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Cheryl Lickteig
New England Multi-Line Rep
DBJ Associates
UPIC: DALE4REP
If you want to continue to work with
these suppliers, you’ll have to include
explicit instructions
not
to include your
competitor’s flyers in your orders with
every
order you place with them.
Also, be sure to bring up this issue
with the supplier’s management.
Craig Dickens
VP/Sales Manager
Suntex Industries
UPIC: SUNTEX
This is a tough question. As a sup-
plier, we drop-ship 90 percent of all
orders. I cannot be 100-percent sure we
have never included a coded catalog, but
I’m pretty sure this does not happen.
We are fortunate to have the same ship-
ping manger for over 20 years to moni-
tor this type of thing. I am aware of a
few suppliers who place info in drop-
ship boxes to try and sell direct, but I
don’t think this happens in our industry
very often.
From a distributor’s point of view, if
this continued to happen I would speak
to the management of the supplier com-
pany, and if I could not get it stopped, I’d
find another supplier.
Cindy Jorgenson, MAS+
Suppliers inserting a distributor’s
communication pieces (i.e., branded fly-
ers) into the distributor’s drop-ship-
ments is not totally uncommon. In fact,
it’s a great way for the distributor to
generate repeat business. The problem
seems to be the supplier doesn’t have a
good quality control system to ensure
the communication is only going into
that distributor’s shipments. My sugges-
tion is to have a very open and direct
conversation with the supplier’s execu-
tive management. I promise they don't
want this mistake to happen, as it will
threaten their business with other
distributors.
Mark Gammon, CAS
Regional Sales Manager
The Vernon Company
UPIC: Vernon
These are fairly isolated incidents, as
we rarely see them happen; however, suc-
cessful distributors view suppliers as true
partners, and the relationship works the
same in reverse.
A conversation with the upper man-
agement of the supplier mentioned
would have to happen if the distributor
were to consider sending any more
business to them. Confrontational con-
versation goes nowhere, so a well-
thought-out discussion on why this
distributor wants to continue to send
and grow business must happen sooner
than later.
Without assurance from them that
this type of practice will halt, they need
to find that “other” supplier that carries
the item in question and build that
relationship.
Without knowing the supplier
specifically, I can still confidently say that
if it values the supplier-distributor rela-
tionship, it will put methods in place to
avoid this unruly practice.
DO YOU HAVE THE ANSWER?
Q
A Distributor Asks:
If a client hires an independent graphic designer to create a logo or artwork,
who is responsible for providing the required computer file format of the design to
the supplier? I had a customer whose designer used Quark and that’s how they fur-
nished the file—in Quark. The standard is a PDF file, but they wouldn’t convert it.
What’s your answer?
Email answers along with your name, title and com-
pany name to
Question@ppai.orgby July 30 for possible inclusion in an
upcoming issue of
PPB
magazine.
22 •
PPB
• JULY 2015
INNOVATE
My suggestion is to have a very open and direct conversation with the supplier’s
executive management. I promise they don't want this mistake to happen as it
will threaten their business with other distributors.
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