A Perfect Match
Chuck Connors and Bob Mitchell combine people skills with technological know-how to compete in the Northeast
By Victoria Fraza -- Industrial Distribution, 4/1/1998
When Joe Marotta goes on a sales call with Chuck Connors he says he often feels like an actor in a Broadway show. There's no stage, no lights and no curtain calls, but the choreography is there. Like a playwright, director and actor all in one, Connors choreographs the call, rehearses it and then presents the scene to the customer. It's called preparation, says Marotta, a Long Island-based regional sales manager for the Aeroquip Corp. And it's the main reason he has such confidence in Connors' company, Worcester, Mass.-based Omni Services.Connors, Omni's president and a 21-year company veteran, has made the psychology of selling his life's work. Within minutes of meeting you, he can target your personality type -- "amiable," "expressive," "driver," "analytic'' or any combination of the four. He sizes you up so that he can sell to you the way you want to be sold to. That's the "Platinum Rule," he says. And that's what he trains his sellers to do -- though long before those sellers are hired, they too are sized up and tested to find out if they have what it takes to sell for Omni. In a recent interview at Omni's headquarters, Connors explained his philosophy on selling as if he were making a presentation to a roomful of eager trainees.
"We are, without question, a sales company," he said, erasable green marker in his right hand, a diagram of the four personality types on the board in front of him. "And I happen to believe in people.
"You win with offense in distribution.''
Omni has, indeed, used an offensive attack in the distribution game being played out in the Northeast. The smokestacks on the mills in Worcester and other towns throughout New England had long been quiet by the time CEO Bob Mitchell founded the company in 1976. But there was a thriving industry in the area Mitchell believed he could capitalize on -- plastics, specifically injection molding which was (and still is for the most part) a New England stronghold. Mitchell envisioned a hose and accessories distributorship based on people and service -- and with Connors' help that vision has become a reality. Omni's 31 employees yielded sales of $10 million last year -- an impressive $322,580 per worker.
Together, Mitchell and Connors have carved a niche for Omni Services, first selling MRO products to the plastics industry and then gradually expanding their product line and customer base as more and more manufacturing plants left the area. Today, the injection molding business still makes up a significant portion of the company's MRO sales, which total 40 percent of overall revenues. But the need to find new markets has persisted. In the early 1980s, the company formalized a campaign to penetrate the OEM sector, which now accounts for the remainder of yearly sales.
While people are the driving force behind those sales, Connors points out that technology forms the base line. All of Omni's salespeople, for instance, are equipped with notebook computers and can log on to the company network from the road. Despite such advances, Connors stresses that it takes both technology and people to succeed in today's market. That's why Connors with his "people approach" is the perfect complement to Mitchell -- the company's technology guru. Indeed, it is the fusion of these two personalities that lies at the heart of this soon-to-blossom business.
Omni's technology works behind the scenes, while its people are out front, using product knowledge and relationship-selling to make a difference for the customer.
"[Omni] is a sales-driven company," says Adam Parker, a buyer for injection molder Nypro, in nearby Clinton, Mass. "My sales rep is tremendous. He follows up and follows up fast -- has answers in a matter of hours not days."
Despite the short distance between the Omni and Nyrpo headquarters (just 30 minutes), Mitchell and Connors opened a branch in Leominster, Mass. -- a mere 10 minutes from Parker's plant -- about a year ago so they could better serve the injection molding community there.
"One of the biggest things is their commitment to the customer," Parker continues. "They really cater to the molding industry, they know all the latest equipment, innovations and [financial] savings, and they introduce new concepts."
Providing that kind of service is not easy, though -- and it's not innate. That's why Omni Services spent $100,000 on employee training last year and expects to increase that by $25,000 this year. Though it's an expensive endeavor, Mitchell and Connors explain they can't afford not to continuously educate their people. Employees need to be especially sharp in the New England market, they explain, where industry is scarce and making the most of every sales call a necessity.
So, employees are subject to job-specific and company-specific education on an ongoing basis. Take sales, for example. All told, new salespeople go through a year of training -- about half of which is spent on the inside sales desk. They also get a crash course on Connors' philosophy of selling. Derived from the Brian Tracy method and taught in-house, the course teaches salespeople the principles of selling: mainly that only 15 percent of salespeople sell 85 percent of the goods; that fear of rejection is the major barrier to success; and that to succeed now and in the future, all employees must understand the global market. Brian Tracy is a nationally recognized sales trainer and consultant.
