Jobber opportunities question?

Barry

Barry

Paint Fanatic
Staff member
Something we have been tossing around for a year now and I will explain and then would like your comments as I think we have a fine plan in place.

We at SPI know there are just some states and areas where we just cannot get a paint store to sell our product because of the threats to the jobber from the majors companies that if they put our product in they will pull the line. Funny how they don't care about the other products out there the jobber may have in their store but it better not be SPI.

Not everyone has the money or income to start a jobber store or wagon jobber type operation.

SO, what if in the towns where we do not have a jobber we offerred a territory to an individual who could start partime or full time with no real cost, calling on shops and taking orders. We would ship direct and then pay a (say??) 25% commission to the sales person.
He could remain selling this way or at anytime he felt he had it built up enough, he could then order as a stocking jobber and make the extra percentages given to the jobbers.

We are talking to a guy now about this and he has a job where he works 3 days on and three days off, so this may be a good opportunity for him to start his own business with no capitol investment other then his own time.

What do you think, any better ideas as we really want to fine tune this as i think there are a lot of unemployed paint guys out there, as we speak.

I want honest feedback of downfalls, so we do this right.
 
I would consider giving it a try myself. The only downfall from my perspective would be that I would be just another paint rep offering another product the shops have never heard of in most cases. Maybe I am not qualified if I have to ask but would spi offer any kind of training?
 
I am interested. Good points strum. Ditto. My thing is how do they demo it and decide if it is something they are interested in. What is the sales pitch? :cool:
 
Good points and proper way to do training would be to bring a group in for a few days with class and hands on making a product but that all costs a lot of money, so out of question at this point.

Our thoughts at this point was go with people that have experience calling on body shops in their area and that eliminates the in-depth training that would be needed for someone with no experience.
We must walk before we run, so at this point we would need people that know the shops and have the trust, to talk them into trying a product.

As far as samples, we will follow the 3M company attitude, when their sales people complain about high pricing, "we could just pick a town and send out samples to each shop and would not need to pay a salesman".

Of course this could change when Obama, sends us our stimulus money. LOL
 
Maybe target a sales rep, say fastener or parts sales, that is already traveling a district. They would know the area, not be afraid of the cold calls and could add a couple shops per area each time around.

As for training, SPI tech line, learning on the job eveyday - going to the shops and still trying to find a yes out of 500 no's. Some folks make it look and probably is easy for them, others of us just are too stubborn to give up and still searching for that rainbow.

As for demos, some of the folks around my area now ask me about having a rep come in and demonstrate. Now that I have some painters using SPI for the last 4 years and willing to demonstrate and I offer this to the shop or painters - the shops tune suddenly changes. This usaully only comes part of the discussion only after the shop talks with one of the big store jobbers. One the other hand, I say, wow, I'm a novice but if you want, let me schedule a time with the painter, I'll bring my paint guns and samples and all of a sudden they are too busy to accomodate.
 
Good point Cal, I do realize training is most important and the way you learned was calling me after every shop visit is not necessarily the best way. (but it worked good!)

Problem with training is doing it the right way and the right way in my book, is bring in a group for a few days with class room and actual hands on seeing how stuff is made from start to finish.
Two problems here the expense of bring in say 20 people and providing accommodations, food, travel is very expensive but you would need to do about that many people at a time to make it worth while as the thing that would kill SPI more then the expense cost, would be the two days of time away from a full work day, as we are small enough and busy enough that efficiency is all we have going for us and that may explain why I have spent three nights this week at the plant, getting stuff made.
This also explains why it would be totally inefficient to bring in just 3-5 people as the cost to us, here again is biggest as far as interruption of production.

This is why at the beginning it is important to start with say countermen or jobber sales people who know the shops as there is already a certain amount of trust there between the two of them.
You are right, parts salesmen or anyone else that calls on the body shops and know them would work and as we have learned in the past, that is more important then actual paint knowledge.
We have an example of that with one of our longtime jobbers who now has an actual paint store but when we got together with him he was selling tools off a truck, traveling 5 states.

Down the road my long term plans are to do sales training in plant at least once a year but like i said before, must walk before running.
 
Barry, I think that's an amazing offer to anyone interested in getting up and running! I think if sales people know the product well and take it to the shop and demo it for a day the performance of the products would sell themselves. Knowing the competition's weakness would also be big a plus. Then at the end of the day do a cost comparison on everything that was done-the economic advantage would be a real eye opener. Shops differ in procedure alot and that's where knowing the products inside and out can help tailor it to how they like to do things, help select the right products, or help to show them more efficient and/or better ways to get it done if they are really bass ackwards.
Barry, I think any in-house training you provide should be for your motivated sales people-they need to know the products, how far they can be pushed, any no-no's, their strong points, their cost advantages, their application uses...
 
I would add company strengths and history as well as track record. Shops will want to know how established you are and that it's not a fly by night company.
 
Dub;19183 said:
I would add company strengths and history as well as track record. Shops will want to know how established you are and that it's not a fly by night company.
Click to expand...

Totally Agree. I think that is sort of a downfall, is no one really knows SPI, the company. The growth, the track record, the support. Maybe make up a growth chart to show people how much the company has progressed over the years and distribute it among all the jobbers and include it in some sort of package with NEW jobbers? Hey, it was one of the reasons I made the switch...a fast growing company isn't BS. Numbers don't lie.
 
I was just talking to a local shop owner yesterday. Hes a super nice guy and even offered to let me use his booth and help me out with some things i could improve on. He asked what kind of paint i was using and i could just read his body language...he was thinking that i am an idiot for using off brand stuff on my car. Then he proceeded to complain about the cost of his ppg and how much he hates using their thin production clear for some used car work he does. I told him that he should try spi production clear but he didnt take me seriously. Go figure...
 
Barry... I think your plan sounds really reasonable. It would work great for, like you said, someone that has sales experience in the shops, or even a well experienced painter. The painter, if he has a lot of experience in that local area, and has respect among the other painters, would have a better chance of getting his foot in the door. On the other hand, if he is known as a hack, he would likely be a hinderance. I would think you would have to check references, since they would basically be employees of SPI.

Aaron
 
Thank you guys, you all have made some good points and given me more to think about and that is why I posted here as I knew you would.

Like I told Andy today, I think we are about 90% right in what we are thinking but need to work out some monior details to have a perfect plan.

Thanks again Barry
 
I think the rural markets should probably be one of your easiest sells, there's probably a few key shops in each market that should be first on the list-their acceptance will open the doors to larger volume shops. A sales strategy should be put in place in some test markets.
 
I'm interested.. to learn about this in my area. Philly suburbs, PA

I'm interested.. to learn about this opportunity in my area. Philly suburbs, PA
 
I do love using your product and believe in it 100%. Thats why I just did a "becoming a Jobber" search and found this thread. I to am very interested in more infomation or what you have come up with since that last posting.
 
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