As a distributor, you pick your business partnerships carefully. From product selection and margin potential to shipping times and sales relationships, the vetting process for bringing on a new vendor can (and should) be meticulous and thorough.
As a US-based manufacturer, HY-C works with several distribution partners. In fact, we depend on them to get our products into stores of all sizes throughout the country.
We’ve been through the onboarding process several times with a number of distributors, and it’s taught us a thing or two about what they tend to look for in relationships with their vendors. So, in this guide, we want to take as much of the guesswork as we can out of the vetting process.
And we called in a few friends to help.
We recently spoke with several employees from some of our current distribution partners and asked them to provide some insight into what it’s like to work with HY-C as a distributor. Here’s who we talked to:
- Mark Perry, a Midwest distributor sales rep with CISCO Companies
- Mary Bowling, a customer service rep with CISCO Companies
- HB Long, a sales manager with Florida Hardware
- Marcus Evans, a regional manager at K+K Vet Supply
In this guide, we want to share some of Mark, Mary, HB, and Marcus’s insights about what it’s like to work with HY-C.
By the time you’re finished here, you should have a good sense as to whether a distribution partnership with HY-C is right for you.
Learn More about the HY-C Product Catalog
Distribution Partners' Thoughts on HY-C Displays
It’s no secret that distributors take an interest in product displays. After all, your retailers depend on those displays to help sell the products. We need to design them so they’ll appeal to your customers’ customers (and they also need to stand out on a crowded trade show floor).
We work with our partners all the time to create, tweak, and optimize retail displays to make them as effective as possible. And positive praise for them came up repeatedly in conversations with our distributor partners.
Mark Perry offered particular attention to the SpinAway product display, saying, “The SpinAway display is easy to refill. It’s bright. It’s orange. It catches peoples’ attention, and it’s easy to display.”
Florida hardware’s HB Long concurred, complimenting the “Convenient packages and displays that [HY-C does].” He mentioned that customers and end users appreciate them too, saying, “People like the displays. They’re easy. They’re simple. They stand out.”
Product displays are a vital tool in both a distributors and a retailer’s toolbox. Our goal as a manufacturer is to develop them to be as user-friendly and self-explanatory as possible to help our partners sell efficiently and effectively.
What USA-Made Products Mean to HY-C Distribution Partners
HY-C is located in St. Louis, Missouri. We’ve been in business for over 75 years, manufacturing products right here in America’s heartland. Around 85% of our SKUs are made in America, and we wanted to know what that means not only to our distributors, but to their customers (and their customers’ customers).
HB Long perhaps put it best: “Made in the USA still makes a statement — and it’s a pretty solid statement.” In our conversations, several partners acknowledged that products made in America tend to cost more, but the quality far exceeds anything made overseas. And that matters.
It especially matters in the territories that K+K Vet Supply’s Marcus Evans serves. He described his downstream customers as “salt-of-the-earth people,” and mentioned that, when it comes to purchasing American-made goods, “The farm industry is a supporter of that. There’s a sense of pride about it.”
From our chimney caps to our forced-air wood burning furnaces, many of the products we offer are made and packaged by employees who have been with us for decades. And we were thrilled to hear that that meant as much to our partners as it does to us.
The Logistics of Being a HY-C Sales Partner
Lead times, margins, seasonal promotions, new-product introductions — these are the nuts and bolts of a sales partnership. They’re the logistical functions that drive the vendor/distributor relationship. Naturally, we wanted to hear from our current partners just how HY-C stacks up.
One of the most important things to a manufacturer is helping our distributors serve their dealers, all the while ensuring that the small details don’t slow them down. Speaking to the process, Marcus Evans said, “If a dealer wants a sample, HY-C gets it into our hands to get it into theirs.”
He also mentioned that “HY-C continues to offer education to us about new products and ventures.”
HB Long weighed in as well, saying, “As far as ordering products and turnaround time goes, we’ve had no issues. We haven’t had any returns that I’m aware of. It’s been seamless.”
Of course, we understand that systems aren’t always perfect and that problems can (and do) arise. When that happens, we do whatever we can to resolve the issue for our distributors, their dealers, and their dealers’ customers alike.
HY-C’s Personal Touch
Two companies can have the best, most robust logistical pipeline possible and make millions of dollars together every year. But the business relationship loses a little something if it lacks a kind of special camaraderie that makes each side excited to work with the other.
As a Midwestern, fourth-generation family-owned company, HY-C prides itself on the rapport we develop with each of our sales partners. Some of these relationships span decades. They mean a lot to us. They’re what keep us going.
We wanted to hear from our distributors whether or not we were living up to the standards that we expect of ourselves. And on this topic, high commendations must be given to Gerald Patterson, the HY-C salesman who manages several of our distribution accounts.
When asked about his personal interactions with HY-C and Gerald, HB Long said, “Gerald — the guy’s full of energy. I wish every rep was like him.”
Mark Perry echoed the sentiment, saying, “Gerald is one of the best reps I’ve dealt with — ever.”
Marcus Evans had a lot to say on the topic: “[In Gerald], you have a rep who everyone should want to work with. He’s fun-loving. He comes off well to my dealers. And that’s a big deal, because if they want to buy a product and make it work, they want support. They don’t want to feel like he’s going to quit on them. They feel like he wants them to succeed.”
Finally, CISCO’s Mary Bowling offered similar praise, saying, “You are very lucky to have such an energetic, enthusiastic sales rep. His excitement has us excited.”
Gerald’s passion for HY-C products and the level of support he shows to our distribution partners is the embodiment of what we want and expect out of our customer relationships. From the factory floor to the retail floor, his infectious zeal permeates the entire sales pipeline.
Mary Bowling summed it up best: “With the support we’ve been getting from Gerald, I can see [HY-C and CISCO] doing some amazing things.”
Should You Become a HY-C Distribution Partner?
During our series of interviews, CISCO’s Mark Perry said something that caught our attention. He mentioned that CISCO is always asking itself, “How can we bring added value to our dealer? What can I put in my customers’ stores to make them grow?”
We found this quote striking because if you swap “dealer” for “distributor” and “stores” for “warehouses,” you end up precisely with HY-C’s mission for our distributor partners.
We’re a relatively small company, but we have a diverse business because we love the challenge of adapting to fit the needs of our distributors and their dealers. We believe in a personal touch, and we believe that our versatility can help you to succeed.
If that mission fits with yours or if you’ve found anything in this case study compelling, it’s a good bet that your company and HY-C could be a good fit. If that’s the case, click the banner below to start the process of becoming a HY-C sales partner.
After you complete the process, we’ll get back to you within one business day to see how we can work together to help grow your business.
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