Inside Indoff - Q1 2023

CEO Message

Jim Malkus Chief Executive Officer

End of year newsletter…first of year newsletter…make a plan…review results…wash, rinse, repeat… My first job was in public accounting. I grew up in a town of 100,000 people, and I had moved into my sweet 200 square foot apartment (might be exaggerating a bit – I could sit on the couch, lean forward, and open the fridge…) two days before, and now I was sitting in a conference room in my big boy suit in the big city of St Louis awaiting words of wisdom from the Managing Partner…

“Welcome. The most important thing you will need to do in this job and any job is…(dramatic pause)… just show up…”

Well, for the young man from central Illinois, this was a bit of a letdown. I’d been raised with this lesson ingrained in me. You always arrive a few minutes early, you always do what you said you’d do, and you come back tomorrow even if today didn’t go your way. For these to be the opening words, the key to success – well that didn’t seem right…

Fast forward 40 years (lord, I’m old), and I do now understand. I alluded to it several times during the pandemic. What could we keep doing as an organization for our customers, for ourselves – keep showing up, keep being available. It does separate us from our competition; we are here for each other and for our customers. I’m convinced it is part of why 2021 and 2022 were such strong years for us; our customers learned in a difficult time that their Indoff Partner and Indoff were going to be there to help.

What will 2023 bring? I’m not sure (no one is), but I am fully confident that Indoff – our Partners and our staff – will be here to do our best, to take care of our customers and to keep showing up.

Stay safe, stay well and thank you for all you do for Indoff.

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Indoff’s Newest Partners

MATERIAL HANDLING

COMMERCIAL INTERIORS

Molly Williams

Melinda Esmond

Linda McCabe

Carly Riding

BUSINESS PRODUCTS

Indoff’s Newest Corporate Employees

Jeremiah Morgan

Credit Coordinator

Valerie Kosulandich

A/P Processor

Paige Levi

Recruiter

Dennis Marsh

Allied Sales

Information Overload Where to find what you need!

Courtney Brazell Director of Partner Support

With the sheer volume of information being shared these days, either via email, company discussion boards or over the phone, Indoff Sales Partners can easily miss key documents such as company policies, Corporate documents or how-to instructions. What we often hear at Corporate is that our Sales Partners do not know where to find information or are experiencing information overload.

While we still share information via email, everything we share always leads back to the Partner Intranet. This is a single location where you can find an enormous amount of information including the vast majority of the marketing collateral, important company documents and Corporate announcements.

Need to find out how to access your 401K? Check out the Partner Intranet

Need a copy of the Indoff W-9? Check out the Partner Intranet

Looking for an idea book to send to a customer? Check out the Partner Intranet

Everything we share leads back to the Partner Intranet and we’ve created several ways for you to access the site. The first, and most prominent location is within Confluence on the bottom left-hand side while the second option is to access Google Drive from your Indoff Google mail account by clicking the Google Apps icon in the upper-right hand corner. The final option is to use the direct link below: https://sites.google.com/indoff.com/knowledgebase/home?authuser=0

As a final reminder, below are the Corporate Emails you should be using:

Billing Requests - accounting@indoff.com

Credit Department - credit@indoff.com

Customer Credit Card Payments - cc-payments@indoff.com

Customer and Indoff Sales Tax Exemptions - salestax@indoff.com

Expense Reports/Partner Labor - staff.accountant@indoff.com

Insurance - insurance.certs@indoff.com

Marketing Budgets - staff.accountant@indoff.com

Partner Support - partnersupport@indoff.com

Vendor Invoices - apinvoices@indoff.com

Vendor W9 - vendorw9@indoff.com

As always, please call or email the Partner Support Help Desk if we can further assist. Email: partnersupport@indoff.com Phone: 866-587-4648

Tech Talk Keeping Your Devices Secure

Shawn Faulkingham CIO

Firstly, I’d like to thank all Employees and Sales Partners at Indoff for paying attention to my emails regarding your PC/ Tablet/Phone security. We have had little to no issues with anyone being hacked or clicking on strange emails or pop-up messages over the last few years! But don’t stop! It’s just going to get worse, unfortunately. I have outlined below the best applications and practices to help keep your technology safe.

• Keep up with the application and operating system updates! This is your first line of defense against hackers being able to exploit issues with the above!

