Over the last year, MEDCO has taken a number of steps to better assist its customers in driving sales success. From launching new programs, to redeveloping the company’s promotional materials, to adding enhanced digital and graphics support, 2016 has been an evolutionary year for MEDCO and its expanding customer base, according to MEDCO President Andrew Keim. He adds customer response has validated all of the changes.
“Our ultimate goal is to provide everything our customers need in order to keep them at the forefront of industry change and able to maximize their success in the business,” says Keim. “Whether that means providing category experts to work with their teams, finding new ways of providing service, ensuring that our breadth and depth of inventory is in the right place at the right time, and more, we are committed to their success and we are enjoying sharing in their growth.”
The MEDCO Customer Appreciation Show held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia the weekend of September 30 demonstrated that commitment.
The fifth event of its kind, the MEDCO Show saw a 10 percent increase in attendance over a year ago, to about 1,100 attendees. Much of that increase can be attributed to additional mobile tool dealers attending, up 40 percent over last year. Participating suppliers held steady at about 150.
“The annual Show gives us an opportunity to assemble the most important industry suppliers and give our customers the opportunity to learn, experience, buy and interact with vendors and peers,” says Keim. “This truly is a 'win-win-win' event for our customers, our vendors and our company.”
Adapting to change
Keim shared that MEDCO does its best to keep its finger on the pulse of the industry, adapting to change and remaining forward-looking for its customers. In the past year alone, MEDCO has restructured to focus on categories and channels; hired new industry talent to bring even greater expertise to customers; redeveloped the promotional materials that many customers use with their customers; and expanded technology to provide even greater customer service and instant access to pricing and availability information.
“As the business continues to evolve, so do we in order to keep our customers one step ahead,” says Keim.
“While we were always strong in both tools and equipment, becoming a part of Essendant two years ago has added even greater opportunities to service our customers. The acquisition of Nestor Tools last year has had the same impact,” says Keim. “Among many other things, Essendant gave us greater distribution expertise, an expanded product offering and the support of a larger organization committed to the wholesale model and innovation. We also added the Nestor organization to the automotive division, giving us access to great new customers and an expanded geographical coverage. The continued investments in the division are really valuable to our customers,” says Keim.
Nestor Sales LLC, parent company of Ace Tool Co., was acquired by Essendant in July 2015.
“Both the MEDCO and Nestor businesses are really coming together to utilize the same type of impactful marketing, running the same promotions and sharing the breadth of brands and products,” Keim says. “Over the last year we’ve built the technology interfaces between the businesses, and now customers can gain the value of products and brands that are available across both MEDCO and Nestor (Ace Tool).”
New and updated offerings for distributors
Speaking about the new opportunities that MEDCO and Ace Tool are bringing to customers, Keim emphasized several items that he believes will allow customers to gain greater inroads with their accounts and better service their needs.
Nestor brought the Nesco and Performance 1 exclusive brands to the MEDCO organization, both of which Keim believes can provide new sales opportunities for customers. Essendant, on the other hand, with its leadership in Facility and Breakroom products adds another layer to customer opportunities, by enabling customers to sell a wider array of business essentials to customers. These consumables include cleaning supplies, paper goods, snacks, coffee and more. But the opportunities don’t end at product alone, says Keim.
“It’s one thing to make hundreds of new products available, but something else when you can make access to these products even easier by leveraging one of the largest wholesalers in the country,” says Keim. “We’re using a network of more than 70 Essendant warehouse locations across the country. Our customers can combine the Facility and Breakroom products on one MEDCO order with all of their other tool and equipment product needs, and the Essendant items will be delivered from a nearby warehouse directly.”
Beyond the in-house capabilities, MEDCO is also actively working to present customers with new opportunities for growth. The company is now able to offer independent mobile tool dealers the Bosch Street Force program on an exclusive basis, providing tool dealers with incentives for selling Bosch products, including the Company’s OTC and Robinair brands. The program also provides additional training opportunities and access to selling and training resources for tool dealers.
Regarding other customer programs, MEDCO is making significant headway with the GearWrench Street Team program.
Overall the company is aligning with a number of key suppliers to bring innovative programming to customer segments that allows the suppliers to invest their resources in a more targeted manner, so that they can bring more value to the end customer in a more strategic way.
“Our goal with our customers is to give them the products, programs and price points they need to maximize their business in terms of the geography they cover, the kinds of customers they call on, and even, to a degree, the footprint of their truck or store,” Keim says. “We have worked very hard to recognize the needs of our customers, the value that we provide to them, and the expertise that allows us to help customers meet and expand the challenges of the business.”
Impact of the 2016 MEDCO Customer Show
The 2016 Medco Customer Show was themed around “superheroes.” This theme, while lending itself to a fun atmosphere also spoke directly to customers. The right atmosphere was created with superheroes greeting customers at the show entrance to hand out flyers and special deal announcements, activity centers set up on the show floor for face painting, caricatures and more. Mini movie theaters also played current superhero movies throughout the day.
In speaking about the theme, Keim says, “There’s nobody out there who doesn’t love a superhero, and while everybody has their favorite, the theme was developed based on the idea that superheroes might be able to do things alone, but we only become superheroes of the industry when we work together.” He says the theme was also well-received by families of customers at the show.
Furthering the superhero concept, MEDCO offered training seminars, which was a key draw for many attendees at the show. Keim says this year’s training seminars had their highest attendance ever, which he believes was because of a focus on business solutions – such as financing and pricing solutions – in addition to products. Other topics included avoiding financial risk, closing more sales, and how to hire quality sales associates.
“By making the training much more applicable to their real-life business issues and opportunities, the training naturally became more desirable, and we got more attendees,” Keim says.
Looking ahead to 2017
MEDCO has already reserved the same location for the 2017 MEDCO Customer Show, to be held October 13 and 14, 2017.
For those who were unable to attend, Keim hopes that they put the date on their calendars now so that they can take advantage of the networking, training, vendor and buying opportunities the show provides. As was true in 2016, the company plans to feature some attendee-only deals to reward those who make the trip to the show.
“We started this five years ago, have grown to become one of the major exhibitor events in Pennsylvania, and we still feel like we have the opportunity to keep getting better and better,” says Keim. “We’re excited about the prospects for 2017 and to seeing our returning customers and many new faces at the next MEDCO Customer Appreciation Show.”
