When looking around at what can be "innovative" in the distribution field, the word itself becomes a malleable concept.

Two companies examined here have made their lives easier (and more profitable) by changing the way they've done certain things. One, by reincarnating a technique from the past; the other, by applying the most modern of innovations.

One saw sales shoot up by emphasizing a technique that actually "takes you back to your roots," as one distributor put it. Maybe a variation on that "so old, it's new again" axiom? Whichever, the sales figures have everyone smiling.

The other company saw its salespeople becoming almost too busy. There's nothing wrong with that, obviously, except many of those salespeople were too busy with forms and paperwork—as opposed to meeting with customers. Specially designed CRM software now enables Bearing Belt Chain's salespeople to spend more time than ever selling.

Bearing Belt Chain Co. is a Las Vegas-based supplier of bearings and power transmission materials that has been in business for more than 40 years.

A little less than two years ago, it found itself becoming almost too busy—not a bad problem to have in a sales department. But too much of that busy time was taken up compiling records and follow-up materials—in short, too much time spent on paperwork.

Company president Steve Philpott contacted software company Intuit Eclipse. They designed the Customer Relation Management software that his salespeople now use on their Palm Pilots. It has provided Bearing Belt Chain's salespeople with the means to get more done with less paperwork.

Previously, a sales call would require the salesperson to fill out a paper form, which would then have to be entered into the company's system. This was proving efficient enough in terms of collecting information, but too cumbersome and time consuming overall.

"With this software, salespeople can input a few items following a sales call. These answers then are automatically coordinated with our business software," Philpott says. "So anyone in our organization can bring up that particular customer's account and see any sales call report, field comments, or whatever other information is pertinent."

Account manager Mike Ortolano also raves about the CRM software he and his colleagues are using, especially its timesaving characteristics.

"From the field, we can update the Palm Pilot at day's end. And for the next day's appointments we can upload that client's sales histories and their accounts-receivable base," he says. "I also can see what my other outside salespeople are doing because this gives me their schedules."

The arrangement actually lets Bearing Belt Chain's salespeople become more accountable by performing less accountability-related paperwork.

"We try to keep accountability to a minimum. We don't have all types of logs and paperwork to fill out now because we have this method of keeping track of things," Ortolano explains.

The Intuit Eclipse people "kept it small," says Philpott. "It's very easy for the information to be reported and understood."

If a customer calls, and their specific salesperson is unavailable for some reason, help can be provided by anyone at Bearing Belt Chain—even if the details are a little vague.

"If some customer calls in and says, 'Gee, so-and-so was out here six weeks ago and I think he showed me something about a bearing….' Well, anyone here can bring the account up and figure out what they are talking about and what it is they want," Philpott says.

Such a consistent information flow makes life easier for Philpott as well.

"I'm getting my sales call reports sooner and more easily without inflicting so much pain," laughs Philpott. "Plus, the information we get is highly usable. It's not just grunt work."

Ortolano emphasizes that less time spent on paperwork means more time spent interacting with customers—a characteristic that is vital to Bearing Belt Chain's success.

"We assume a tremendous amount of responsibility with our customers. That's part of our 'claim to fame' and gives us a huge advantage over chain stores," he says. "Instead of filling out reports, I'd rather have salespeople spend time doing something of value."

One customer who appreciates that personal attention is Good Humor/Breyers ice cream manufacturers, based near Las Vegas. They are responsible for the West Coast market for Good Humor/Breyers and therefore can't afford to shut down a machine while someone figures out which bearing or belt to replace.

"We're in the middle of the desert making ice cream!" as Carey Duran, Good Humor's director of purchasing, puts it.

"No one has been able to match them for service," says Duran. "And that's what we look for here. Pricing is important, of course, but the service they give us is one of the reasons we do business with them." He says that Bearing Belt Chain and Good Humor have been working together for about 15 years.

When Ortolano visits, Duran sees the CRM-Palm Pilot in action.

"He showed me how it works one day, and I thought 'Gee, it would be nice if I had one of those here.'"

In fact, both Philpott and Ortolano say that other suppliers need to give serious consideration to using their own version of CRM to keep up with challenges in the marketplace.

Philpott realizes that some companies will ponder whether this technology "will be here to stay or go away" as another fad comes along. He believes that, technologically, this can be a "fork-in-the-road" type of decision for some companies, much like the idea of whether or not to build a Web site.

