Sales Rep of the Month
Don Johnson Needs Challenges
ID Magazine - October 1981


"I'm the type of person you can't bottle up," says don Johnson of Dierks Foods, Inc., Rockford, IL. "I need space to grow. I need new challenges."

An illustration: after building up a solid base of customers in the Rockford area, Johnson felt he was becoming too comfortable there. So he talked Dierks management into letting him open up a new territory for the company - the Lake Geneva resort area - where, after one season, he now has about 30 customers in addition to the full load he still serves in his Rockford territory.

Johnson, who is 37, has known what he wanted to do since he was 18, when he decided that some day he would become a foodservice sales representative for Dierks Foods. First he worked his way up in the food business, gaining knowledge of products and operations through jobs with Pepsi Cola, Colonial Bread, a coffee distributor and finally another foodservice distributor in the area.

A little less than five years ago he joined Dierks Foods. "I started on a Monday with an empty binder in my hand and within six months I had 50 customers," Johnson recalls.

He now sells roughly $1.5 million a year with his Rockford customers and new accounts in the Lake Geneva area.

"I try to sell a total program," Johnson notes. "We carry chemicals, paper, dairy, fresh produce, and equipment in addition to groceries and frozen foods. I try to get each category on to my customer's orders."

Johnson relies on the company order book as a sales tool in selling the full-service program. "I take my book out and let the customer see how thick it is. Each section has a large heading, and as I'm flipping through the book the customer can see the different headings for all the types of products we carry."

"Then I'll quote prices on various products from the book, to show that I'm not lowballing to get the business - these are our standard prices."

"I'll show customers our different price brackets and explain how they can economize by buying their full order from us. They see that they can save money, plus cut down the number of salesmen they have to see."

When selling a new customer, says Johnson, he generally starts by looking over the operation's menu to see the types of items that are used. Another key, he says, is that he knows his competition. "I know which items I can do well on and which I can't," he says.

Johnson also puts great store in appearance. "I always try to present a very neat appearance to customers because I find that makes a great difference to them," he comments. He notes, "No operator likes to have a sloppy-looking person in his place, and that includes sales reps. People take pride in the appearance of their operations."

Organization is another key to the professional appearance he presents. "I carry a briefcase with all of my sales material inside and have it all organized so I can find what I need," he notes.

Johnson likes his customers to be organized as well. Wherever possible, he has them fill out the computerized order forms Dierks Foods provides prior to his regular visits, so that his time with customers can be spent on active selling, rather than on taking their orders.

He will also do "anything a manager would do" in order to gain more time for the sales call. For example, if he goes into an account and finds they buyer with a mop in his hand, he will take over the mop to give the buyer time to fill out his order. He has also hosted in a restaurant to give the host/buyer time to make out his order.

Johnson enthusiasm for his job and the foodservice business in general, and his tremendous energy, have taken him beyond just being a top sales rep. He is also responsible for training all new sales reps at Dierks Foods. "The company asked me to become a supervisor but I didn't want to give up selling. But all the new reps ride with me for their first two weeks."

Johnson even recruits for Dierks Foods. "I had one customer whom I liked very much and I saw how successful he was as a manager. I thought he would also be good for Dierks Foods, and I thought it would be a good move for him. So I talked him into trying the job and I introduced him to Dierks management. It took some convincing, but I sold him on the job, by showing him how much fun it could be, and how rewarding. He's been with us eight months now. He's very successful and he loves what he's doing," says Johnson.

For Johnson, it was just one more way of doing the best he could for a customer and his company.



Sales Clinic
Could you solve this problem?
ID Magazine - October 1981


No Inventory Control

Gary had one customer who didn't seem to know how to run his business. Joe Zachary had bought the restaurant from its previous owners several months before. He knew how to present a meal, but he had no ideas about inventory control. Gary tried to get him to follow the previous owner's purchasing plan, but Zachary was cutting down orders to the barest minimums needed each week, "to improve his cash flow," he explained. Sometimes he managed, but often he needed emergency deliveries and when Gary's company couldn't provide them, he would buy fill-ins from whoever was around. Gary was pushing him to order more at a time, but was getting nowhere. He did not want to lose or give up the customer, because it had been a good-sized account for years, but at this stage it was becoming troublesome. What should Gary do?

Don Johnson
Dierks Foods, Inc.
Rockford, IL.
"There are two different ways I might handle this problem. One would be to utilize our customer order forms. These show all the items a customer has been buying from us, and give usage over the last three months, for the month and for each order. I would show him how much he ordered last time and how to figure out how much he needs now. I would show him how much it would be to his advantage to use the form - how fast it would be to organize his order with it. And since the account had been buying for some time, I would use the usage histories to show him how much inventory he needed to cover his use. He should be able to see, then, what he needs."

"If this doesn't convince him, I don't see how you could do it, except to completely re-sell him. It's like selling a brand-new customer."

"If the customer is a big enough or important enough account, then the other thing I would do is to offer to take his inventory and write up the order myself. If he would allow me to do this, I would show him that he can trust me - that I'm now ordering more than he needs. But I wouldn't take his inventory unless he let me know first that he would buy the total program from me. Although I don't mind performing the service it does take time, and it would not be worth it unless he would buy our total program."