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Home Channel News, Feb 21, 2000 by Brae Canlen

Pressure is on support team to help dealers get in line with co-op's new image

TruServ's team of retail consultants, the co-op's direct link to its dealer members, is expected to play a more critical role in getting dealers behind the company's retail brand identity campaign, and getting those dealers' stores to reflect the image the brand is meant to symbolize.

"The pressure is on [consultants] to get members signed up," said Don Neely, the director of TruServ's western division. For the retail consultants, "signed up" means getting Coast to Coast and ServiStar dealers to agree to re-label their paint, change their signage and participate in TruServ's circular ads. More important, the co-op has given the consultants more authority and autonomy to help dealers execute these programs.

TruServ is asking retail consultants to step up their efforts in identifying new markets for the nation's largest buying group. Aside from their usual in-field responsibilities, the consultants are expected to pitch new programs, such as a new computer system TruServ will rollout this spring.

"Everybody's doing double duty right now," said Neely. "But the retail consultants have to prioritize, and their priority is getting the Power of One [TruServ's slogan for its brand strategy] signed up."

Try telling that to a dealer panicking because the delivery from the distribution center didn't show. Or a hardware store owner who just learned that a big box retailer is coming to town. When Dean Wilson, general manager for Koontz True-Value Hardware in West Hollywood, Calif., heard that Home Depot was opening a unit nearby, one of the first people he called was his retail consultant, Ron Clayton.

Clayton verified the rumor and then outlined a strategy for Koontz True-Value, centered on longer store hours and expanded delivery service. Clayton also rented a hotel conference room for two nights and conducted employee training seminars. "One of the most important things he did was to tell us not to get scared," Wilson recalled. As a rule, Clayton smoothed out any snags between the store and its buying group. "If we had a problem of any sort, he'd jump on it and take care of it," Wilson said. (Clayton has since left TruServ; his replacement is Jeff Sandy.)

JACK OF ALL TRADES

Retail consultants can provide access to TruServ's higher-ups, a critical service for frustrated dealers. Terri Swain, owner of Swain True Value in Cape May, N.J., was in dire straits last summer when TruServ began servicing her store from a different DC during her store's peak selling season. Swain called her retail consultant when inventory snafus threatened to leave the store's shelves bare. TruServ responded by sending down two members of its "transition team" to help Swain with her ordering and receiving procedures. For some retail consultants, dealer conversion to the True Value banner is a relatively minor event. Joe Perz of North Port, Fla., has more than 80 TruServ members in his territory, but only a few are ServiStar dealers. Many of Perz's dealers are pro-oriented lumberyards that are not required by the co-op to assume the True Value brand.

This past summer was a typical one for Perz. Several members decided to remodel their stores, so TruServ's corporate office sent a retail operation specialist to help with their layouts. But it was Perz who hauled store fixtures to one site in a rented U-Haul truck.

Perz was only reaping what he sowed, however. Part of a retail consultant's job is to encourage successful members to expand their operations. For some dealers, that may mean adding square footage; others might want to open a new store, at which point TruServ's regional managers would get involved.

Sometime in the next few weeks, regional manager Dick Spangler plans to take Bob Tomsche, the owner of Fleet Supply in Sauk Center, Minn., on a road trip to Wisconsin. The two men, along with retail consultant Jarl Martinson, will drive about six hours to visit several TruServ dealers who do a good business selling farm and fleet supplies. The next day, the trio will return to northern Minnesota, where the Fleet Supply dealer will begin remodeling all four of his stores.

"Members learn from other members," explained Spangler, who often arranges these day trips to educate dealers about store decor, signage or merchandising techniques. "Walking into somebody else's store is better than looking at a picture," he added.

Spangler is one of eight regional managers in TruServ's western division. He spends 75 percent of his job on the road, traveling with one of his eight retail consultants. Spangler also oversees two retail operations specialists (one for Wisconsin and one for Minnesota) who assist in the planning stages of store remodels and expansions.

When members request it, Spangler and his retail consultants will conduct a store audit and come up with a list of suggestions to improve merchandising, inventory, staffing and security. Spangler also calls on prospective members, a task that fits naturally into his other duties, Spangler said. "A [new store] development person can make all kinds of promises because he's never going to see [the dealer] again," Spangler observed. "But we have to live with them."