The buzzwords in our industry for the last couple of years have been "Value Added." The real question here is, are you willing to save your customer money when it may be coming out of your pocket? Sure it's easy to sell Brand X over Brand Z if you don't represent Brand Z, but let's do a reality check.

You are selling an account thousands of Brand X tools and Brand Z has a better tool for the application. Tool usage would be dramatically reduced with the introduction of this tool — a savings to the end user, initially a loss in sales for you.

Will you discourage Brand Z and hope no one else introduces that tool? When someone does introduce the better tool, do you find yourself saying "I have that line and I'm sure I can get you a lower price"? This kind of "selling" is not beneficial to your customers and it is destroying profit margins for distributors nationwide.

Do you avoid improved technology because it will disrupt repeat business for you? Keep in mind, initially the best tool for the end user may not be the best tool for the distributor.

However, long term, reliable application advice will gain you and your company respect. "Salesmen" won't be around long term but recommendation experts will be because you need not know everything, but you do need to know who to call.

Your customers will be looking to you for cost savings and dependable recommendations. This translates into increased sales for your business!

I'm not bashing distribution here; sometimes manufacturers get involved in the same game. Are distributors, when working with factory support people in the field, making recommendations to service the end user or just trying to make a sale?

While working with technical support from the manufacturer, you run across an application that uses hundreds of tools. Will they try to make a sale even when they know they do not have the best tool for the application? Factory support people know where their tools perform the best.

Will your high-speed steel manufacturer tell you that for optimum performance in most high production applications you should look at carbide tooling and walk away from an application not suited for their tooling?

Will your carbide manufacturer tell you the set up is not rigid enough for carbide and you should stay with high-speed steel? Is your carbide manufacturer willing to say when an application is better suited for cobalt?

If you do not hear these comments from your factory support people, are they steering you to the best tool or to their tool? THERE IS A DIFFERENCE! Don't misinterpret the message here, you should certainly promote your products. However, promote your products in areas where they are best suited.

Yes, the market may be shrinking, but misleading end users just to get a sale is not beneficial to you in the long term.

Who is gaining the confidence of your end users by giving reliable recommendations for their applications? Is it you? Are you dying to service the needs of your end user or are you simply selling — selling to die?