Editor’s Note: Nigel FeBland is a veteran sales rep in the costume industry, and has a lot of opinions about how things should go. He has agreed to share some of those opinions in an occasional column for NCA Today. Here is his first.
By Nigel FeBland
As the Captain in in the film Cool Hand Luke said to Luke (Paul Newman): “What we got heah’ is failure to communicate.” And that is the theme of my column today.
We reps in the field hear a lot of things the vendors don’t. We are their agents, but we also are the advocates of our customers. And customers speak to us differently than they do to the vendors, as we generally know our accounts better than the factories do.
Customers ask for changes in items, packaging or terms, or the addition of new styles. Or they suggest new items not yet in the line. We pass this info to the vendors and it guides them on what changes are needed in their product lines.
The comments from the retailers are essential for the vendors to be able to improve their programs for the future, and to help the retailers be more successful.
A customer once called me “the grease that makes the wheels go round.” I never thought of myself before as a lubricant, but when things stop I step in and hopefully help them continue. Because of sales reps, a lot of sales continue that would probably just go away.
Years ago Howie Beige of Rubies built his business in a Winnebago showroom he drove across the country. Sales rep Joe Stevens did a private trade show on the back of the Rubies VIP show, and brought accounts in to write orders in person.
And rep Sol Pritt would go town to town and use a phone book to find new accounts wherever he roamed.
The result of these efforts was that vendors, reps and retailers bonded in person, and it helped all parties succeed.
However, these days a lot of that face-to-face communication simply doesn’t happen. Many sales reps have retired or switched fields, either because they couldn’t make enough money or the manufacturers fired them to “streamline” the business. Furthermore, few of the surviving reps can travel the country anymore, and retailers don’t have time to view so many lines, as they have less staff in their stores.
We have lost the personal touch, human contact, and the valuable info that turns the wheels of commerce.
Yet the need to hear what the market is looking for has never diminished. Online catalogs, emails and texts cannot replace the open dialogue and brainstorming of people sitting at a table and discussing what can be done to improve the way we do business.
We get some of this at the Halloween & Party Expo, but a lot of customers do not attend like they did in the old days. And HPE occurs in January, which is too late for many sales.
So I am proposing a “Town Hall” for the industry, sometime in November, when we can all share ideas about what we need from each other. It would have to be via Zoom, of course, but every retailer and vendor who attends could get a few minutes on the virtual podium to “tell it like it is” from their perspective.
Such an event would at least give us a forum to share vital information before it’s too late. And then those of us who attend HPE could continue those conversations face-to-face, so that we get the benefit of a live meeting.
Do you agree with this idea? Or do you have another idea to help communication? Either way, please share your thoughts in the comments below. And hopefully I’ll see you – one way or another – in November!