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PPB
• APRIL 2015
THINK
they have the best follow-through as well. They can present any of
their lines as though they were factory reps, down to the most intri-
cate details. They do not just see themselves as liaisons between their
distributor base and their suppliers. Instead, they function as a team
with their suppliers, being involved with all quotes, suggestions and
opportunities. They gauge their success not by their financial income,
but by the overall satisfaction of their customers and their suppliers.
They can devise a marketing plan for their distributors that is forward-
thinking, creative, strategic and impressive. They also are involved with
their suppliers on leads from beginning to end to ensure all needs of
the distributor have been met. Karen is like a cheerleader for promo-
tional products with impeccable follow-through. To have both of
these qualities is very rare.”
Jim Maddox, Owner
Company:
The Maddox Company
Year Company Founded:
1991
Home Base:
Madison, Mississippi
Territory:
Arkansas, Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi
Miles Traveled Annually:
45,000+
Before he was a multi-line rep (MLR):
Maddox owned two
Athlete’s Foot franchises. He purchased the first one in 1985 while he
was still in college at Mississippi State and owned it for six years. He
owned the second one, in Greensboro, North Carolina, for seven
years.
How he got into the promotional products industry:
Maddox answered a classified ad and was hired as an independent
contract salesperson by rep firm K.C. Fields and Associates. He
moved from Indianola, in the Mississippi Delta, home to Jackson and
was on the road three months later representing K.C. Fields.
What he likes most about
being a multi-line rep:
“There is
something new all the time. I am not
an office person, so getting on the road
and seeing the most loyal and respectful
distributors in the country is gratifying.
There’s a certain amount of freedom to
being a multi-line rep but you’ve got to
perform—it’s important that every rep
performs to the max. Every waking
moment that I’m not with my family
or on downtime I’m thinking about
business. How can I sell more? I’ve got
to have more market share than any of
my peers because I’m 100-percent
commission.”
Biggest difficulty for MLRs:
“I
hate to hear a customer say, ‘I wish you
had been here last week,” meaning
―
I
missed an order! It’s like an itch you
can’t scratch, knowing you are missing
an opportunity somewhere.”
Top issue affecting MLRs today:
“Direct to consumer
imports and competing against the internet. The way I combat that is
I sell a product that can’t be sold and I sell in ways that can’t be repli-
cated by websites. We have to motivate distributors who get disen-
chanted with websites. You have to bring value to that end user. I try
to make this point with distributors: that most end users have some-
body looking at websites to find the best price on products. How
much are they paying them? How much time does it take to do that?
That’s where the value comes in. There’s a cost for these end users
who are trying to circumvent the system to get the lowest price. If dis-
tributors would point out the time and money their client is spending
to save five cents when they could without making them mad [that
would be helpful]. Sometimes people say they can’t beat that price.
But people are so strung out on price that they forget that people are
hungry for application—how the product will be used. A website can’t
explain price per impression. If it can be explained, it can be sold. If
you can show the end user that your product has a better impression
value than the other, you are in the ball game. It’s up to us as supplier
reps to help our distributors understand that.”
What distributors should know about MLRs:
“We travel on
our own dime
―
no expense accounts
―
so please give us the time and
opportunity to earn your business. Commission pays the bills, but job
security helps us sleep at night. Any salesman on the road would like
distributors to understand that the time it takes it takes to travel there
(i.e., driving before the sun has risen) should be embraced with the
same enthusiasm, and if not … then just tell me my time would be
better served dressing my children for school, taking the dog for a
walk or watching ‘LIVE with Kelly and Michael.’”
“It’s important to stress to my distributors that they cannot knock
on enough doors. We have a sales base in this industry that has for-
gotten the art of knocking on the door.
It’s so important to make that personal
visit. People are so in tune to doing busi-
ness over the internet. When we lose that
personal touch, then there’s no need for a
distributor or a multi-line rep any more. I
don’t think that will happen. The fax
machine was supposed to be the death of
the salesman. The internet was supposed
to be the death of the salesman. A catalog
is not going to walk in and ask the dis-
tributor to go to lunch. Distributors may
think they have all the information they
need on that computer, so why do they
need to see some peddler from Jackson,
Mississippi? Because I’m going to discuss
your business and give you spec samples.
That is also how distributors can separate
themselves from 95 percent of the com-
petition. It’s tough to make that personal
connection, but we have to keep it in one
way or another.”
KINGS OF THE ROAD
|
PPB
BEST MULTI-LINE REP 2015
Jim Maddox