Document QY18OeJVxoq8wDzmpJqr5dqo

NAPA Miami Sales Manager Greg Robert (left) confers with M&H Auto Parts owner Howard Dayringer. stitutional purchasing agents are ac customed to receiving regular sales and service calls by their suppliers, and come to count on them as a sort of business con sultant. And there's no substitute for this kind of service. Your guarantee to these prospective customers of regular service calls by a reliable and knowledgeable salesperson can pay off with large, loyal accounts you can depend on for regular orders. cause he could buy them cheaper. So we made a survey of his inventory and of his fleet, and found that he had $2000 worth of belts which fit nothing he had. At that point, of course, he said, 'Gee, why don't you go ahead and help me get rid of these surplus belts?' So we worked out a pro gram with him. We told him that, based on his purchases, at the end of each month we'll allow him a 5% credit on his old belts so that, hopefully, we can turn his belt Checklist for Gaining the Business Through Outside Selling 1. Inventory surveys are an effec tive way to make inroads to ser vicing both fleet and industrial/in stitutional accounts. Your outside salesperson should request per mission to conduct a survey of the prospect's inventory and then, based on the results, make sug gestions as to how doing busi ness with your store could be of assistance. For example, Howard Dayring er, owner of M&H Auto Parts in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, does a good fleet business and is a firm believer in the value of perform ing these surveys. "We use fleet surveys to try to show the manag er that with today's increasing cost of inventory and the increas ing cost of doing business, it's more and more important to have the dollars that he does have in vested in inventory turning over, that he has no parts lying on the shelf. And that's one of the benefits we sell for doing busi ness with NAPA. If he buys a part through M&H, we will take that part off his shelf if it doesn't turn. "For example, we had one rent al car agency in our trading area that had been buying parts from a source other than NAPA be16 This ad, appearing in two leading fleet magazines, will help you to capitalize on this enormous market. surplus into plus sales for us." Similarly, surveys can be used effectively to sell the industrial/institutional prospect. Your outside salesperson should offer to make a survey of all the parts, equipment and supplies they need. Then he can assure them that he will make sure these items are always on hand for immediate delivery. 2. Make sure your outside salesperson calling on these accounts is familiar with their needs and problems. For this reason, it can be very beneficial to hire a retired truck driver or fleet manager to call on industrial/institutional accounts. Once again, Howard Dayringer of M&H Auto Parts has found this to be the case. "We have one man who calls on no one except fleet accounts. He was a fleet superintendent for about twenty years, but the pace of the work was wearing down his health. So we hired him to call on fleet ac counts for us. When he calls on these pro spective accounts, it's immediately appar ent that he knows their business inside and out and because of this, we usually get a shot at the business." 3. Before calling on a prospective fleet or industrial/institutional account, have your outside salesperson do some "home work" as to who actually makes the buy ing decisions. For the fleet account, this may be the fleet maintenance superinten dent, the fleet manager or the mechanics. (It's generally a good idea for your sales person to get to know the fleet drivers as well, as 71% of repairs are initiated by the driver's report.) For the industrial/institutional account, possible buying deci sion-makers other than the pur chasing agent include contrac tors, shop supervisors and master mechanics -- i.e., the people who actually use what you've got to sell. 4. When trying to sell the fleet account, your salesperson must be prepared to sell NAPA's bene fits in light of the fleet manager's needs: availability saves down time, quality protects against breakdowns, a single source of supply saves paperwork, etc. He should also sell cost per mile, reminding the prospect that dollar considerations include downtime, labor and fuel efficiency. The same applies with selling the industrial/institutional ac count: coverage and 24-hour delivery are big selling points for making these types of sales. Your outside salesperson's presenta tion should first point out your coverage, followed by NAPA's overnight delivery system. He should remind him that cost in cludes being able to get what he needs, when he needs it. And if he's got a breakdown, he'll get (continued on page 18)