PPB April 2021

two years ago. After growing up in the promotional products industry and owning his own distributorship for over 30 years, Wehrle was ready for a change. “Somany of us have been blessed and have made fortunate opportunities in this industry,” he says. “Oftentimes, we don’t take the time to acknowledge that and give back to our community. Reciprocity became a vehicle for that.” Through its program BrandGood, founded on three pillars—DoGood, supporting philanthropy and service; FeelGood, supporting employee wellness, and LiveGood, supporting fun social activities— Reciprocity Road distributors, or “roadies,” generously give to local charities. The group selects two charities each year to donate a percentage of their annual revenue, and create give back experiences that strengthen brands, client relationships and employee loyalty. “We firmly believe in giving back to the industry,” says Wehrle. In 2020, Reciprocity Road donated $7,500 to the Promotional Products Education Foundation (PPEF), and since its founding has donated $38,500 to the nonprofit. Reciprocity Road also awards quarterly grants of $500 towards select community causes, donating a total of $2,000 last year. In honor of Brown’s recognition as the 2020 H. Ted Olson Humanitarian, “roadies” contributed $8,000 to The Chilanga School for the Blind inMalawi, Africa, an institution which cares for orphan students with vision impairments that Brown actively works to help. “I’mnot saying that other organizations and companies don’t do the same thing, but we have in our mission statement that [giving back] is part of our goal and our objective,” says Wehrle. Reciprocity Road also officially commits to donating a percentage of its rebate from suppliers to charitable causes. “It’s more than just words on paper,” says Wehrle. “It’s an actual driving mission that we have, and as much as we negotiate with our supplier partners to get better prices, leveraging better relationships and better terms, we want to show them that they are part of this road we are traveling on.” Comprising approximately $230 million in pre-COVID promotional products spending, Reciprocity Road currently represents 10 distributor partners and 55 supplier partners. “I think that’s the purpose behind Reciprocity,” says Wehrle. “To not only be a buying organization of a unified group of partners, but to also create an opportunity to leverage those relationships for the greater good and give back.” Companies looking to become a part of the organizationmust meet several qualifications. “Early on, the owner partners, when developing Reciprocity Road, determined that it wasn’t really about growing the big numbers. We didn’t want to have 30 to 40 distributors; we wanted to be more of a boutique-like organization,” says Wehrle. “They made the conscious decision to limit growth to nomore than 15 distributor partners. We have 10 right now and every year we add one.” For distributors, Wehrle says that “roadie” wannabes must first have an annual revenue minimumof $10 million. Next, Wehrle says they look at the organization’s standing in the industry, asking if the company already follows Reciprocity Road’s philosophy. Reciprocity Roadmakes sure any new additions do not geographically overlap with other members. Wehrle says they also look at diversity, equity and inclusion components and the financial stability of potential members. Prospective supplier partners can apply online andWehrle says the process is arduous as they thoroughly review each applicant. “We drill down and ask about the owner partners’ experience with this company, then we drill down even further, asking our salespeople to vote on them and give input,” he says. “We don’t approve vendors haphazardly and like howwe only want to have a max of 15 distributors. We don’t want to have 100 suppliers; that dilutes the value for the partners that are there.” PPB spoke withWehrle to learn more about how the pandemic has affected Reciprocity Road’s mission and what the members are optimistic about moving forward. PPB How has the pandemic affected Reciprocity Road’s mission and purpose? Wehrle We had scheduled a sales seminar called Road Rally for April 2020. Of course, as we all know, nothing happened in April 2020, so we pushed it back for a year. We were going to do it this month. But in September 2020, as I began surveying suppliers to see if they were ready to get back out in this “new norm,” I got a lot of pushback, saying “Let’s wait.” I took that as a sign that we needed to push “I am optimistic, hopefully by Q2, that we will see a massive shift in the direction of our industry and organization .” —PerryWehrle, MAS | APRIL 2021 | 77 CONNECT