales Partner can work with you to find replacement equipment or develop complete turnkey solutions. Indoff provides furniture and solutions for everything in the office including reception areas, conference rooms, Where do you find some of the most iconic logos in the world? How about a shirt pocket, a golf ball, or a printed brochure. If you are looking to make a lasting impression on a customer, remember to leave them with something designed to advertise their products while building brand Corporate Events Special Promotions Company Picnics Corporate Moral Our divisions shaping business needs since 1971 Thank you for considering Indoff for your business needs. You are about to discover Indoff’s greatest strength and the key to the value we provide our customers – our Sales Partners. Indoff is not a traditional business where we warehouse large quantities of product. Our sales Partners work to make sure that what we provide is the best solution, not the one we happen to inventory. With nearly 400 experienced professionals sharing solutions and ideas, your Indoff Partner can help you fulfill or solve almost any procurement need you may have. Thank you for this opportunity, and welcome to Indoff! Meet Our Senior Management Team John Ross Jim Malkus Jeff Ross Pam Hake Shawn Faulkingham Chairman CEO President Vice President, Operations CIO WHERE SOLUTIONS TAKE SHAPE indoff.com Indoff
Idea Books
Indoff operates much differently than most other distributors and so we provide overviews to explain how long we’ve been in business, and the divisions we operate in, as well as our leadership team and business model.
Social Media
Social media has changed a lot over the years, and while it’s still a great tool, it can be difficult to use effectively if you’re inexperienced. Initially, social media was a fun environment to share your stories with friends and family. Over time, influencers have emerged, and companies have seen a greater ROI from this tactic.
While we have experience in running paid social media ads, a specific ad campaign is something that our Partners take on only sometimes. The actual maintenance and cost of the campaign would fall on the Partner.
We will be offering training to provide an overview of how some Partners are utilizing social media via the more common posting on social media. These zoom meetings will provide an overview of how to get started as well as advice on how to organically increase awareness of your solutions. There is no cost aside from the time and effort needed on your end. We can:
• provide tips for finding local groups and businesses that you can interact with.
• assist with providing images that can be used to help boost your visibility and brand awareness.
• explain some of the basics such as hashtags.
Partners may have individual specialties, but the corporate messaging is much broader and designed to speak to our entire audience. We are active on all the major platforms and partake in posting within specific industry groups as well as impactful groups around the country.
Marketing is too important to be left to the marketing department.
- David Packard
