Inside Indoff - Indoff's Q1 2024 Newsletter

From the CEO

GJim Malkus CEO

reetings! I’m a sports fan; most of you already know that. While basketball is my favorite sport and what I played best, baseball is an emotional attachment to my childhood and my dad – it was our “thing.” As we begin another season, I appreciate the memories, the excitement of a new start, and the romanticism of another season, another opportunity.

The Indoff Partner program turns 33 years old this year; it, too, is an emotional tie for me to the past. I have great memories of the early years, John Temple’s enthusiasm, and our pioneering Partners helping to define the program. As I look to the future of Indoff, I am excited for numerous reasons:

1. Opportunities abound – eCommerce, Promo for All, the Global product assortment, Facility Solutions –now more than ever, Indoff and its Partners have nearly unlimited access to products and solutions for our customers.

2. Strong financial foundation – Julie Frank and her team manage our business well; Global’s financial team does the same for them. There isn’t an opportunity out there that we can’t tackle with our resources.

3. Great people – whether it’s our 25-year Partners and staff or our newest hires, we have tremendously talented individuals in place to help us take advantage of the opportunities in the marketplace.

How does one stay engaged after being in a job for over 30 years – excitement for the future…the Indoff Partner Program has always been about one thing – opportunity – and that has never been more true than it is today. I mean, we did not hire Al Hutton in 1994 to be our “over the web, custom imprinted whiteboard guy”…

As we round the corner into the 2nd quarter of the year, take a few moments and resolve to investigate and hopefully utilize one or more new opportunities within the Indoff Partner Program - I think you’ll be glad you did. If you’re unsure how to start, visit the Partner Intranet, which is accessible through Confluence.

Stay safe and well. Good luck to your team, and thank you for all you do for Indoff.

Newest Partners

MATERIAL HANDLING

COMMERCIAL INTERIORS

PROMOTIONAL PRODUCTS

Mike Newcomer

FACILITY SOLUTIONS

Newest Corporate

RECRUITER

Jeremy Shaw Aimee Walsh

Pete Lauder Tom Dowden

Kacy Kovac

Erika Mears Travis Ulwelling

Ryan Bowling

E-Commerce

HMichael Dormagen Marketing Director

ave you ever wondered how much money you could make if you got even just a small cut from your friends, family, and neighbor’s Amazon orders? Well, I’m not going to say we are Amazon, or even close to it, but shop.indoff.com is a great opportunity to get a taste of what that would be like.

In the rapidly evolving business landscape, e-commerce has remained a transformative force, revolutionizing how companies approach sales and customer interactions. Traditional sales efforts, while effective in their own right, are often relied upon for larger and more complicated projects that require extensive face-to-face interactions. In contrast, e-commerce offers a myriad of benefits that can significantly enhance your sales efforts and help you capture the smaller transactional sales to add to your bottom line.

For many years, Partners have asked for an e-commerce platform, and now we finally have the opportunity to use one of the best in the market to our benefit. This opportunity for our Partners is immense and something never seen in the marketplace with this commission rate. With shop.indoff.com, we have not only an official online avenue for customers to purchase from but also the opportunity to align in ways that haven’t been done before at Indoff. It’s truly the start of a new era, and if you aren’t on board, you ARE leaving money on the table. There are no ifs.

Our online store hasn’t been created to compete with or replace you and your efforts but rather to help position you as a true one-stop shop for all your customers’ needs. The shop doesn’t change who you are and what you do; it simply fills the gaps that customers have already been using others to fill. We make it a point to provide your contact information within their account settings so they understand that you are still their primary contact and personal expert.

Customers will still rely on you for larger projects, detailed product information, expert advice, scheduling of deliveries and services, and so much more that the online store can’t offer. That won’t go away anytime soon. You personally fill that large gap when customers are shopping with competitors. The difference is that with our platform, we have now filled our gaps while theirs remains. Now, we need to make people aware, and that’s where we need to rely on you, the Partners.

Very few sites offer true expert advice and service, but we are one of them. If a customer has a question about a specific product, they call you directly instead of using an 800 number. If they order larger items but need an installation team, they can email you directly for assistance instead of a generic inbox. We don’t have artificial chatbots on the site that provide generic information, but rather, we have real human Partners who can provide in-depth details. Once your customers understand that they get your expertise along with their day-today purchases, you’ll become one of their go-to resources for all their business needs, they just simply don’t know it’s a possibility.

Indoff Intranet

Information Overload? Where to find what you need!

WCourtney Brazell Vice President, Partner Support & Programs

ith 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, HR information and most importantly in recent days, Global Industrial training and sales guides. Speaking of Global, we’ve recently added a calendar widget to the Global Industrial tab on the Intranet where you can find upcoming training and events related to Global. Right now we don’t have anything scheduled in the near future, but stay tuned for more in the coming weeks and months.

