Difference Makers: The Progressive Group

WORDS BY JAMIE SORCHER

Do The Right Thing

By executing simple things well, The Progressive Group grew from a one-car garage operation to a $30 million-plus business.

Everybody knows Detroit is the car capital of the country, but it’s in America’s furniture capital, Grand Rapids, Mich. where The Progressive Group, a fusion of three companies, makes its home.

Progressive Sales & Marketing (PSM) offers manufacturers representation of high value product lines in the mobile and home electronics industry. Progressive Automated Distributing (PAD) distributes quality home audio, video and integration products servicing the retail, custom integration and commercial channels. R&D Distributing fulfills “just in time” supply of mobile product lines and offers high value, high profit mixes.

In business for almost 30 years, Dave Russell and Bob Walker founded Progressive and in 1997, they brought on Jason Dubie who now serves as Eastern Business Manager of The Progressive Group, PSM-R&D. He handles sales management for the Midwest and upper Midwest as well as operations for the whole company.

“I was offered an opportunity to buy part of the company a few years later,” Dubie said. “And since that time, Dave and I have grown the company together so we’ve been business partners and close friends for about 20 years.”

Jason Dubie is the Eastern Business Manager of The Progressive Group and handles sales management for the Midwest and upper Midwest,along with operations for the whole company.

Progressive employs 34 people including Brad Rachoza (left) and David Leathers here at the company’s front desk.

Creating a Win-Win-Win Situation

The backbone of Progressive is its set of core values. “We run our company based on making decisions to form longterm, profitable partnerships with both our customers and our vendors,” Dubie said. “When we are faced with decisions day to day, we focus on what’s going to be the best way to continue our relationships on both sides of the fence.”

Today, Progressive employs 34 people and has six different warehouses. “The strength of our team—of any company—is the people,” Dubie added. “From the top down, we are putting in the hours.”

Having started out as a rep firm, the company’s core pattern favors the rep side. “Today, we are both a rep firm and distribution company, and our distribution company has grown significantly over the years,” he said.

Its transition from a stocking rep to becoming a distributor started out in the late 90s with Eclipse. “You might remember how tight-knit the brand was, where it exclusively went, and how they were very conscious of the way the product was distributed,” Dubie said. “That was when our distribution company started, with Eclipse, and then we added Rockford and basically grew from there.”

Aligning with vendors and dealers, he added, is the most important thing that Progressive can do. “We want to be sure everyone understands we are in this together,” he said. “For any business relationship it has to be a win-win-win. It has to make sense for everybody—the vendors, the retailers and for us. If the relationship isn’t good for one of the parties, then it’s not a sound relationship. When you add profitability into the picture, and you’re working with a retailer, distributor and vendor, if the relationship isn’t profitable for any one of the three, then it is not a solid relationship.”

Communication is key for Progressive with its vendors and retailers. Nothing, according to Dubie, beats a face-to-face interaction whether it’s stopping in to see a retailer every week or at events such as KnowledgeFest.

Starting the Conversation For a vendor to be considered a potential partner by Progressive, the requirements are upfront and uncomplicated. “We want to work with companies who share our core values,” Dubie said. “We pretty much have Rockford Fosgate in every territory that we’re in as well as AAMP of America and Audiovox. All of our vendors are very important to us, but these three have the widest area coverage.”

For retailers interested in working with Progressive, there are many options. “With the breadth of products we have, there is something for everyone,” Dubie said. “Our vendors, however, have a specific way they want to go to market and we want to honor that. Everything is worth a conversation, though, and that is one of our strengths. We can sit down with smaller retailers and in a lot of cases we are both the rep and the distributor. We can break it down and give them the pros for both sides. They can make a decision that is best for their business today which might be quite different from a decision they make a year from now. We can adjust with them accordingly.”

Whether it is vendors or retailers that Progressive is communicating with, there is no replacement for face-to-face interactions, according to Dubie. “We have always invested in the cost and expense of having people on the road and making sure we’re in with retailers regularly,” he said. “Depending on the retailer, we might see them once a week. Some we visit twice a month or every 60 days. It varies based on both the vendor’s and retailer’s needs.”

Looking Toward the Future of the Industry

Events are another area in which Progressive believes that it pulls ahead of the pack. “We have outfitted vehicles with demo systems,” Dubie said. “We stepped up and bought two Rockford Fosgate Sound Lab vans which are incredible. We also have reps who own Harleys with full systems so those can be brought to events and then demoed especially as we are seeing motorcycle-audio becoming more popular. We are also looking at possibly buying an ATV demo vehicle. We are all about supporting events for retailers. We aim to be the first ones there and the last ones to leave.”

Looking ahead, Dubie said he sees OEM integration continuing to grow. “When we first started in this, all the new technology was introduced by the aftermarket, and after it was proven by the aftermarket, it gradually made its way into the OEM vehicles,” he said. “Nowadays, it’s almost the opposite direction. The auto manufacturers have the technology first and it works its way back. So we may ultimately end up moving into more of a used car business. Years ago, you would drive the car off the lot—no speakers, no radio, no antenna—and you would be installing the whole system and taking what would be outdated products and updating everything. Nowadays that new technology is already in the vehicle.” The year ahead has Dubie keeping those same core values in play at home as well as at work. “For me, right now it’s about continuing to be there for my kids,” Dubie said. “I have one graduating and one going into high school. So it’s about spending quality time with them and teaching them the core values of how to be a good person. On the business side, it’s not much different. Sometimes people just don’t do the

simple things as well as they could. At the end of the day, you have to get out there, do the right thing, put in the time and do the simple things well—and then you will succeed.”

Progressive’s Playbook www.teamprogressive.com

Mobile Electronics Vendor Partnerships:

AAMP Global, Harman, JVCKenwood, Rockford Fosgate, VOXX International

Team Progressive territories

Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Colorado, Utah, Montana, Wyoming, New Mexico, Arizona, Western Pennsylvania, Southeastern Idaho and West Texas.

Company philosophy

We are more of a catalyst than a creator—a market generator, not a responder. We maintain constant contact with retailers, custom installers, and distribution partners. Our sensitivity to market changes is a valuable asset to the principals we serve. We are intimately familiar and proficient with the territory we cover.