Connors' sales course has become so important, all employees go through it no matter what their job. (The success of the course has also allowed Connors to channel it into a side business. He has become a certified Brian Tracy speaker and takes his show on the road, giving talks and workshops all over the country.) Perhaps the most important element of the course is learning to understand the global market. Though Omni does business on a global basis indirectly -- through its OEM partners -- Connors explains that the global business concept is more a state of mind for the company; a state of selling, if you will. Companies need to think differently than they did in the "good 'ole days" when the United States dominated world markets, he explains. That means not placing blame on employees, but using positive reinforcement to encourage them. It means empowering people and instilling in them an entrepreneurial spirit.
"The thing that drives us is we understand the global market," Connors explains. "Companies have to think differently. Part of that means being persistent, understanding, adaptive."
And that's where personalities come in. Since only 15 percent of the people sell 85 percent of the goods, Omni wants all 15 percent-ers. The company begins by looking for optimistic, hard-working, personable types. Then under Connors' direction, those employees are carefully molded -- told what's expected of them and given clearly defined goals. If sellers somehow get off track, the objective is to get them back on with encouragement and coaching -- positive reinforcement. The entire process has so permeated the company outsiders understand it as the Omni Culture.
"Sometimes you wonder if they're being too picky," jokes Aeroquip's Marotta, adding that he is confident in even the newest Omni salespeople because he knows they have been carefully chosen and coached. "The culture that Chuck Connors breeds within his own organization is a culture for success.''
And it's a culture in which the words relationship and communication have become a permanent part of the vocabulary. Developing relationships with suppliers and customers is the ultimate goal, and the company gets there with successful communication. Tying the two terms together is technology. The intertwining of all three elements produces a value that can be seen in something as simple as the company's voicemail system.
The secret is in the application
Connors says he gets an average of 40 voicemail messages a day from his seven salespeople. During the same recent visit, he played some of those messages. The goal was to demonstrate the importance of the system -- from both a selling and coaching standpoint. The messages Connors receives are daily progress reports -- they refer to goals, the quality calls made, the groundwork laid for future sales. The sellers' voices are upbeat, excited, and above all determined. Connors, ever the coach, responds to them immediately simply by pushing a button. He reassures, answers questions, affirms their actions.
Most companies have voicemail and use it extensively. But what's interesting about Omni Services is that its key suppliers are on the internal voicemail system. So, salespeople can dial in to the Omni system, leave a message for Connors and then simply push a three-digit extension and leave a message for the Aeroquip representative. It's a way for suppliers to become part of Omni, Connors explains -- a way to heighten the relationship between the companies.
"It definitely helps improve communication,'' says Marotta, who is on the Omni system. "It does two things: it treats me as part of the Omni family and enables me to respond to them almost instantaneously.''
It may not sound like high technology, but Marotta and others would argue that it's technology that has been aptly applied. While there are many distributors who have advanced technological capabilities, the difference with Omni is that they know how to use it, Marotta says. A shining example, he adds, are the personalized, computer-generated proposals that cross the desks of potential customers. At once colorful and customized, the proposals project a professional image -- exactly the result Mitchell expects from his hefty investment.
Omni's investment in technology has a long tradition -- it began 20 years ago. By 1978, the company was using computers rather than reams of paper and scores of file cabinets to conduct business -- quite a feat in an industry slow to catch on to developments in computer technology. Today, employees at all six Omni locations are linked via computer network and Mitchell proudly boasts that the company has been paperless since the early 1990s. The matter-of-fact, bottom-line CEO has developed a reputation among employees for being perched on the cutting edge of electronic innovation.
"I'll tell you, anything to do with computers, to look into the 21st century, he's already there," says Jim Kymalinen, Omni's OEM coordinator. "[Bob Mitchell] has already been ahead of everybody else as far as technology goes. He jumps right into it.''
Jumping right into technology has allowed Omni Services to lay the groundwork for future expansion -- an expansion that can be achieved, Mitchell says, without the costly project of adding too many more bodies. Indeed, the company is now prepared to reap the rewards of 20 years' hard work. Geographical expansion is on the front burner, ventures into new markets are yielding promising results, and profitability has never been higher.
The challenge now is for Omni to stay ahead of the curve.
Omni Services
Headquarters: Worcester, Mass.
Founded: 1976
Locations: 6
1997 Sales: $10 million
Primary Products: Hose and accessories
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