The sales and wholesale business is all about building quality and loyal relationships with people. Western Sales in Los Gatos, California is a family owned premium plumbing manufacturer representative agency that has been around for over 30 years. Tom Slankard is the managing partner at Western Sales and has been a Daylite user since 2005. Daylite allows Tom to get things done faster so he can spend more time building relationships with his clients.
Marketcircle: Can you tell us a little about your business?
Tom Slankard: In many trades a manufacturer will hire a sales agency instead of an employee to be their sales person. Our business is being the manufacturer representative. We have a contract with each of our plumbing manufacturers to sell their product in the northern Californa area. Some of these contracts are over 30 years old. We’ve been mutually successful and they keep moving right along.
MC: What do you enjoy most about the wholesale business?
TS: It’s a fun job. I enjoy dealing with people very much as it’s very much a relationships business. I enjoy working with customers and often stay in touch with customers even after they have left the industry. I’ve known most people I work with well enough we can swap bad jokes and jabs. It’s nothing like retail so I can have a real personal relationship without putting on a false smile.
MC: What’s different about your business?
TS: Our business is different than many as we don’t look for more customers. We’re in the wholesale side and looking to expand business with each of our current customers. We deal with plumber distributers that we have a financial relationship with and want to make sure people select our product so we have to keep them up to date with what our manufacturers are doing. This is where we have a database with 200 kitchen and bath showrooms, about 1200 architects and designers, and about 1200 plumbing and building contractors. We don’t sell directly to these people, but we want them to go to our customer and order the material so we use Daylite daily. We use Daylite for “projects” to build campaigns that have a multi-step pipeline to make sure the customers are up to date on the products that we sell.
MC: Who are your customers?
TS: One of our biggest customers are hotels in San Fransisco. Tourists and guests expect a certain level of amenities for these hotels that are anywhere from 200-1000 rooms. We want them to specify our products for their renovations. These renovations happen every five to eight years on a cyclical basis depending on the economy. We want to make sure ownership and decision makers are aware of our products.
MC: What are the steps involved in your pipelines?
TS: Step one of the pipelines is to identify the names, addresses and who the decision makers are in the hotel. Then we use Daylite to print focussed brochures combined with a cover letter and mailed to the two or three decision makers in the property. Three weeks later we print and send a follow up brochure and another three weeks later, print and mail a third brochure. Two weeks following that our hospitality sales person will make a follow up phone call and make an appointment to drop off a sample. We use Daylite to build brand and product awareness without having to send in a sales person. The concept is that the first brochure is thrown away, the second sits on someone’s desk and then is also thrown away. The third sits on someone’s desk and then gets filed. Finally, there is the call to introduce the product and brand recognition. Once the remodelling has happened, they stay in the pipeline and we keep in touch yearly by mail. Five years later when it is time for them to plan for the next remodel we will step up the campaign and make it more active again.
MC: What’s your favourite time saver in Daylite?
TS: The smart lists based on keywords. People move around in the industry a lot and it’s the responsibility of the sales representative to keep Daylite up to date for each contact with the correct keyword. Our marketing department sends out emails to these keyword groups that are focused and they track click through and readership so we know that we have good open and read rate on our e-mails. The calendar and shared contacts also save a lot of time. I can quickly see where anyone is if they’re out at an appointment, or if someone calls and leaves a message I can easily find their information to call them back and even see any linked e-mailed between them and our team.