• Use Windows Firewall! It can be beneficial in giving you an understanding of what applications are trying to get through inbound and outbound.

• Use a password manager!!!! 1password.com is my top recommendation. Do not use LastPass. If you need help migrating, contact us.

• Use two-factor authentication or multi-factor authentication wherever you can! This keeps riffraff from hacking into your stuff!

• If you use 2FA/MFA, use an authenticator like authy to generate codes. SMS (text) is ok, but still very hackable.

• Use the new Brave browser! I’ve been using it for quite some time with no issues. It blocks all kinds of nasty stuff, including tracking, scripts, and cross-site tracking! This is a great browser if you want to stay private out in the wild west internets!

• If you use Mozilla FireFox, I recommend the following add ons/extensions to keep you safe(r) and private:

Decentraeyes

DuckDuckGo Privacy essentials

Facebook Container

Ghostery

Privacy Badger

Ublock Origin

• Use Anti-virus/Anti-malware software! Very critical in catching the bad guys! The top recommendation is Trend Micro. The top supplemental software is Malwarebytes!

• Stay on top of the following:

Fake email addresses, spelling errors, embedded hyperlinks

Phishing emails requesting money or information when users click the link

Never click a link, never download a file, and beware of fake share file (like Google Drive or SharePoint) links

If you follow the above instructions, you should be able to keep all of your technology assets safe! It’s more critical than ever to make sure your tech is updated and working at peak efficiency for your jobs and ultimately your customers! As always, if you have any questions regarding the above, do not hesitate to contact us! I encourage you to try and learn how to protect yourself. For those who will be attending the NSM, I will be holding a break-out session on this. If you are not attending, please be sure to join one of the webinars we will hold for this topic.

A-Grade Dealers Can We Compete?

Kimberly Pope Sales Partner

In my opinion, Indoff is an A-grade company. Our customers just need to know why. I think of the big dealerships with showrooms as “Branded Dealerships”. The Big Five is the term we used when referring to dealers for Steelcase, Herman Miller, Allsteel (HON), Haworth and Knoll. These furniture dealerships are connected to name brands like car dealerships are to brands for Ford, BMW, and Chevrolet. Hon is the KIA in the group. While you may see other cars on their lot, they have quotas to sell 75% or more from their brand manufacturer. Their sales are audited for this. Besides having plants in the US, branded dealerships also ship in products or parts from Canada, Mexico and China. The truth is, I don’t see a difference in what we have to offer in products. I can tell you that these dealers claim our products are substandard - but they aren’t. I believe what we have in our Indoff basket of manufacturers has a lot more to offer than the branded dealerships. It is up to us to explain this to our customers.

The branded dealerships are held (on large projects) to tight margins by the brand name manufacturer. Indoff Partners are not held to certain margins or brands. We can negotiate with several quality competing manufacturers to find the best solution for our customers. Rather than supporting the discounts of the manufacturers we are often negotiating on our client’s behalf for better discounts for projects or for a commitment to purchase over time. Sometimes manufacturers will negotiate a steeper discount for the initial project if they understand that one or two more projects are coming in the same year.

Instead of being limited to the same brand of products over and over, we have hundreds of manufacturers to purchase from for our clients. This gives us options to; 1) better fit the customer’s needs, 2) complement their branded image and 3) meet tough installation schedules. Because of their brand, showroom and facilities - the Big Five can sometimes translate as arrogant or feel intimidating. I cannot argue that their brand is typically well known. I can tell you in my 35 plus years’ experience almost no-one has time to go and visit a showroom. I can count on one hand the times they asked to see one. If they do ask, see if there is a regional showroom of your main manufacturer that you could go see. If the project is large enough you might be able to get a commitment for a mock-up.

