Supply and Demand

When it comes to buying products and equipment, housekeeping managers expect distributors to offer competitive prices, supply information and education, and provide reliable service.

Distributors who fill that bill, housekeeping managers say, have a better shot at earning customer loyalty — and building a successful business relationship.

Distributors, too, have wish lists. Ideally, they’re looking for customers who pay for products and equipment — on time. They want customers who are easy to work with and customers who, in turn, inspire loyalty. The kind of customer that paves the way for a long-term relationship.

Today’s sluggish economic climate has managers and distributors struggling to reach common ground, testing their desire to make the relationship work. Meanwhile, managers are coping with smaller operations budgets and staffs. At the same time, competition among distributors has heated up as they vie for strapped customers, often lowering prices to match competitors’. Although distributors’ profit margins are smaller, managers expect distributors to offer more for less.

Obviously, housekeeping departments cannot operate without products and equipment. And just as surely, distributors need their customers to stay in business.

Price is important, even No. 1 in some customers’ eyes. But focusing on price is not going to lead to a relationship with long-term benefits or success. To reach managers’ and distributors’ ultimate goals — buying and selling — they cite key ingredients to a successful relationship that go beyond price: honesty, respect, trust, follow-through on promises and a lot of give-and-take.

Start with respect
A good relationship complete with all of the above does not happen overnight. But how it begins is going to affect whether or not it works out in the end.

Most housekeeping managers meet distributors through “cold calls,” or when a salesperson calls or shows up at the manager's facility — typically without warning and usually with a sales pitch. Cold calls, though often annoying to busy managers, are necessary for distributors to get new customers.

This is exactly how Mike Van Splinter met his distributor more than 30 years ago.

“This guy came in with a spiff,” says Van Splinter, director of environmental services at Foxwoods Resort & Casino in Ledyard, Conn. “You know, something ‘you can’t pass up’ — a whole dog-and-pony show. It was a window washer, but he said it came with a golf-ball retriever. That was his sales pitch.”

Anything but impressed, Van Splinter told the salesman to move on. These days, Van Splinter seeks a distributor who is familiar with his operation and its idiosyncrasies. “Someone who is not going to waste my time with spiffs,” he says.

Shortly after the salesman left Van Splinter’s office, the salesman’s boss, John Wilcox, now president of Casey Engineered Maintenance Inc., in Foxboro, Mass., called Van Splinter. Wilcox called consistently for about four months before landing a sale from Foxwoods Casino. How did Wilcox earn time with Van Splinter?

“He showed a token of respect,” Van Splinter says. “He made appointments to talk to me and he came in to talk without pushing products.”

Managers today are short-staffed and do not have time to dodge phone calls and/or salesmen who show up unannounced. Distributors really don’t have the time, either; they can’t afford to wait four months for new business and hope potential customers will listen to product pitches.

Neither managers nor distributors have time to waste, but they compromise by finding a way to discuss products and equipment needs at a time that works for everyone.

“We need access to [customers] to explain the products and time to set up the relationship properly,” says Henry Levenstein, vice president of marketing at Supply King in Neptune City, N.J.

Levenstein likes to establish early in new-customer relationships a meeting schedule based on customer needs, whether that means meetings occur daily, monthly or weekly. When customers plan meetings, there is no question when distributors are supposed to call or stop by.

Customers have to talk to distributors at some point if they plan on purchasing supplies, and distributors hope for a chance to present their products.

Managers should give distributors time for product sales pitches, says Fran Sweet, superintendent of building services at the University of Central Florida in Orlando.

“We need to give vendors a fair opportunity to compete,” Sweet says. It is the least managers can to do to help distributors make sales, she adds.

But if managers give salesmen time to present products, managers expect salesmen to listen to what they have to say, as well.

“They need to give a moment of their time to see our questions and review [of the product],” she says. “If they don’t waste our time, we won’t waste theirs.”

A matter of trust
After initial meetings and discussions, managers should have a better feel for whether or not they want to buy from a particular distributor. If they feel like a distributor is going to follow through on promises, they should be ready to buy the products or equipment discussed.

Delivering on those promises is necessary to reach a point of mutual trust. Trust is put to the test when managers and distributors go through with the first sales transaction. Managers expect distributors to follow through on product performance promises, and distributors expect managers to come through with payments and, they hope, additional orders.

Managers say they are more likely to trust (and, ultimately, buy) products from distributors who understand the latest technology, are up to date on industry trends and offer new ideas, especially the kind that offer the potential to cut costs or increase productivity.

If distributors seem to know what they are talking about, managers usually believe what they have to say.

“Sometimes you just have to test the water and see if they follow through,” says Beatrice Karadeema, superintendent of building services at Auburn University in Montgomery, Ala.

Often managers check distributors’ references and test products as a precaution.

Most distributors are willing to provide product samples for managers and their staffs to try before making a purchasing commitment.

“If a salesman says we only need to use two coats of his product when we’re used to applying four coats of a similar product, I say, ‘Show me,’” says Dennis Oehl, assistant hospital administrator for support services at Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow, N.Y. “If it doesn’t work, there is not much trust there.”

But it’s a two-way street: Just like managers at some point must decide to trust that new products perform as distributors say they will, distributors must trust that managers will hold up their end of the bargain.

“We have to trust customers, if nothing else, to pay us,” Levenstein says. “In this economy, it’s not as easy as it sounds.”

