| CASE STUDY #1 | |||||||||
| Distributor: | Dilmar Oil | Region: | Southeast | ||||||
| OVERVIEW | |||||||||
| Distributor Overview | |||||||||
| Dilmar Oil is a big Shell distributor based in Florence, SC. They cover NC, SC, parts of GA and soon parts of VA. | |||||||||
| Initial Outreach | |||||||||
| My first point of contact was with Sales Manager Thomas Lohr as I had been unable to get a hold of any of the principles. Thomas eventually connected me with Vice President Aaron Dameron. After initially having a great in-person meeting with Aaron in July of 2022. Contact following this meeting was very minimal. Aaron mostly ghosted me for the remainder of the year. | |||||||||
| Customer Challenges / Pain Points | |||||||||
| At the end of 2022, Paul said we might have a National Account opportunity in NC and wondered which distributor we could use. I went with Dilmar and reached out to Aaron. We connected the first of the year. Nothing came about on the National Account, however I used the opportunity to talk further with Aaron. I knew how busy he was and asked if there was anything we could do to help him. He said that they had been buying bulk 10W-30 SL from Maverick. Maverick told them that the manufacturer (Avista) was out of the additives to make the 10W-30 SL. So, he moved the business over to Smitty’s. The 10W-30 SL was for Husqvarna and Aaron was concerned that Smitty’s might possibly steal the business and ship direct to Husqvarna. | |||||||||
| How did you address? | |||||||||
| I immediately got with Paul to see if this was something we could get. As, this product was new to me. When I discovered we could, I got back with Aaron to get volumes and target pricing. In between calls, Smitty’s had signed an agreement with Cadence to do all of their private label business. The news of this, made Aaron even more anxious move away from Smitty’s. After some initial back and forth on pricing. We were able to agree to a price and get the business. | |||||||||
| What were the keys to closing the business? (reflection) | |||||||||
| I think that on our initial conversation the first week of January. Asking Aaron what I could do to help him was the key. He is super busy and I think hearing from a vendor. That wants to help, is not normal and it got his attention. I wish I had taken this approach last summer and gotten the business sooner. | |||||||||
^ This is how it will look if pulled directly from the original Excel sheet
| CASE STUDY #1 | |||||||||
| Distributor: Dilmar Oil | |||||||||
OVERVIEW |
|||||||||
| Distributor Overview | |||||||||
| Dilmar Oil is a big Shell distributor based in Florence, SC. They cover NC, SC, parts of GA and soon parts of VA. | |||||||||
| Initial Outreach | |||||||||
| My first point of contact was with Sales Manager Thomas Lohr as I had been unable to get a hold of any of the principles. Thomas eventually connected me with Vice President Aaron Dameron. After initially having a great in-person meeting with Aaron in July of 2022. Contact following this meeting was very minimal. Aaron mostly ghosted me for the remainder of the year. | |||||||||
| Customer Challenges / Pain Points | |||||||||
| At the end of 2022, Paul said we might have a National Account opportunity in NC and wondered which distributor we could use. I went with Dilmar and reached out to Aaron. We connected the first of the year. Nothing came about on the National Account, however I used the opportunity to talk further with Aaron. I knew how busy he was and asked if there was anything we could do to help him. He said that they had been buying bulk 10W-30 SL from Maverick. Maverick told them that the manufacturer (Avista) was out of the additives to make the 10W-30 SL. So, he moved the business over to Smitty’s. The 10W-30 SL was for Husqvarna and Aaron was concerned that Smitty’s might possibly steal the business and ship direct to Husqvarna. | |||||||||
| How did you address? | |||||||||
| I immediately got with Paul to see if this was something we could get. As, this product was new to me. When I discovered we could, I got back with Aaron to get volumes and target pricing. In between calls, Smitty’s had signed an agreement with Cadence to do all of their private label business. The news of this, made Aaron even more anxious move away from Smitty’s. After some initial back and forth on pricing. We were able to agree to a price and get the business. | |||||||||
| What were the keys to closing the business? (reflection) | |||||||||
| I think that on our initial conversation the first week of January. Asking Aaron what I could do to help him was the key. He is super busy and I think hearing from a vendor. That wants to help, is not normal and it got his attention. I wish I had taken this approach last summer and gotten the business sooner. | |||||||||
| CASE STUDY #2 | |||||||||
| Distributor: Valley Wide Coop | |||||||||
OVERVIEW |
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| Distributor Overview | |||||||||
| Valley Wide Coop is a distributor located out of Jerome, ID. They have multiple bulk facilities, as well as multiple C-stores throughout Idaho. Their main customer base are farmers, agricultural, and construction operations, along with retail stores for walk-ins. | |||||||||
| Initial Outreach | |||||||||
| Prior communications with VW was through Eric Rassmussen. After a few failed calls and emails to Eric, Jake reached out. First outreach was with Jake Searle when he became the Executive Vice President of Operations for Valley Wide. He was a member of Conrad and Bischoff and was familiar with NAL. Having a built in familiarity jumpstarted our conversations. I mentioned I understand he’s getting situated in the new role, but I wanted to lend a helping had as he combs through his supply options. About 2 weeks go by, and he reached out via email setting up a call to discuss. Timeframe: End of May, beginning of June.
