PPB April 2016

28 •

PPB

• APRIL 2016

INNOVATE

LEE ELLEN COSCIA WAS WORKING

in the admissions office at Lasell

College in Newton, Massachusetts

when it dawned on her that she

was not really in education or aca-

demia as she had planned—she

was in sales. And she was darn

good at it! Why not make it her

career? She approached her uncle,

the late Tom Monahan, Jr., who

was a longtime industry multi-line

rep, to learn more about selling.

One opportunity led to another

and she was offered a job at sup-

plier ARC Glass selling premi-

ums. She took it, became district

sales manager and later joined

Themco LLC, the group that represented the pre-

mium side of the company, as a multi-line rep.

Now, 28 years later, she’s a partner in the company.

(Fun fact: Themco is an acronym based on the name of

her uncle, who founded the company:

homas

enry

ugene

onahan. Now you know!)

Coscia travels about 20,000 miles a year repre-

senting six suppliers throughout New England. She

makes her home in Marshfield, Massachusetts.

She believes her greatest strength as a rep is

the customer follow-up she provides, and nomi-

nator Amanda Clay, MAS, vice president sales

and marketing for Walker-Clay, Inc., explains

why. “Lee always goes the extra mile and strives

to educate our team on all of her lines. She also

looks to learn about our business and brings ideas

on how we could position her lines to our clients.

In fact, if there are items she does not have, she

will refer us to other industry friends who may be

able to help.”

Coscia likes being an MLR because of the

exposure she gets to new lines, new products and

new opportunities. “It’s always great to find a new

line that you know your customers will get excited

about and have it be profitable,” she says. And

Coscia knows her customers’ hot buttons. For her

clients at Walker-Clay, it’s costumes at Halloween.

“The first time Lee called on us it was Halloween

and she wanted to drop samples by,” says Clay.

“Since we are pretty serious about Halloween here,

we said, ‘Sure, come on by, but you must dress up.’

Well sure enough Cowgirl Lee showed up to deliv-

er the samples [riding her 125-pound yellow lab as

her trusty steed] and we allowed her to come in for

a full meeting after that.”

Lee Ellen Coscia

Partner,Themco LLC

2 0 1 6

P P B

B E S T M U LT I - L I N E R E P

The Changing Role Of MLRs:

“The role of the multi-line rep is

cyclical. We go for a handful of

years, and suppliers realize the

enormous advantage of having a

multi-line rep. Then there’s a par-

adigm shift where suppliers think

they’ll have more success manag-

ing a company person, then

there’s a shift back.”

The Future Of MLRs:

“I have no

‘quit’ in me, so I have to believe

that the future is bright for multi-

line reps. We open a ton of doors

with our bag of tricks that a sup-

plier with one gig may not be

able to open. We’re here to stay.”

The Biggest Issue Affecting

MLRs Today:

“Mergers and

acquisitions. You can have a line

and be enormously successful

with it. You have widespread

placement, great numbers, prof-

its and, bam, it’s gone. We get

up, we dust off; but for that

moment, it hurts.”

What She Wants Distributors

And Suppliers To Know:

“I am

representing the supplier. I have

the same knowledge, skill set,

training, access and ability as any

direct company employee (and

often more experience). I am not

a middleman; there are no advan-

tages to ‘working direct.’ When I

am wearing my Supplier A hat, I

am Supplier A, and so forth. The

language is inclusive. I say ‘we’

when referring to the supplier,

not ‘they.’ I am the supplier.”

With

Lee Ellen

Coscia