Staying on the Offensive

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photo of Ryan Christian

VMA Managing Partner and Field Engineer, Ryan Christian.

Rather than waiting for the proverbial next shoe to drop, Vic Myers Associates (VMA) went on the offensive when it came to dealing with the understandably onerous restrictions that agencies like it and others had to work their way through during the nationwide COVID-19 pandemic.

An important part of that offensive move was the acquisition in February of new headquarters space in Arizona, specifically for the purpose of allowing VMA personnel, customers and principals to meet face‑to‑face.

With four main offices located in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah, VMA is an agency engaged in the representation of instrumentation and communication products. It specializes in connecting customers with manufacturers. The company also provides technical support, market and industry research, product introduction, and other services.

Explaining the agency’s move, Ryan Christian, managing partner, said that “During Covid we decided that we simply were not going to sit around and see what was going to happen next. We looked at it this way: with the use of traditional office space seemingly dwindling away, there was really no place for us to get together in person with our principals and customers. At the same time, our preference is always to see our customers face-to-face. However, restrictions severely limited our ability to visit their places of business. So instead of waiting, we located some super-reasonable office space — effectively doubling our space — that allowed us to negotiate a huge pivot, letting customers and principals visit us instead of us going to see them. On top of that it provides us with a great option for conducting Zoom meetings. Bottom line is that this allowed us to continue to grow our relationships.”

Aiming at a Large Target

photo of VMA's Arizona headquarters

Ryan Christian says, “Our new building sign is up and we are excited to make this the new Arizona headquarters for our principals and customers to build relationships and solve problems together.”

Christian continues that the move has been especially beneficial in working with defense contractors who are located fairly close to the VMA Phoenix office. “They are obviously a huge target for us and what we’ve done is much more effective than setting up product demonstrations in our former cramped offices. They can come in here, enjoy a cup of coffee, wander around the office and see our product demonstrations and displays that we set up in advance. We’ve probably had 20 of our customers over in the last two months.”

Scheduling also is a lot easier. A couple of factors indicate that VMA has made a wise decision. “We’ve heard from some of our larger customers that their purchasing people are never going to return to the office. On top of that, there are a number of purchasing people who live in close proximity to our office. As a result, they can come before or after the normal workday and even visit during lunch time. In addition, they prefer coming here because none of us have to deal with their companies’ individual Covid protocols.”

Christian added, “We’ve been fairly lucky here in Arizona in that we got on the vaccination train fairly early. But, in reality, just because we here at VMA are back, that doesn’t necessarily mean that our customers are back. That’s why we have to be aware of their Covid protocols.”

In contrast to meeting at the VMA facility, Christian recalls that “Just last week while visiting one of our major customers, I had to conduct the sales presentation in my truck. Having said that, the meeting was a huge success, but it would have turned out much better if they had just dropped by the office at any convenient time.”

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Inside Sales Pro Jim Barnett (right) hanging out and building relationships with Rich Markham (center) and Dave Gallup of DEWESoft USA.

Back to Backselling

If the addition of larger office space for customers has been successful, Christian explains that it’s also been very beneficial in dealing with principals. “Talk about Backselling 101 — since no one really has a good idea of when things are going to return to normal, we’ve made every effort to let principals know what we’re doing. And, the result has been that they just love it. They recognize the fact that we’re not sitting around waiting for things to change. We’ve already had six of our principals travel from their home office to come here.”

In addition to just having more space to work with, the larger office has provided VMA a much-used and much-needed video production studio. According to Christian, “Part of my background includes having a passion for marketing and spreading the message from our principals. The studio that we now have allows us to conduct interviews and product demonstrations. We conducted one interview with a principal that we signed in the middle of the pandemic. That provided us with a great opportunity to take the bull by the horns and get the Vic Myers story out there and explain why this principal decided to work with us.”

Another example of VMA’s ability to take advantage of video can be seen on YouTube, where the agency’s “Tech Tuesday” weekly webinars are posted. “We scheduled these out with our principals months in advance,” explained Christian. “We’ve had very positive responses from both our participating principals and customers.”

photo of Tracy Grossman

Tracy Grossman, field engineer and rocket scientist extraordinaire, working in the VMA Demo lab to set up some equipment for an upcoming demo and sales presentation.

Getting Paid for Extra Work

Since Christian went to some length to describe the extra effort VMA has made in serving both its principals and customers, the subject was raised with him as to whether an agency can expect to be compensated for the extra effort they’re expending when it comes to marketing. Here’s how Christian and VMA look at that scenario: “Here’s our approach to working with principals. Our goal is to work with truly professional principals who possess a synergistic approach to sales and marketing. If in working with those manufacturers it is incumbent upon me and our organization to market and sell your products, then basically that’s two times the amount of work I have to do. Having said that, that’s why I’ve been very pleased to learn about the language MANA has made available on the subject.

“When we inform a principal that there should be compensation for that effort, on the one hand you’re confronted with shock and awe on their part. On the other hand, however, there are manufacturers that have a good marketing direction and the budget to go with it, then there’s acceptance.”

He continues that this has caused the agency to take a look at its line card. “Since Covid, we’ve been looking at the bottom third of our line card. If we’re expected to conduct this next level of marketing for companies, then we’re going to have to charge for it. Likewise with companies that don’t have current business in the territories in which we operate. If that’s the case, then we’re going to have to consider offering market development fees. Unfortunately, there are any number of companies out there that really don’t have an idea of how to market and sell their products. We on the other hand, have the best marketing and salespeople available.

“Moving forward, it’s been a large part of our process to learn about principals’ and prospective principals’ marketing plans. If in presenting our story to them, all I hear in return are crickets, then we’re going to shy away from them.”

MANA welcomes your comments on this article. Write to us at [email protected].

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Jack Foster, president of Foster Communications, Fairfield, Connecticut, has been the editor of Agency Sales magazine for the past 23 years. Over the course of a more than 53-year career in journalism he has covered the communications’ spectrum from public relations to education, daily newspapers and trade publications. In addition to his work with MANA, he also has served as the editor of TED Magazine (NAED’s monthly publication), Electrical Advocate magazine, provided editorial services to NEMRA and MRERF as well as contributing to numerous publications including Electrical Wholesaling magazine and Electrical Marketing newsletter.