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Cheryl Lickteig first fell in love
with promotional products while
managing a high-tech company’s
marketing group. “I occasionally
purchased promotional products,”
she says. “My promo distributor
rep introduced me to so many
interesting products that could be
used to promote our brand and
reward our customers that I was
intrigued and excited about the
possibilities in this industry.” She
later went to work as an account
manager for a supplier and then
a distributor before joining Dale
Johnson Cornell at DBJ Associates.
The job checked all the boxes
for Lickteig, who has since spent
the past 25 years helping her
clients solve their problems.
“I like the opportunity to work
with my distributors to solve
their customers’ challenges by
offering a variety of products
and decorating solutions,” says
Lickteig, who is based in Groton,
Massachusetts, and covers New
England and Upstate New York.
“I also enjoy working with such
diverse distributor companies
that range in size, organization
and business approach.”
Among those who nominated
Lickteig is Sharon J. Walsh,
president of distributor Sun
One On One
With Cheryl Lickteig
On the difficulties of the job:
Capturing
the distributor’s time and attention
is a huge challenge. Our distributors
are extremely busy trying to service
their customers, stay ahead of their
competition and compete with the
internet. Hopefully they learn to value
our help and support.
On maintaining exclusivity of product
lines:
It has become more difficult to
have lines that are focused only on one
product category. We have worked to
maintain suppliers who have one major
category so we can give them strong
product and line recognition. We educate
our distributors on how each of our
suppliers offers the best products to fill
their needs for specific opportunities.
On keeping multi-line reps relevant:
We work with both our distributors
and suppliers to make sure we are on
top of current promotional product
and retail business trends. Reading
industry updates, attending educational
opportunities and checking the
competition are important as well.
On how distributors can help her serve
them better:
We are partners working to
gain more business—so put us to work.
CHERYL LICKTEIG
Account Manager /
Dale B. Johnson (DBJ) Associates
Specialties, Inc., who notes her
rep’s honesty and integrity, and
her willingness to consistently go
the extra mile. “She has driven
to my office with samples for a
rush presentation,” says Walsh,
“and supplied no-charge spec
samples on a brand name line
that does not usually offer that.
It resulted in an order!” She was
also impressed with the extra
product education that resulted
when Lickteig brought supplier
company executives to some of
Sun Specialties’ meetings.
Nominator Tami Wainscott
at The Allen Company, who
nominated Lickteig along with DBJ
principal Dale Johnson Cornell
(see page 45), adds, “… your
immediate sense of knowing you
are working with and speaking to a
class-act multi-line representative
team is more than reassuring. It’s
peace of mind and that is what you
will experience in working with
Dale and Cheryl.”
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APRIL 2017
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FEATURE
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Best Multi-Line Reps