PPB April 2019

KarenSpencer Owner, Creative Solutions, Toronto, Ontario Nominator: Alex Morin, Debco In 1986 Spencer helped a friend expand a small retail kite company that later became Gayla Canada, a supplier of custom-imprinted balloons and custom-sewn products. She stayed with the company as general manager until 2001. She founded her rep company in 2007 serving clients throughout Ontario. Secret to success. I’m a worker bee —I work hard every single day and I am passionate about what I do. I find the most incredible excitement in the newest products and decorating techniques, and I think this passion has been infectious. How distributors can help. The more I understand a distributor’s culture and their clients’ goals, the better I can assist them in growing their businesses. My most successful distributor relationships are those where these goals are shared. Biggest challenge. Time. Everyone is so pressed for time and to respond to emails and texts instantaneously that we often don’t take the time to sit together and be proactive with creative, storyboards, samples, etc. I encourage my customers to take 20 minutes on a Friday afternoon to just sit with one or two accounts in mind. Then send me a short bio on that client and what they are currently working on and let me come back with some proactive creative. What she wants distributors to know. MLRs can provide such a great assistance to growing their businesses because we have so much knowledge of the industry, not only through the cultures of different distributors but also from the variety of suppliers that we represent. Alternate career. None—I love my job . About Karen. “ By approaching RFPs with a unique perspective , she challenges our company to create product solutions that exceed the demands of hungry end-users. Consistently ranking No. 1 or No. 2 in sales growth year after year, Karen is the model of how an MLR can take years of experience and channel that experience into new and innovative ways of educating our customers. For example, in a recent large bid for a Fortune 100 automobile company, Karen challenged the notion of what could be accomplished on a budget and recommended highly customized product solutions with exceptional packaging. Her ideas won the bid and resulted in an order worth more than a half-million dollars.” – Alex Morin Themore I understand a distributor’s culture and their clients’ goals, the better I can assist them in growing their businesses. —Karen Spencer FEATURE | Best Multi-Line Reps 2019 58 | APRIL 2019 |