Tom Rafferty is VP of Sales for the Affinia Global Brake & Chassis Group.
We place a very high priority on the relationships we have established over the years with our channel partners. With one of the largest sales teams in the aftermarket, and with many long-tenured District Sales Managers, we’re proud of the fact that several channel partner relationships date all the way back to the 1960s. Our focus is to work with our channel partners at the service provider level to grow the business for all, announcing product line extensions like our Raybestos Police brake system offering, and utilizing consumer rebates, technician training, point-of-sale materials, loyalty rewards programs, sweepstakes events and other sales promotions.
How important is full line coverage to your supply partners when compared to factors like price?
Price is one of many factors important to our partners in the course of doing business. In order to prosper, they must be able to price competitively in their marketplace while achieving acceptable margins. We believe that full line coverage is just as critical to their success as price, and our first-to-market coverage strategy fills that need very well. As an example of the priority we place on coverage, almost 2,000 part numbers were added to our brake and chassis product lines this year. That represents more than 160,000 catalog listings. Over 8,000 of these listings cover 2010 model year applications. A high percentage of these additions are for the fast-growing foreign nameplate population. When the call comes in, our distributors know Raybestos will have the parts.
What are some ways in which your channel partners can improve the relationship with your company?
Effective communication is the key to successful relationships, and it needs to be a two-way street. We regularly inform our channel partners with news about our coverage, quality, pricing, marketing, sales support, service levels and more. We also listen carefully to their recommendations for improving our Raybestos programs. Additionally, we offer many value adds to our partners, and strongly encourage them to take advantage of everything we make available.
How has the role of the factory field sales rep changed over the past five years?
Our salesforce is spending more time in the service bays than ever before. Technicians are hungry for the product information, technical training, business-building promotions and marketing tools that our District Sales Managers deliver.
Investment in new technologies and category management expertise has allowed us to better assist channel partners and their customers to optimize their inventories best serve their specific market areas. Our new Localized Stocking Tool enables our district sales managers to create customized Raybestos inventory recommendations based on the vehicle population specific to those customer-provided market zip codes.
