Garvin Industries is a 120-year-old family owned manufacturer of UL Listed electrical, low voltage and lighting products. Their products include steel boxes, covers and device rings, fittings, weatherproof boxes and covers, hangers, straps, fasteners and clamps, devices and wallplates, tools and installation accessories. Garvin Industries also has the ability to customize standard electrical products upon request. The company features plants in the United States, China, India and Mexico, and has become recognized for designing innovative, labor-saving products and will custom design and manufacture products to meet specifications.

Challenge:

Bart Garvin, the President and CEO of Garvin Industries had attended a supplier meeting held by one of their largest clients. During this meeting, their client suggested to their suppliers there was more that could be done to improve their overall relationship. The main concern was how to improve communication between the suppliers and more than 700 local branch offices that often purchased products from suppliers independently.

Garvin Industries wanted to develop a plan to directly and individually reach out to each these local branches. However, they did not have the internal resources to do so.

Process

Rich Burghgraef, president and CEO of Randolph Sterling, Inc. met with Garvin Industries’ executive team to discuss this issue and how to achieve their goal. Garvin had a list of all of the branch offices, however, the list was unclear as to who the decision maker or decision makers were in each office. They wanted to obtain the phone numbers and e-mail addresses for those they should communicate with, as well as find out their preferred method of communication (i.e. weekly e-mail or phone calls).

Garvin quickly realized this relatively simple project was a larger problem than anticipated. As their team of six to seven associates began the process, they discovered calls being made to the smaller, local offices were redirected to a larger office if a phone call to a specific person was not answered. The challenge was getting the information they needed because although they may call three different people at three different branches, each of these calls could be transferred to the same larger office where someone was available to answer it.

The Randolph Sterling sales team met this challenge and did more than just ask for information. They developed relationships with the local contacts of Garvin’s client. The team handled the calls in a professional manner, so the people they reached several times were not only understanding, but became more and more helpful by providing the contact information of people in the location they were trying to reach, even if it wasn’t the office they called.

There were also locations that provided individuals’ e-mail addresses. As they continued the process, they realized using e-mail became a direct way to reach out to these contacts and reduce the number of calls being redirected to another office miles away. Thus Randolph Sterling found Garvin a better way to communicate with the local decision makers of their client. Having the e-mail information also allowed Garvin to track local decision makers who would visit their web site, looking for items or to purchase.

Through their effort, Randolph Sterling’s sales team conducted good conversations with those who were willing to share information because they did not come across as trying to sell something. Because the goal was communicated well, the team obtained the information they needed for all 700+ offices.

Result

The process became a win-win for Garvin Industries and their client. Garvin listened to their client who said, “We need to communicate better.” They quickly acted upon their client’s suggestion which ended up being a great benefit to Garvin. From their client’s standpoint, it helped them get information into one of their major client’s hands more frequently and turn that into more business.

Rich said, “This is a simple process of we have what they want. They do X amount of business with us. We can turn that into Y amount of business just by having better communication.”

There are areas the relationship can still grow by continuing to improve communication lines with their cleients offices. Already it is becoming easier for Garvin to be able to put together a weekly special they can send to their client’s offices offering something they may need instead of having to call 700 offices.

The end result, Rich said, was using the right communication methods and this resulting in more business. This was important for everyone involved!