We held our annual Distributor Advisory Council Meeting on August 20th and 21st in Nashville, TN. Tim Wallace from Quality Mill Supply Co. was introduced as a new DAC member along with Seco newcomers Bill Barcelona, Director of Customer Experience and Dave Fisher, Distributor Development Manager. The main focus was to have an interactive session with open dialog and to get feedback on what Seco can do to help its distributor community. Chairman Scott Stapp’s focus was to find better ways to collaborate and help grow Seco sales for all distributors. Rob Keenan closed the introduction by giving all attendees two questions to reflect on: How do we stay relevant together? How do we excel together and walk away with a mutual competitive advantage?

Initial comments from the DAC members focused on two topics: conversion and training. Distributors are eager to see and use the conversion app that Seco announced in Las Vegas this year. The project demanded more resources than initially planned and will be ready by the 2020 Distributor Conference. Inside sales training was discussed as a must-have and something that is crucial to driving growth, as most often, the salesperson can pick what brand they sell. The DAC suggested distributors could incentivize their staff to complete the training so it becomes more of a team effort between Seco and its distributors.

In the spirit of customer focus, Bill stressed the importance of a good web experience for the customer in today’s market, on both Seco and the distributors’ websites. The challenge is getting better at attracting new customers, while retaining existing business. Online platforms will be crucial in doing so, especially for small and medium accounts.

Topics discussed during the canned DAC / Seco breakout sessions were very much in alignment. In order of importance to the DAC members were:

1. Distributor Test Tool Program
   Currently too labor intensive, can cause admin issues. E-orders are a must.
2. Conversion Incentive Program
   Create true conversion program not specific to integrated accounts.
3. DAC Network
   Increase awareness about DAC with more frequent and consistent messaging.
4. Training
   Priority need is for inside sales. Provide traceability to distributor principals.
5. Summary Business Review (SBR)
   Needs to be accessible online in an interactive, dashboard-like format.

In the interest of this article the topics and detail are brief, but were discussed at length, along with the ideas and timing around solving today’s concerns. In the short term, Anouck and Scott will work to simplify the current test tool structure and consistent framework will be put in place for future DAC network communications. Long term goals include developing a full distributor inside sales training program with online modules along with revamping the current SBR format to a web-based interactive dashboard.

Overall, the discussion over these two days was very productive and left Seco thankful and excited to deliver for our distributor partners in 2020.