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Posted January 7, 2015

Independent Rep:
Service-Industry Background Enhances Sales Skills

by Mike Martin

Though he’s now busy and successful in the family manufacturer’s rep firm, Tony Matteis took a rather circuitous route. Looking back, he says, it was the best path for him to take.

Tony Matteis
Tony Matteis, AMVAL Associates, Springfield, Mass.

Graduating from college as a graphic designer, he leaned for a while toward a more relaxed lifestyle. Moving to California to live with friends he waited tables “in some great and some not-so-great” restaurants and bars, leaving time for surfing. Settling in Montana for a time, with access to snowboarding, he worked for a few years as a designer for a newspaper. Then back to a warmer climate and service jobs. And then he was done.

“I liked those jobs,” he says. “Sure, there are times when you have to put up with some nonsense, but there are also some very valuable skills that apply to what I am doing now – invaluable, really.”

Such as . . . ?

“Meeting people. In those positions you’re constantly meeting people, striking up a conversation, finding out what they need or like. That’s the foundation for successful sales,” he says.

“The ability to ask the right questions is essential. When you’re making cold calls and when you call on customers, you have to keep asking questions to find out what they want, what they like, what they’re looking for, what has changed or what they expect to change.

“Though it sounds basic, you learn to pay attention, to listen, both to what they’re saying and to what they’re not saying.
“And you get a sense for people. You can start to tell quickly how they tend to operate or behave and you want to make sure you approach them the right way, with the right questions. It sounds a bit trite, but the jobs I worked give you some training for a lot of other things you could end up doing,” he states.

You could say these are basic social skills, “but I think they’re a gateway to being able to discuss needs,” he comments. Now a territory sales professional with AMVAL Associates, Matteis says he leverages the training of his early years every day.

Crash course
Once the decision was made to become a territory sales representative for the company his father had launched and built, he looked at it as “continuing education.” While service jobs “gave me some good skills and helped me understand some of the things I’d be good at in terms of building customer relationships, I also needed to learn more about the products, about working with distributors and rental centers, learning to ask the right questions for their businesses,” he explains.
He was somewhat familiar with all of it, after all, he’d grown up around the business – “but for as much as I thought I knew, I also had a lot to learn.”

His father’s teaching method? Inundation. It was on-the-road training about from day one. He armed himself with product catalogues, specs sheets and manuals. While he says he has an affinity for concrete tools and learned those products inside-out, other items from the line card took a bit longer.

“Then, as I made more and more sales calls and had more and more conversations with customers, I realized they don’t expect me to have all the answers or to be an expert in everything. You can’t be! But you can learn to get people an answer. In many cases, I think, that ability to get an answer, to help the distributor or dealer get an answer for their customer, is what helps set our business apart.”

Becoming a business resource
A little bit of luck never equates to success, but it doesn’t hurt. Matteis launched his career in 2005, the same year that Derek Bauer opened his small tool and equipment business in Connecticut. “I called on Derek and dropped off a line card, we had a conversation about what he was doing and what I was doing. Not too long after that, he called and asked to meet me for coffee. We filled out a credit app and he placed his order over a Starbucks,” Matteis recalls.

Those relationships and results, he says, are what keep sales people going. Matteis hit the road hard, meeting more and more contractor supply businesses and rental houses, making cold calls. Just like Bauer’s business, Matteis’ ability to develop relationships with customers often led to information about or introductions to other customers, growing his network.

At the same time, it was important to include contractor calls as part of his territory management process. “One of the keys is to get into the door to meet with end users. Any time you can get in the job site trailer, you learn something. It may not result in an order for our distributors or rental center customers, but it shows that we’re involved, that we’re in the field working for them.”

Over time, Matteis says, he was making more and more calls on contractors, at times including sales staff from the companies AMVAL represents. It builds his understanding of end-user needs, he says, can provide valuable field intelligence for his distributors and rental centers, and helps serve as a business barometer in the territory he works.
“The more knowledge I can provide to my customers about job sites and contractors, about what is going on in my territory, the more important I can be as a business resource to them,” he points out.

Having been in his territory for nine years, Matteis’ success in turning cold calls into customers means he is visiting customers every day. In the office with Derek Bauer of ABLE Tool & Equipment, Matteis and Bauer walk through a list of the job sites using equipment rented or purchased from ABLE. They talk about who they know, who they’re working with and upcoming projects that should keep both of them busy.

In the storefront, he talks with some of the inside sales staff, exchanging information on products, discussing inventory needs. On his next visit to the store, he confirms, he’ll be bringing in a product for them to compare against their current vendor. There was no pressure from Matteis and no hesitation to listen and respond from the ABLE staff. Just an easy conversation about what ABLE is looking for and what AMVAL might be able to provide.

It’s the type of conversation that can occur because Matteis has taken the time to meet with and talk with Bauer’s team. He took the time to ask questions, to listen, to pay attention to his customer’s wants and needs. Skills he began to learn years ago in a completely different line of work.

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