Indoff has more sales Partners with way more experience than the average branded dealership. Branded dealers often brag about how big they are but they do not come close to the size of Indoff with our resources in people and volume of products. It is important to make sure your client knows that Indoff is a 60-million-dollar commercial interior dealership with more than 130 professionals across the nation. Large dealerships may have three locations and 10-15 sales people. It doesn’t compare. Branded dealerships may seem to have teams of people working on projects. Whereas you might be the only Indoff sales Partner in a specific city. The branded dealerships have designers on staff to create spaceplanning or 3D renderings. How do I compete? I can draw in AutoCAD, but I do not have a rendering program. However, I make use of these tools through the manufacturers. Your presentation can look just as impressive. I often bring manufacturer’s renderings into my power points. If you need help, we have access to a dozen Indoff Partners who are as talented as any designers in the industry! The branded dealership will have project managers. I do the project management. I impress upon my customers that

I have no quota with Indoff or a manufacturer. I am paid straight commission. My success is dependent upon my ability to deliver on what I say and what they want. Indoff gives me the freedom to act in the client’s best interest and we make it work. I’ve worked for a couple of branded dealerships. When something goes wrong, the sales person often points to the project manager who may point to the designer or the installer or the manufacturer. While they are wasting time pointing fingers, an Indoff Partner gets whatever the issue is resolved. We are fully and completely accountable. Customer not happy? I don’t get paid. Plus, if you are like me, I want that next opportunity with this company and the next and the next. Customer satisfaction is the key to years of opportunities.

About ten years ago the large dealership industry moved to having dedicated sales and design teams for different parts of the industry (healthcare, higher education, assisted living, corporate, industrial, hospitality etc.). If you have a project that is outside your experience, you might consider partnering on a project with an Indoff Partner that has experience in the industry that you are interested in branching into. We have tons of resources at Indoff.

Branded dealerships usually have their own installers. I used to think this was a plus until I worked for Indoff. Quality installation companies are certified for installing many types of products. They want long term relationships with their customers. Employee installers for dealerships get burned out but companies are hesitant to terminate them. Installation companies care about their reputation and when it comes to bad installers, they don’t keep them. How you finish a job makes a difference to customers.

Probably the greatest differentiator between Indoff and one of the branded dealers is the ultimate interest of the vendor. A branded dealer is beholden to the manufacturer they represent. They have a quota and all sorts of other stipulations. They HAVE to push a certain amount of that product. An Indoff Partner is beholden to no one. When I meet with a prospect the only bias I may have is due to my past experience. Because I can sell whatever I want, I have the freedom to really understand the prospect’s needs, budget, time frame and propose accordingly.

The branded dealer has a tremendous commitment to their vendor. There are two important things here. We are free to work with the best solution for our client. That may be a unique manufacturer. However, if you are in a state with multiple Indoff Partners I have also found that the strength of what the group in the state is purchasing can be significant to manufacturers. Leverage it. Communicate with the other partners in your state and find out what they are selling. It can be eye opening and powerful when competing with branded dealerships.

My experience is there are sometimes very nice, qualified salespeople who work for our competitors. When all things are created equal this old saying is true, “The early bird gets the worm.” Sometimes the only thing that differentiates the competition is who meets the client first. When you see a building coming out of the ground or get wind of a project, be sure to act on it fast.

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National Sales Meeting “Let Them Know”

Jeff Ross President

The National Sales Meeting (NSM) is just 9 weeks away! The theme is: “Let Them Know!” If you recall our 2021 theme was “Sharing Partner Solutions.” Whereas we were encouraging Partners to work closer together (let’s not forget the COVID challenges), this year’s theme is focused on building the Indoff brand which requires sharing with our customers all that we (all of Indoff) can offer.

The format will largely be similar. We will not have an opening speaker. The first night (opening session) will be a brief welcome with opening announcements then cocktails. We hope the breakout sessions are more “hands-on.” There will not be much format change for the vendor exhibit hall or the awards dinner. We will be STRONGLY encouraging each Partner to spend a few hours at the exhibit hall. Our vendors pay to attend and take time to travel here and build relationships with us. It is important that every vendor feels it is time worthwhile – and this requires your participation.

As much as Partners describe Indoff as a family, the NSM can be intimidating for a new Partner. I’ve seen this the past few NSM’s: the veteran Partners are thrilled to see one another and they hug and high-five. A new Partner often has never met a single Indoff person. You can immediately pick out that new Partner who knows no one. A friendly veteran Partner who would spend an hour with a new Partner - introducing her/him to a handful of people - can go a long way toward the newer Partner feeling included as part of the family. For this reason, we are going to try something new. We will be asking veteran Partners to volunteer to be a “buddy” for a new Indoff Partner. This “buddy” will be asked to spend a little time with the new Partner, taking them around the vendor show, introducing them to other Partners and corporate staff and generally sharing their experience. You certainly do not need to be with the new Partner the entire meeting. The key is meeting them when they first arrive. Maybe sit with them during the opening session. Spending an hour and introducing them to a handful of people can go a long way to make a newer Partner feel included.

