Page 35 - HW February 2020

sales agents
Stick or switch? A market looking at change?
THE LOCAL SALES agency business is characterised by half a dozen big players and a long tail.
But that’s set to change with DKSH’s acquisition late last year of Crossmark, which has recently been described as “the largest field marketing provider in Australia and New Zealand”.
Storelink’s Tony Puppyn describes this event as “the first example of industry consolidation of a significant scale, and it’s unlikely to be the last.
“Put the two together and you have one major agency heading the pack and offering everything in a one-stop shop.”
We reached out to Crossmark to talk about this possible step change in the market and hope to follow up in the coming weeks.
Peter Duffin at PD Sales expects opportunities to arise from such mergers:“There’s always some fallout and change is great, it keeps everyone on their toes.”
Angie Samuel notes agent interest in hardware is increasing overall:“In the last year, we did start seeing companies rear their heads in terms of offering services in the hardware channel where they
were predominantly in grocery, and then players with operations in Australia coming into the NZ market to service the local hardware channel.”
Around the traps and without naming names I’ve been hearing about significant client churn at the moment. The perception is that a number of clients are seeking operations that can give them the sort of next level advice they need to be successful.
As you’d expect, Angie Samuel for one sounds a note of caution around agent switching:“We already know that suppliers are under
pressure from retailers to offer more support, more rebates, better trading terms. This leaves customers quite exposed and having to look at commercial savings.
“But it’s a hard lesson to learn when you switch to what appears to be a comparable service only to find that you’ve partnered with a less sophisticated agent and you’re not getting what you had before...”
months working with TCI in the background to fully understand what they want to achieve and working out how we bring that to life through activity and marketing.”
Peter Duffin’s attitude is that you have to be continually seeking new business: “Suppliers are looking to make savings where they can to make themselves more effective. That’s where we step into the role but we have to drive it quite hard from our end.
“We’re always looking for another channel in which to apply our services that is more productive for us, or trying to find
better brands, better exposure, and more support from the supplier.”
Meanwhile Derek van der Vossen concludes that, for VRM, growth is very much dependent on the capacity of his team.
“We’ve very much focused on quality of visits and quality of customers and making sure what we commit to, we actually do.
“It’s about making sure the customers you look after now, you look after continually and if you take more on, you don’t compromise the service.”
CUT YOUR SALES COSTS
Experienced Sales Agents covering
the South Island and Lower North Island
• Brand representation
• Sales & account management
• Good industry contacts
• Increase Sales/Reduce fixed costs
CONTACT:
Peter Duffin & Russ Duffin, PD Sales Ltd
Ph 021 341 768 | Email pduffin@xtra.co.nz
MORE AT www.facebook.com/nzhardwarejournal
FEBRUARY 2020 | NZHJ 33
MPM 9085 1019