This week, I interviewed sales people to represent Trail Blazer products in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ontario, Quebec and began preparing a contract for these salespeople. I sent catalogues to customers like A. M. Leonard, Campmor, Co-op Atlantic, Everest Gear, Mountain Equipment Co-op and snow shovel booking information to GH Factory Sales.
I’ll be looking for more sales people, who are interested in representing Trail Blazer and grow our distribution. I started this month by talking to Donald Turcotte, with Unique Agency, about servicing the outdoor retailers in Quebec. I spoke to Shawn Cropley, with Cropley Marketing, about presenting to mass retailers in Canada. I spoke to Mike Streets & Trey Smith, with Vander Marketing, about servicing Lawn & Garden retailers and the independent hardware stores in North Eastern United states. If you are interested in representing Trail Blazer products, please send your interest to [email protected]
Now that I have three new potential sales agencies that I am interested in working with, I have one thing to complete before moving forward. I asked Robert Miedema, Partner with Boyneclarke (Trail Blazer’s law firm), to prepare a contract for Trail Blazer Products to clearly show the Territories, responsibilities and commissions in our agreement.
I continued sending Trail Blazer’s new product catalogues to customers who offer our collapsible saws to the outdoor enthusiast (the Take-Down Buck Saw & the Sawvivor Saw). Customers like Campmor, Everest Gear, MEC and Trail Shop. I also suggest outdoor retailers should offer their customers Trail Blazer’s 8″ Xtreme™ Folding Saw, 8″ Xtreme™ Mini Hatchet, 13″ Xtreme™ Ergo Hatchet, Xtend-A™ Saw & Xtend-A™ Blade (knife & saw combo) and our Multi-Function Scissors that will practically cut anything. Along with Trail Blazer’s new product catalogue, I started sending customer’s & sales reps our spring booking program, for 2013, to allow our dealers & distributors receive extra discounts free shipping opportunities when they purchase product between now & November for spring delivery in February, March or April 2013. Customers like A. M. Leonard, BMR Hardware, Blomidon Nurseries, Co-op Atlantic, Kent Building Supplies & many more.
Booking programs help plan production schedules and dealer & distributors enjoy extra discounts as a thank you for booking early. Trail Blazer’s Reverse D-Handle Snow Shovel’s booking program is no exception. GH Factory Sales requested this information this week because the extra discounts are only available until the end of this month.
I received a comment from a disgruntled customer in Lilburn, GA this week. I asked Justin Caldwell in customer service to contact this customer & this was the response.
“I worked for Delta Air Lines for 45 years and we always strove for rapid, exceptional customer service. I was fortunate to start at Delta when our founder, Mr. C.E. Woolman was alive and president of our company. If one of our customers was unhappy, then he was unhappy. That was one of the reasons Delta grew so rapidly until they are the largest airline in the free world today! I was reluctant to contact your company about my problem, but my wife pushed me to do so because of my experiences at Delta and the philosophy of Mr. Woolman. Any time he had an unhappy customer, he thanked them profusely when they came to him with a problem, for as he said on many an occasion, how can we improve if we don’t have someone with “fresh eyes” see things we might have overlooked and then called it to our attention!!
Thank you again for getting back to me. I hate to say that there are too many companies out in the business world who consider customers with “problems” as mere irritations, not worthy of answering their complaints!
Your saw fills a niche in my yard tools that I had not been able fill. That is why I was unhappy about almost getting the job done, but forced to quit when nearly done!!
Thanks again for all your help and quick response! I’m truly sorry I was so irritable in my original input on your website! I guess it must be the 79 year old age that’s causing me to be so irritable (at least that’s what my wife attributes it to)”
The bolt, nut and push button on this gentleman’s Xtend-A-Saw came apart and dropped into weeds beneath his tree … He was unable to find them. He said “Up until then, the saw worked fine!” Justin sent him parts within 48 hours & will make sure production knows to put lock-tight on “ALL” the nuts & bolts before sending the products to the stores.
All the Best, Shawn Levangie