Jake didn’t know much how the purchasing process worked at VW. He wanted to explore the option with us and needed a few weeks to gather intel. We set up a future call. In the meantime, base oil decreases were hitting the market, so I made sure to keep Jake informed about our prices being lowered. He didn’t know about any price decreases and invited me to keep him updated with similar information in the future. Our call resulted in an opportunity to supply them bulk truckloads of drip oil. He would have his new purchasing manager of lubricants reach out. |
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| Customer Challenges / Pain Points | |||||||||
| Through conversations with Jake, his primary role was evaluating operations at each facility and analyzing supply options. Their main supplier is CHS and Parkland. Parkland is also a direct competitor, and this was obviously a pain point for Jake. He mentioned drip oil as a quick and immediate need that we could fill.
It was clear from the beginning that Jake wanted a professional approach to the sales process. He liked setting up calls and keeping them to the point. I made sure to respect his time. Also, buying product from his direct competitor was something he didn’t want to do. This creates a few challenges for him and his company. |
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| How did you address? | |||||||||
| Brandon Schell was elevated to purchasing manager over lubricants. He works closely with Jake and Tom Daniels (Brandon’s boss). Jake said if we can get our pricing in line, then there’s nothing stopping us from doing business immediately. Brandon would be handling moving forward. After a call with Brandon and help from Paul, I described to Brandon our advantages. Water white and an odorless drip oil (texted him picture of product), as well as a supply alternative other than his competitor. They could control costs and not be undercut, while getting a high quality product. Win-win. I sent over pricing of $4.30/gallon on delivered truckloads. Brandon said we would need to be around the $3.75/gallon. I asked Brandon if we could meet somewhere in the middle – $3.98 and $4.08 pricing delivered into his facilities. All done over the phone and Teams meetings.
We were able to secure (2) bulk 7,000 gallon truckloads of drip oil fairly quickly after the start of the sales process. Jerome and Rexburg locations. NAL is in a great position to secure more business from VW through additional products, including bulk hydraulics, 15w40, Prestone, gear oils and greases, and food grade. Brandon has mentioned the drip oil business is comfortably ours, which is 50,000 gallons annually. Future discussions have included purchasing rail cars of drip oil, along with other bulk products, shipped directly into their Jerome facility. Currently, we are exploring Prestone antifreeze. They have 2 separate operations – (1) wholesale side – 7-8 bulk truckloads/year (2) retail side – 5,000 gallons of cases. |
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| What were the keys to closing the business? (reflection) | |||||||||
| The biggest takaway from this situation is the level of professionalism Valley Wide demonstrates. Jake Searle is the new face of VW and he wants to be treated as such. Respecting his time, scheduling calls in advance, following up on action items, and performing well as a potential supplier were all keys to my success with this company. Additionally, the VW and Parkland dynamic was an advantage for NAL to step in as an alternative.
If I could do it over, I would have pushed a little more on my end to try and capture more products. I wanted to respect the time with his new role and feel as if I left more opportunities on the table. That’s not to say we can’t capture more products, but this unique situation and the speed of the sales process, showed me they were in “buy mode”. I have to do a better job of acknowledging this earlier on. Leveraging my relationship with Jake and Brandon will continue to push more opportunities our way. NAL has solved a problem for them and they trust us moving forward as a supply option/partner. |
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