Hot new products for distributors and sales reps take center stage at NRA's annual industry show

Nation's Restaurant News, June 11, 2007 by Caroline Perkins

A flaming radio microphone depicted on the back of a black and orange shirt is hard to miss. Five people wearing such shirts and standing around a video camera become a definite attention-getter.

That colorful attraction was center stage at the Nation's Restaurant News booth at the National Restaurant Association Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show in Chicago this year. The people wearing the shirts were representing DSR Radio and the Association for Foodservice Distributor Representatives, both of which have been covered by this column during the past year.

Their goal was to garner new-product information for their distributor sales rep, or DSR, audience.

DSR Radio is a company with an irreverent and entertaining approach to sales rep training. It is a self-proclaimed "no-holds-barred talk show," thus the flaming microphone logo. Each monthly radio show, delivered via CD or podcast, includes interviews with manufacturers, operators, brokers and other DSRs, essentially bringing a better understanding of the whole supply chain to the DSRs, who are their critical link to operators. Topics address issues faced by DSRs on their routes, such as how to handle price negotiations, open new accounts and penetrate existing accounts.

DSR Radio had sent out an invitation to manufacturers asking them to stop by the NRN booth to describe their "latest and greatest '07 models" in front of a video camera. They were instructed to target their elevator speech to DSRs, telling them the benefits of and how best to sell the products.

"A lot of DSRs can't leave their routes to come to the show," said Dave Miesse of DSR Radio. "We wanted to bring the show to them."

The videos will give AFDR members insights into products coming to the market.

Twenty-seven national brand manufacturers stopped by and were taped. The team also recruited operators from the aisles, asking them why they came to the show and how they worked with their sales reps. In addition, they took their show on the road and visited a number of manufacturers' booths to conduct interviews. The videos will be posted on dsrradio.com, and the audio portion will be edited and incorporated into the monthly "radio" show that is sent out to all members of AFDR.

The monthly shows are one of the benefits offered to members of AFDR. They also receive a DSR newsletter, "The Professional," that features product information, selling tips and an AFDR All-Star of the month. Also coming soon is a brand library, a resource for product training information. DSR Radio and the brand library are creations of Lifeware TEK, a custom software developer.

AFDR is growing by leaps and bounds. Membership is at 1,500 and is expected to reach 2,000 by August. Todd Hauser, a DSR at Martin Bros. Distributing Co. in Cedar Falls, Iowa, is the president of the board of directors. Todd and fellow board member Patti Rangel of Zanios Foods in Albuquerque, N.M., both donned the black and orange shirts to help the video team at the NRN booth.

I've been interviewing and learning from DSRs for 13 years. It is very gratifying to see them finally come into their own with their own organization and their own focused support and educational tools like DSR Radio. In other words, it's good to see DSRs on the front burner.