Need to find out how to access your 401K? Check out the Partner Intranet. Looking for a copy of the Indoff W-9? Check out the Partner Intranet. Want to attend or schedule training on E-commerce? Check out the Partner Intranet.

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. Simply click the Google Apps icon in the upper-right hand corner. The final option is to use the direct link: https://sites.google.com/indoff.com/knowledge-base/home?authuser=0

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

• Ariba POs - ariba@indoff.com

• 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 Invoice - apinvoices@indoff.com

• Vendor W9 - vendorw9@indoff.com

• Global Industrial POs - indoffsales@globalindustrial.com

And finally, I’d like to announce our next Corporate Corner! This is the second presentation in our monthly series. Join us to learn more about the Promo for All program and how to work with Margaret Wiggemansen. In addition, Tom Vanhoozer will host a round-table discussion to share how some of our Sales Partners have gone to market with E-commerce. We look forward to seeing you soon!

As always, please call or email the Partner Support Help Desk if we can further assist.

Email: partnersupport@indoff.com Phone: 866-587-4648

NSM - Las Vegas

Adam Heck Director of Vendor Relations/Recruiting Operation

Hello Partners,

Many of you have heard that we are combining our National Sales Meeting with Global’s National Tradeshow. What you may not have heard is that the dates have moved from early October to August 20-23rd. If you like hot weather, we have a deal for you! The meeting and tradeshow will be hosted at the Westgate Hotel Las Vegas. It’s a bit off the strip but it’s a very nice facility and is an easy Monorail trip to anywhere on the strip.

We will continue to have our Indoff specific events like prior NSMs, including our awards banquet, Indoff University, and Corporate/Partner led classes. The tradeshow will be a combination of Global vendors (many of whom we also buy from directly) and our own key vendors that I am working on getting to attend. The tentative schedule for the show is as follows:

Tuesday August 20th - Partner registration from 1-4pm, opening session 5-6, awards dinner to follow

Wednesday August 21st - Indoff University classes from 8am-12pm, lunch hosted by Global, tradeshow from 1-5pm. Global event at Ole Red on the Strip from 6-?

Thursday August 22nd - Corporate and Partner led classes-8am-12pm, lunch, Global trade show open till 2:30pm

We anticipate Partners getting into town Tuesday morning, and being able to leave town late Thursday afternoon or Friday morning. We are excited about this new opportunity to work with Global and think it will be a great time. Expect to see invites sometime in the next 30-45 days.

August 20-22, 2024

Business Development

Tom VanHoozer Vice President, Business Development

Spring is in the air!! Or that might be pollen depending on what part of the country you live in. Either way, it means that the start of a new season of baseball and then of course my favorite golf event, The Masters.

Last year, I was fortunate enough to be able to go to The Masters for my first time thanks to my son Quentin who gave me the ticket as a gift. It was a beautiful day in April last year when I was able to stand within 5 feet of one of the greatest golfers, Tiger Woods, as he struck his ball. When people think of golf, they think of Tiger.

That makes me think of what our customers think about when they think of you as their Partner representing Indoff. Do they really know what you are capable of? Do they understand how deep your association is with fellow Partners in your division or even in other divisions?

In January, I accepted additional responsibility from being a fellow Partner – which I still am by the way – to helping Partners envision what they want out of this Indoff partnership, to help Partners realize the full power of Indoff and their role in it.

In these first 90 days, I have met with and spoken with many Partners, focusing on two main points:

1. Crossover selling: to be successful, the Indoff Partner should diversify your business by offering more than a single division. A successful Partner is one who can be a Player/Coach for their customer. You have access to many talented fellow Partners (players) who can help you get to the next level. Bring in the right Partner to help you win!

2. Community: there are several pay as you go networking services you can join, but the one with the best resources is your fellow Partners. Have lunch with the Partners in your area, get to know them, get to know their families. Start developing relationships with fellow Partners and see what business ideas you can come up with together. Who knows, you might make a friend and get a paycheck along the way.

Over the next few months, I will continue reaching out to Partners, scheduling calls or visiting as time permits, mainly just to get to know you and see where I can assist with the growth of your business. When one Indoff Partner succeeds, we ALL succeed. Let’s grow our business together!

Indoff + Kellex = Success

Partners of the Month

MH CI BP PP

Brian Kenner

Stacy Bernhardt

Darrell Reed

Deanna Lies

John Vasquez

Koeneman

John Fincher

Kristina Venable

Joe Saldana

John Hollern n/a

Chris Koeneman

Joe Vander Zanden

David Strong Darrell Reed

Gary Blackwell Bob Barroll

Congratulations to the following Partners who are celebrating their Employment Anniversaries with us in the months of January, February and March 2024: Jack Rosati

Congratulations to the following Corporate/CSR employees who are celebrating their Employment Anniversaries with us: Shawn Faulkingham 3/29

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