Over the past number of years, we have seen some of the larger home improvement box store companies implement a program where they use their own dedicated staff to replace vendor sales representatives.
The box stores charge vendors a fee, usually a percentage of sales, to cover the cost of this program. The box store retailers have suggested that vendors no longer need in-store representation as their own dedicated teams can provide most of the services and functions that the vendor sales reps once provided. This is simply not the case.
Most of the services these proprietary teams offer are simple, somewhat mundane functions that in some respect the retailers should be doing anyway. These functions include:
- Bay and shelf maintenance, tidying, cleaning of stock and shelf, removing broken packaging.
- Ensuring the plan-o-gram for that bay/section is in place and being adhered to.
- Down-stocking to fill empty shelves or peg hooks.
- Resets.
- Seasonal sets.
The Number One Priority
Vendor reps whether they be full-time factory reps or agency reps provide so many more, very important functions that the proprietary store teams just do not do. Not the least of which is to ensure the growth of sales of the product line they represent. That is the number one priority. All of the functions below are part of that mandate:
- Providing product knowledge to both store staff and consumers.
- Seeking and creating additional off-shelf merchandising placements such as end-caps, stack- outs, side-wings and clip-strips.
- Replenishing and maintaining those off-shelf locations with stock.
- Conducting regular cycle counts to ensure the physical inventory on-hand matches the computer on-hand numbers, then suggesting and making necessary adjustments to the computer systems and placing orders.
- Repairing and cleaning displays, replenishing parts kits in store.
- Maintaining, replacing and adding P.O.P. materials.
- Alerting vendors to items going on clearance or being discontinued.
- Providing regional competitive price shops.
- Ensuring new product introductions are on the shelf and priced.
- Providing a web based portal with 24/ 7 access that includes photos, so represented vendors can see the state of the stores and directly interact with the sales staff calling on the stores.
Save Money
Other ways vendor reps can make a significant impact at the store level is to save their represented manufacturers a ton of money by providing:
- Return To Vendor (RTV) and Defective Merchandise processing functions; checking and returning to the shelf items that have been returned by customers but are not defective or have the store write-off products at their expense where the return does not meet the vendor’s criteria for it being returned. There can be many reasons for this from major parts missing such as a battery pack for a power tool or where the tool has been used for a weekend project and returned because the project is complete.
- By carefully repacking items where the package has been opened or is damaged, preventing those items from being returned to the vendor.
- Ensuring the item that has been returned is actually the vendor’s item. An example would be a high-end kitchen faucet return where the faucet being returned is a less expensive item but is being returned in a more expensive item’s box. The retail customer gets the higher credit and you, the vendor, are charged for the return when it is another vendor’s product.
The proprietary in-store service teams are not providing regularly scheduled servicing functions. The teams often work on resets and are not able to get to individual vendors’ bays for many weeks or even months.
Free Trial
King Marketing’s no obligation free trial offer helps you see what can be achieved by a dedicated sales and servicing group. Choose from a list of services, pick some test stores, and then see what goes on every day through a transparent web-based portal.