"We've come to that fork in the road with CRM," he says. "I see a lot of companies grappling with how to do more with less. And you must have the right technology or software in order to let that happen."

The company now is planning on getting CRM to all its salespeople at their Kingman, Ariz., and St. George, Utah, branches. The decision made by Bearing, Ortolano maintains, has been a win-win for the company and its customers.

"We have to be conscious of the fact that companies need to keep their costs down," he says. "At one time, we'd have one person handling 20 accounts, say. We now have one guy handling 50 accounts. He has to have as much information at his fingertips as possible. This software can provide that."

The metal-cutting blade. The in-person demonstration. This is the story of how two "not new" ideas can be combined into something innovative.

A blade that can cut metal is not a new concept. The traditional hacksaw worked perfectly well, albeit slowly, for many years. Then the power saw became fairly adept at the task, although one had to be alert for flying sparks and dust caused by the abrasive disk. And there was that time spent waiting for the sawed metal to cool.

The M.K. Morse Co., headquartered in Canton, Ohio, has performed extensive research and development in metal cutting. Paul Schoellman, vice-president of sales at Morse, estimates that Morse worked internally for about a year and a half on what eventually became the Metal Devil blades, which were launched in Feb. 2003. What they had for their efforts was a series of metal-cutting blades that could cut metal and piping, accurately and rapidly, in a virtually "sparks-free" manner.

The powers that be at Morse felt strongly they had a hit on their hands with this product. Hovering over this was the slow economy. People were buying fewer parts and accessories and holding on longer to what they had purchased. This required industry representatives to develop a certain resiliency. That is a characteristic that helped Morse in its new product's early launch days, because it seemed that even this new blade was not immune to the economic slump hurting the overall tool market.

But one thing remained constant: people who saw the blades in action came away impressed. Clearly, it was essential to give as many potential distributors and end-users as possible a look at this blade.

One of those who has benefited from working with Morse and selling these blades is John Szlenkier, president of Fasteners, Inc. in Madison Heights, Mich. He knows first hand the impact of demos.

Over the years, Szlenkier explains, "Our company has been spearheaded on the salesperson who takes a van to a job site or offices and sells solutions to our customers. But sometimes you get so busy when times are good, you forget about the roots of any business. What this thing [Metal Devil] does is—because it's so much of a showstopper—it takes you back to your roots."

Word of mouth has helped, but it's the demo that wins people over to the product, Szlenkier insists.

"The only way you're going to sell this blade is by demonstrating it," he says. "You won't sell it by putting it up on the shelf or just talking about it. This is a type of demonstration that, once you see it, your jaw drops. They say 'Wow!'"

As Morse's Schoellman says, "We did some things on our Web site, word of mouth, trade shows…that kind of thing. But until the end users saw it work first hand in their applications, they didn't buy into the concept."

It soon became apparent—as more and more in-person demonstrations were done—that the most innovative way to spread the word about the blade was actually the most retro of ways: person-to-person contact.

"We brought it right to customers," says Pete Heenan, Morse's director of marketing. "We showed the end users, through demonstrations, how to use it."

The idea of demonstrations is not unique. But it's an approach that may sound to some like a bit of the "so old that it's new." Can the personal touch be called innovative? It can if it works as well as Morse's approach has.

Shelly Friedrichsen is one of the members of Morse's demo team. The "must be seen" characteristic of the blades is represented by one of several stories Friedrichsen has collected in her travels to more than 20 states.

"I was in Texas giving a demonstration outside a distributor's building," she says. "A pickup truck was passing by and screeched to a halt. The driver put the truck in reverse, got out and came running over to us. He said, 'I don't know what you have that you're cutting that metal with, but whatever it is I want one!'" she laughs.

The local distributor being given the demonstration did not yet carry the blade but immediately joined the program and ordered the saw and blades from Morse. (That fellow with the truck would eventually bring his new purchase with him to Guam for a job he had.)

The tool market in general is still going through good days and bad days in terms of sales. But the success that Morse and its distributors have had shows that doing something other than bemoaning the market or crying about the economy will pay off.

"It's the niche guy who comes in there and becomes a problem solver, who gets the orders these days," Szlenkier says. "It's been a great success story for M.K. Morse, as well as for us, as we've partnered together to be a problem solver for our customer base."

As Morse's Schoellman says, "One thing we learned with this program is that there's still a big market out there and you have go out and sell them something."