I am currently working on the breakout sessions for Indoff University. As always, we want to use this rare opportunity (meeting in person) to provide the greatest value to our Partners. Although we have an overall theme for all Partners, the division specific sessions may be of greatest value for Partners new and veteran alike.

Indoff is a sales company. Sales come from our Partners. Our Partners help each other with sales. I feel it is our job (my job) to provide the best means to do such. If you have ideas for breakout sessions, please call me. I look forward to meeting many of you for the first time and reconnecting with those whom I have had the privilege to meet before.

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YOUR Indoff Email Program

Michael Dormagen Marketing Director

Newton’s third law states, “for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” As we all know, Indoff is a unique company that offers nearly total freedom in the world of sales. What that means for us in the marketing department though, is that we are restricted in our messaging and technical abilities due to those same freedoms. that you’re offered. I understand and appreciate it when Partners share how other distributors are marketing, however, if Indoff dictated what we wanted you to sell and what the price for such is, we would market much differently.

I want to provide an overview of how our marketing program operates to also address some common concerns and feedback regarding the email program.

CADENCE

Customization is key to making things work for the whole company as each Partner is unique. We try to offer the ability for you to customize our program to fit your needs while also making sure to address all Partner’s customers. This is why we have created the monthly marketing update email which also contains our monthly email schedule. It grants you the ability to review emails in advance so that you can make decisions regarding content and cadence. If you do not review or do not provide us feedback, we have to assume you are comfortable with the messaging.

If you think your customers are receiving emails from us too often then it is your responsibility to opt out of one or more emails each month.. For example, if you want to go from a weekly cadence to every other week, then you need to email us each month and tell us which 2 weeks you want to opt out of. We do not have the tools or options to automate that process.

So what about the rest of the B2B world - what does their cadence look like? We decided on a weekly email schedule because that’s the most common schedule for businesses like ours and it has proven successful thus far.

OPEN RATES

I believe emails simply don’t get opened as much as people outside of Marketing typically tend to think they do. Indoff sits at an average open rate of 19% with 2% click-through rate across all divisions. Below are the average open rates based on various industries. As you can see, we aren’t far off the mark. We have made huge improvements compared to just a year ago when the open rates were

hovering around 13% on average. In fact, nearly every metric has improved across the board but that doesn’t mean that we don’t continue to listen to feedback and look for ways to improve performance.

So what does this mean for you? It’s a numbers game. For example, If you only have 200 contacts in the program then you can expect probably anywhere from a whopping 35-45 people a week to simply open it and honestly, most of the time, it’ll be the same customers each week. Emails are just a small piece of a much larger puzzle. Consider how often you respond to a company, click a link, or purchase something purely due to the marketing email you received. It’s probably not very often and probably requires a bit of luck, good timing, consistency, and other “touches” from the company before you take any action.

We have Partners who have their own marketing tools, messaging and rhythm and many are having great success. If you speak with them, I think you will learn 3 things:

1. They are specifically marketing the products they want to sell, with the message they want (including price), with the frequency they want, to their specific set of clients and prospects.

2. They have invested (either hired or self-learned) in this new world of marketing. Most of them began their individual emarketing (or website or google AdWords) efforts before Indoff even offered such. They have been investing in this effort for some time.

3. They know it is a numbers game. If you speak with these Partners, you will learn that they have a database of thousands of names that they are regularly targeting.

CONTENT

We create the emails each month with a wide variety of topics to not only show the breadth of products and solutions that we have access to but to also make sure that we are speaking to all the different products that Partners specialize in. Some Partners may only sell air purifiers or white boards while some mainly offer moving services and rack repairs. That said, we create emails about all these topics so that we can attempt to support ALL Partners. This means that sometimes there will be emails that may speak to something you’re not interested in selling. If that’s the case, you need to opt out of that specific email. It’s your responsibility to make sure the content that your customers see is specific to you and them.