Payment collection is more of an issue than it’s ever been, says Levenstein, who’s had to wait up to 120 days for a payment that was due within 30 days of the transaction. The relationship can be more productive if customers would be more honest about their financial situations, so distributors can come up with a payment plan before there is a problem.

It’s a game of give and take
Regardless of whether a relationship is 30 days or 30 years in the making, managing the issue of cost is a balancing act between distributors and their customers. If the customer isn’t bearing increased costs, the distributor often is, and vice versa. To keep the partnership from falling apart, distributors and customers need to learn to manage the push-pull effect money can have on the relationship.

Especially today, tighter operations budgets force managers to keep close tabs on product costs and distributors have little choice but to deal with their customers’ money concerns.

“Because money is tight, we just don’t automatically assume every vendor has a better mousetrap,” says Brian Wormwood, assistant director of building services at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. “We’re starting to re-evaluate everything we buy from chemicals to paper products to equipment for the sake of our budget.”

Managers are more cautious these days when distributors suggest an older piece of equipment be replaced with a new one, says Barbara Casse-Bender, president of BCB Janitorial Supply in Hackensack, N.J.

For example, she says, customers “will be annoyed” by distributors who encourage them to replace a 10-year-old, $600 wet-dry vacuum. A distributor who wants to help the customer’s bottom line will inspect the vacuum and offer to replace the belts, filter and hose for $79, instead, she adds.

“We might have to shrink our bottom line a smidge, but we still can improve our sale and help the customer later because they will buy their next piece of equipment from us,” Casse-Bender says.

Distributors keep as many customers as they can, hoping customers can give them additional business in the future — from other schools in a district or from a newly constructed building — even if that means cutting profits in the meantime.

Not all managers put price first when evaluating products and distributors. Some managers think customer service is much more important.

“We are definitely buying a product or a piece of equipment, but it is the service [distributors] provide that’s important,” says Alice Favella, operations manager for Clark County School District in Las Vegas.

Today, customer service can mean a number of things. When asked to define “service,” managers and distributors mention training, last-minute deliveries and problem solving — at all hours of the day or night.

Favella’s distributor recently helped train her staff at the last minute when they ran into problems while refinishing gymnasium floors.

Distributors also need to manage the level of give and take. Managers expect purchases to include free setup and training, which means distributors bear the cost of service.

Distributors have been providing these “services” for years and years; it’s what they do. But now customers are paying less for products and equipment and still are expecting the same level of service from their distributors, who struggle with picking up the extra costs of service.

“It can get abusive as far as the customer goes,” Levenstein says. “Yes, we are glad to make emergency deliveries because they failed to order on time or we failed to deliver on time. But if everything is an emergency, we have to evaluate the value of that customer.”

Favella says she tries not to abuse that and overwork distributors. “But we’re their bread and butter,” she says. “If we call with an issue, we need an almost immediate response.”

Distributors say they are willing to provide services to customers, as long as the time spent helping customers does not cost more than the value of the products and equipment.
“It’s one thing to sell a broom for $10, but if you have to spend three hours showing them how to use it, it’s a waste of our time,” Levenstein says.

Managers can help distributors provide better services by following distributors’ advice and education on products and equipment to avoid re-training. Also, distributors would like managers to understand that providing services to customers is a cost distributors have to bear.

“If they would follow maintenance schedules and use the products properly, that would help us,” Levenstein says. “Our commissions are lower, our profits are lower and customers are still expecting 2 a.m. deliveries. We would appreciate them understanding the value of our time.”

The long haul
Under current economic pressures, it is a wonder how some relationships between managers and distributors continue to thrive. As those who have worked together for many years can attest, maintaining a lasting relationship is definitely not easy.

Take for example, Van Splinter of Foxwoods Casino and Wilcox, his distributor from Casey Engineered Maintenance Inc., who have been working together for more than 30 years.

“The service-level requirements [at Foxwoods Casino] are very high,” Wilcox says. “If [Mike] says he wants it tomorrow, he wants it tomorrow. But he is very fair and very honest. His word is gold and he takes his job very seriously. If I was working with a client that was very demanding, but didn’t take his job as seriously as Mike does, we wouldn’t do business with them.”

Often relationships are successful because distributors and managers have made a long-term commitment to working together and no longer keep score of the give and take. But it can take years to get to that point.

Sometimes the relationship gets to the point where it is no longer just a buying-selling relationship. In extraordinary cases, it is not always the distributor who drops everything to help with a cleaning disaster. The customer just might be the one coming to the distributor’s rescue.

“About a month ago, a pipe broke in my newly renovated home,” Casse-Bender explains. “I woke up at 5 a.m. and the entire first floor was swimming.”

One of her longtime customer’s employees happened to be driving by and noticed Casse-Bender dragging rugs and furniture out her front door. The customer subsequently sent some of his employees over to her house to help.

“Within three hours, 20 guys had sopped up everything, extracted the furniture and ran dehumidifiers and air movers,” Casse-Bender says. “If they hadn’t come over, I would have lost a lot more than I did.”

At any stage in the relationship, distributors and their customers say they have the most success if they avoid making promises they cannot keep and their customers are honest about their intentions, as well.

“It’s a marriage,” Wilcox says. “Not every day is roses, but good marriages last a long time.”