Smart Dealer TRICKS
By Allen Kelson

Every successful E&S dealer knows how to jump through hoops to keep customers happy; such behavior is par for the course. Managing to get past newly formed 800-pound-gorilla competitors, though, requires thinking out of the box.

From out in front, Pierce Restaurant Supply, the home of Restaurant Equipment World, appears to be an unremarkable, not particularly large dealership. But seen through the filter of the internet, it is a massive, dynamic, experienced force specializing in dozens of categories of E&S. By shedding a bit-player image, Pierce sales personnel are limited only by their ability to compete in variety, price, service and know-how.

The Little Engine That Did

One of the first E&S dealers on the internet, Orlando, Fla.'s, Pierce Restaurant Supply has more than 100 URLs (uniform resource locators) associated with its RestaurantEquipmentWorld brand (www.restaurantequipment.net). Those sites go under such predictable names as RefrigerationWorld, ToasterWorld and SteamtableWorld, as well as more specific product categories, including CustomStainlessWorld, RestaurantRadioWorld and BrassFixtureWorld. Seated at an internet-linked computer, a site visitor would not be likely to guess that this seeming online empire has, in reality, been posted by a dealership that has yet to reach $10 million in annual sales. Overseen by Bradley Pierce, the company's chief information officer, the homegrown web operations have changed this dealership's shape and direction as new opportunities have been fostered.

PRS' internet presence was launched about three-and-a-half years ago with the simple goal of "getting exposure for the company," Pierce recalled. "Our original effort was more or less an electronic newsletter that said, 'Here's our company. We're progressive: We're online.' It was not intended to sell products directly or facilitate e-commerce at all. About eight months afterwards, we had the idea of taking our print catalog and putting it into an online format. This kind of began the whole e-commerce end of the business but, quite honestly, we didn't do a whole lot in sales." Today, the company attributes much of its business and its most rapid growth to its internet presence, but these sales are not as smoothly automated as most e-commerce models appear to be.

When it comes to selling large accounts, Pierce said, he sees his web site primarily as an advertising medium. "Someone buying for 100 restaurants or a military base isn't going to order over the internet," he asserted. "Smaller chains with up to maybe 10 stores or single units may use e-commerce as an ordering system. But for us, most of our transactions are performed the traditional way. If someone orders a range, we don't just ship them a range; we'll call them and confirm gas types and other variables and build a relationship. It is nice when someone clicks and orders $20,000 worth of merchandise but, more often, we end up working in a traditional dealer's role."

That's not to minimize the benefits of PRS' internet presence, how-ever. Pierce said that during the last 18 months, his company's business has enjoyed about a 65% sales increase. Most of that - about 85%, he estimated - has come from the internet. "It's still difficult to categorize internet-stimulated sales as e-commerce," he pointed out. "Some people who were building an air base in Guam called us. They found us online. They didn't buy online, but they did spend roughly a quarter of a million dollars with us. Our contract division handled that sale like a traditional sale, but the customer wouldn't have found us without our online presence. We're doing business with a chain of barbecue restaurants that found us the same way. So did a chain in Venezuela and other companies around the world. We could argue that e-commerce was how they found us, but they didn't use e-commerce to facilitate the transaction," he said.

Smaller dealers were able to compete with larger rivals even before the internet came along, Jerry Pierce, the company's president, emphasized. "Many of our customers like the personal attention and service that a smaller dealer can provide," Bradley added. But, in the past, "people from our company would be on airplanes flying all over the country to pursue leads. Now, the internet has put us right into the middle of the sales territories of larger dealers without having to spend a small fortune on airline tickets. It also allows us to hit the fringe and rural areas that are not very well served by larger dealers," he observed. On the internet, the web site builder continued, "the customers come to us, instead of our having to go to them. For instance, we are now working with a major resort in California, as well as a chain of restaurants in Puerto Rico. The internet allowed the initial contact, but then a real person must follow through with service and attention to make the sale," he explained.

Running an online catalog is a costly proposition. "It's cost about a million dollars for us to get where we are now," Bradley Pierce estimated. "We consider it an investment. The patent on our business method and our model is probably going to be a $30,000 or $40,000 expense. But once that's in place and complete, the cost will be behind us." Pierce employs five people "just doing site maintenance" - adding new catalog items and updating prices and information on the 10,000 SKUs pictured and described online. "It is long, boring, monotonous work keeping it all up to date," Bradley Pierce admitted.

"When we first started internet sales, we looked at companies that do telemarketing and catalog sales, and hired order takers," he recalled. PRS' executives quickly learned that, "in this particular industry, the people who answer the phones need to understand the equipment in order to build the sale and to provide customers with the products that are best for them. It isn't just a matter of taking down numbers. No matter how great our software or systems are, it all comes back to people and the traditional dealer functions of providing value and service. If we don't provide those, we may have a 'click and order' where somebody buys something from us once, but without those other elements, they may never come back again."

- Fe &s

PLEASE NOTE:  This article has been narrowed down to the portion showcasing our company.  It can however be viewed in its entirety by clicking here.

All logos and text are property of Foodservice Equipment and Supplies Magazine.  Please visit the entire Foodservice Equipment and Supplies magazine online at http://www.fesmag.com.