DSR of the Month

Neal Taylor took the back road into foodservice sales. Eighteen years ago, fresh from completing military service, he took a job as a night warehouse selector at a small Georgia-based distributorship. He later switched to making deliveries and it was then, during a five-year stint as a driver, that he discovered he had a knack for sales.

“I used to sell stuff off the back of my truck. We were paid by what we actually delivered, so I never wanted to bring anything back to the warehouse,” Taylor says. “I’d evaluate the accounts and came to know who could use what and when I had products left I’d sell them. The guys I had worked with in the warehouse used to joke that I could sell better than some of the DSRs.”

Eventually, his company made an exception to its requirement that DSRs come to the job with college degrees – Taylor was still working on his – and offered him an opportunity to sell. “Even when I started, I kept driving because I was scared to make the jump completely” he says. “So I’d sell on Mondays and Wednesdays and make deliveries on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. But eventually I decided on sales as the best long-term route to take.”

That decision has paid off. Since joining PF-Powell eight years ago as a DSR, Taylor has built a $4.8-million territory and become the company’s top rep. This year, despite facing the same recessionary headwinds that held many back, he grew his sales 23 percent over last year thanks to a combination of aggressive account penetration and taking on new business. Roughly 80 percent of his accounts are on prime-supplier status.

“I’m big on account penetration,” he says. “It’s always my goal to be prime vendor in every account. I try really hard to take good care of all of my customers and have always operated on the idea that if I take care of them, they’ll take care of me.”

Taking care of his customers includes what for many DSRs might seem beyond the call of duty, but what Taylor considers all in day’s work. He starts at 5 a.m. every morning going over of his routes, checking delivery times and finding out what products may be out or short so he can notify affected customers and take care of it for them. He’ll often grab an apron and work the line or pinch hit as shift manager for customers who need extra help. The past year or two, he’s worked extra hard to help customers analyze menus, come up with new traffic-building ideas, and find ways to cut costs. In his off hours, he studies the industry in general and his local market, in particular, to stay up on trends and on the competitive landscape.

“I keep a close eye on what the chains are doing,” he says. “They invest heavily in R&D and market research and I try to capitalize on that for my customers.  In a lot of small, independent operations, most of the information they get about what’s going on out there and what’s working for other operations they get from me. So I bring whatever I can to them.”

Taylor believes the real key to his success, however, is the sense of ownership he takes in his and his customers’ business. “When I take a new rep into my accounts and there are my brands up on the stockroom shelf, I tell them I look at that as pictures of my kids on the walls,” he says. His four kids grew up knowing they could only eat out at restaurants Taylor services. “They get a kick out of it when I point out ‘my’ restaurants. My youngest would say, ‘Daddy, that’s not your restaurant’ and I’d say, ‘Oh yes it is.' When they do good, I do good. If you take ownership and treat your customers’ business like your own, you’ll always be successful.”