CONCLUSION

This is not a program that is an afterthought and flies by the seat of its pants. We are responsible for in-depth quarterly reporting and results are reviewed frequently to see where we can improve and what impact previous decisions have made.

We take the time every month to communicate with the Partners via a monthly update, we create schedules, edit screenshots, update information in several locations on the intranet and much more all in an effort to give you all the tools that you need. In return, all we ask is that you please take the time each month to look through the email schedule and previews so that you can make the decisions in regards to cadence and what content your customers see. This is also a great time to provide any feedback in regard to an occasional typo or misuse of industry terminology that may have slipped through our review process. Teamwork makes the dream work and I can assure you that everything we do is done in attempts to help you grow your business. The challenge is that “you” is not your individual Partner business, but all of “you” (all the Indoff business).

We are always open to feedback and new ideas so please don’t shy away from sharing them. Also please understand that we can’t implement or change everything that each Partner suggests. Is the program perfect? No. Do we have room to improve? Always. We appreciate all your thoughts, comments, questions, and concerns but please keep them kind, courteous and professional. Thank you for all you do!

GET TO KNOW Your Corporate Staff

I started out in 3rd Party Collections doing credit card collections, from there I did everything from Ameren to 1st party collections, both consumer and business. I have been working in Account Receivables since August 2022, as of January 3rd, I became a full-time employee with Indoff Inc. I have three kids, my first, Jordan is 23 and is in nursing. She has a beautiful 4 year old Audree Lynn, who was named after me. Adrianna is 19 and is in her last year of high school. She had her first open heart surgery at 6. She has always felt different, so now she makes sure no one feels left out. My youngest is Shane. He is 13 and he is into gaming and band. He plays the tuba and the trumpet; He has already made the first chair in both instruments. I have been married to my husband Mark for almost 8 years, he is funny, supportive, a great dad, and he works hard.

FUN FACTS

My hobbies are baking, and creating breads, cakes, and cookies that make me question if the family will eat them.

My home is my favorite place to be. We eat, Laugh, Love and Pray together.

After seven long years of working at a grocery store through both high school and college, I wanted to start a career in recruiting and/ or human resources. I joined Indoff in August 2022, and everything I know about recruiting I have learned here. I graduated from Maryville University with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and a minor in Elementary Education. I have lived in STL my whole life and have two older brothers, one by ten years and the other eleven years. I also have two cats that I adore and spoil rotten with my long-term boyfriend.

FUN FACTS

My cats names are Beans and Kirby I am the only girl grandchild on both sides of my family I love to go on hikes, journal, spend time with loved ones, & play different kinds of games

When I am asked to tell me a little about yourself – I usually say, you know the girl in your class who is always the first one to raise her hand with the answer? Maybe she had a reputation as a teacher’s pet, but you could not help but to LIKE her, because she was always the first one to help you out, or anybody else for that matter. Well, that’s me in a nutshell and that has carried over into my professional life as well. My professional banking career at State Farm began on December 2, 2002, where I was promoted 3 times within the 18 ½ years of my employment there. I consider myself an upbeat, highly organized Customer Relations Professional. I started as a contractor at Indoff Inc. in the accounts payable on July 25 th , 2022. I was very excited to become permanent as the Receptionist on November 14 th , 2022. My passion is to become A Certified Iridologist IIPA-Iridology.

FUN FACTS

I was a student at The School of Metaphysics here in Maplewood, Missouri for over 2 years.

I love to learn new things, and I embrace my inner nerd.

I have a big heart, and I empathize with others very easily.

Tracey Zinna

Rebekka Andersen

Youlanda Snider

Indoff’s Sales Partners of the Month

DECEMBER 2022

Indoff’s Anniversaries

Congratulations to the following Partners & Corporate employees who are celebrating their Employment Anniversaries with us in the months of January and February 2023.

Promo for All Success Story

Darrell Reed Sales Partner

Iintroduced Margaret to one of my best customers, Torch Technologies, as “my” Indoff specialist on Promotional Products. She took it from there and did all the work. My customer has now placed several PP orders with Margaret and has been 100% completely satisfied with the entire process. I have been selling this customer Office supplies and furniture for 20 years and now finally promotional products thanks to Margaret and the Indoff Promo for All program. My last commission for the job Margaret did for me was $1200. Get on board Partners!