Do you cringe when your cell phone rings? I don’t. Why? Because when my Blackberry rings, buzzes or blinks during the day I smile, knowing that nine out of 10 times it’s one of my best customers calling.

My best customers ring, buzz and blink me because they understand what role I play in their businesses. They know I’m a valuable resource offered by their suppliers, and they’re not shy about taking full advantage of it.

These customers are successful – and continually work to be even more successful. They reach out often to best utilize the tools and knowledge that I, as a rep, afford them. After all, I’m their closest connection to their supplier and a business resource for them to utilize.

The first thing this morning, I looked at my Blackberry and its red light was blinking brightly. I checked my e-mail and there was a note from a kitchen designer wanting to know if we would paint cherry. Of course we would; we do it everyday – and it says so right in the front of our spec book.

Doing this is not complicated, and the designer could have easily found the answer. But this was a great opportunity. The designer is a new customer, a bit unsure of our product line, and did exactly the right thing by turning to me for product information. As her rep, I know the product line inside and out and I can make her sales easier and more accurate if she is comfortable asking me even the simplest of questions.

It’s my job as a rep to know these answers and, when I don’t, it’s my job to find the answers. As a kitchen/bath designer or dealer, you should feel comfortable turning to your rep with such questions. The last thing you want to do is guess, make an assumption or just plain hope something is the way you think it is. That just leads to problems. Instead, use the resource your supplier has supplied you with.

PRODUCT TRAINING AND MORE

The first phone call of my day came from a store manager looking for product training. Like most of you, this individual continually adds new salespeople, and she wanted me to set a date as soon as possible to familiarize her two new designers with my line. That’s one of the most important functions of a rep.

Training is time consuming but necessary and, as busy as dealers are, it’s very difficult for them to handle training on their own. Today, many companies have training programs that actively include their reps. Not only will a rep train on a specific product line, but the best reps also mix in design and sales techniques to supplement the training. Our firm, in particular, emphasizes technology as well as cabinetry, so when one of our customers looks to us to train new designers, he or she gets the “bonus” of additional sales, design and technology training. Including your rep in training is a tremendous use of this resource.

Mixed in with my many other morning calls, I had the infamous “I-need-a-credit-for-this” call. Here, the customer had received a door from an overnight carrier that arrived in two pieces instead of one. This particular call, though, was from a customer who turns to me only when there’s a credit issue or a problem with a job. This happens, of course, and it’s certainly a part of my job. But companies like this are really missing out on a valuable resource.

There are kitchen and bath design firms and dealerships that view their rep as a guy who stops in every so often in his sports car and shares a joke or a fishing story – or maybe even buys lunch and sends a card for the holidays.