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<\/p>\nDistributor Norbert McGettigan Jr., VP of Impact Dimensions\u00a0\u00a0(asi\/230321<\/em>), told us having one central clearinghouse makes his job easier. Distributor Glenn Wampole, secretary\/treasurer of the Waitz Corporation (asi\/354100<\/em>), credited ASI for its quality people and products and said ESP has made him more productive. He shared a story about getting a call for a rush, 25,000-unit order and being able to get a quote out within three minutes, thanks to ESP.<\/p>\n Supplier Joe Hoffman, VP of business development for Jetline (asi\/63344<\/em>), said that he complements a small sales force with ASI\u2019s marketing services, ESP and catalogs. \u201cYou guys run a top-flight operation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n When asked to describe a typical day, distributor Larry Altman, a partner in Bluestar Marketing (asi\/141977<\/em>), cited quoting, reaching out to customers and putting out fires, which is often helped by ASI. \u201cYou guys are a formidable force and sometimes we take you for granted,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Distributor Anne Manuel told us the biggest issue she faced starting out was getting her name out there. Anne, president of Virgo III Ltd. (asi\/352485<\/em>), compared getting her ASI membership number to a freshman actor finally scoring an Actor\u2019s Equity card. \u201cI know everyone in this room supports our efforts,\u201d she told our employees. \u201cI\u2019m looking forward to more exciting things.\u201d<\/p>\n No matter what size or type of business they\u2019re in, the panelists shared similar challenges and goals: getting product to clients on time, cultivating better relationships, managing competition \u2013 and dealing amicably with each other. \u201cI call suppliers my partners,\u201d said Larry. \u201cWe have nothing to sell without them.\u201d<\/p>\n After an hour\u2019s discussion, we opened the floor to questions. When asked for the one thing ASI could change to improve service, one distributor said: \u201cMore filtering out of suppliers who sell direct.\u201d Another panelist suggested making the CreditConnect monitoring service more functional. \u201cEvolve ProfitMaker to a more modern platform to improve integration,\u201d was also suggested.<\/p>\n Other \u201cmagic wand\u201d items included \u201cmoving into the cloud\u201d (which means storing and securing more information online instead of on your computer), adding mediator services to resolve disputes between suppliers and distributors, and making loading in PromoShop easier.<\/p>\n When asked how to prevent clients from buying direct online, panelists agreed that most customers who try it for cost-saving eventually return for service. While \u201cgreen\u201d and American-made products continue to sell, until prices come down, they won\u2019t sell more.<\/p>\n I\u2019d suggest that any company try inviting clients in for a discussion with employees. It really opened the lines of communication and, in addition to giving us ideas to explore, let us know just what areas need improvement.<\/p>\n Has anyone else ever tried this? If so, let me know by posting a comment or emailing me here<\/a>. I\u2019m also on Twitter<\/a>, LinkedIn<\/a> and YouTube<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We recently invited a panel of suppliers and distributors to ASI to talk to employees about ways they use our products and services to run and grow their business. It was illuminating in more ways than one. The businesspeople had a combined 120 years worth of industry experience \u2013 so when they talked, we knew […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community","category-members"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=594"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":600,"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594\/revisions\/600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}