PPB April 2018

Patrick Reinecker President, Reinecker Marketing Associates, LLC P atrick Reinecker’s huge and engaging smile makes him easy to read. He’s a guy who loves what he does for a living. With his outgoing personality, sales was a natural career choice for the Houston native. After selling mobile phones in the early ’90s (he sold the classic Motorola 8000 “brick” phone and the Motorola bag phone—both cutting-edge devices at the time), he tried his hand at selling promotional products for his mother’s small distributor company. In his first four months, he had sold one order of matches to a restaurant where he previously worked. It was time for something else. He met with multi-line rep Brooks Bradford and was hired to represent his company’s promotional products lines in Colorado, Kansas and Missouri from a new home base in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1997, when Bradford changed lines, Reinecker relocated to Houston and joined multi-line rep group LDKMarketing. “Larry [President Larry Krause] was a tremendous boss as he taught me how to take my energy and focus it a bit differently,” remembers Reinecker. “I consider myself very lucky to have worked with both Brooks and Larry. They both formed a base for me and I will be loyal to them forever for what they did for me.” Reinecker founded his own multi-line rep company in Houston in 2002, representing lines in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Arkansas. This year, he celebrates his silver anniversary in the industry. It’s not surprising to discover that Reinecker’s clients are thrilled with his quality of service and the promotional ideas he shares. Debbi Chrissinger, president of distributor Taylor MacQuen Advertising, a client and nominator, recalls a recent client meeting where Reinecker was especially impressive. “I had a group of ladies representing a nonprofit who wanted to order hats but had absolutely no idea what they wanted. I talked to them about panels, embroidery vs screen printing, etc. Patrick drove 40 miles to meet with this group, brought samples and calmly explained to them all about hats and embellishment choices. They were very thankful for the knowledge that Patrick provided.” She also recounts a time when he helped with beach towels for another nonprofit group and saved her client money. “He sent several samples that showed imprinting options on the towels and gave us a break in pricing. My clients were impressed, and he made me look like a hero in their eyes.” Client and nominator Shannon Loredo, president of distributor Business Branders, LLC, has experienced similar service. “Earlier this year, he had his cap factory overnight a sample kit to me at his expense so that I had his hats for my meeting. Because of that, I left his competitor’s caps at my office and gave him the order.” What’s your biggest challenge? My toughest challenge is trying to break a distributor’s routine. We bring many lines to the table, so I have to convince them to carry my catalog to an end‑user meeting instead of grabbing the same one every time they get a call. We’re all guilty of getting into a comfort level with the lines we show and grab the same catalogs on the way out the door, but all suppliers, even those in the same product category, have different things to offer. Whether the difference is in the product or the service, the challenge is getting them comfortable with the ones I represent. What is the most important issue faced by multi-line reps today? I think the most important issue faced by reps today is adjusting to the times. Are we still relevant? How should we do things differently? Who is our ultimate customer—the distributor or the end user? If you are not analyzing the way you work, you ought to be. What does the future hold for reps and how can they remain relevant? The future of multi‑line reps is still very viable. People will always buy from people, and as old school as that sounds, it gets reiterated to me daily. It might be at a show when a distributor sees a new idea or in a face‑ to‑face meeting when someone says, “I wish you were here yesterday with that product.” I understand that the new generation loves to buy online, but they still make major purchases face to face. And most (maybe not all) of the educated end buyers still buy promotional products through a promotional consultant because the majority of buyers are too busy to sift through websites to find the right product. That is why multi‑line reps and distributors are still very relevant. What do you wish more distributors knew about working with reps? I wish more distributors knew about the value we can bring to the table in the variety of products and ideas alone. Not being tied to one line of products opens up our arsenal tenfold. We see trends and hot items before they become mainstream, and we get to hear how products are implemented within promotions. That’s information we can share across the board with our customers. If distributors involved us more in their projects, we could also provide a vast amount of product research from all the suppliers we represent. Best Multi‑Line Reps 2018 | FEATURE | APRIL 2018 | 29