[00:00:05] Speaker A: Bob, welcome.
[00:00:06] Speaker B: Thanks.
[00:00:06] Speaker A: Adam, what’s new at Fellows?
[00:00:09] Speaker B: It’s been an interesting year.
[00:00:11] Speaker A: Yeah, tell me more.
[00:00:11] Speaker B: Been a lot of change. You know, for me personally I’ve taken on the SP Richards account so kind of came in in September when the ascendant peace was, was in full swing. So it’s been a great opportunity for me to expand my horizons within Fellows. I think Fellows is really looking at 26 as a nice way to get into consultive selling, creative selling, more aligned with our partners in the marketplace.
[00:00:36] Speaker A: That’s great.
So Air Care is a little bit of a shift for you guys right now.
Where’s 26 look like from a product perspective for you guys?
[00:00:45] Speaker B: So I think it’s a couple things. I think it’s leveraging the brand equity and heritage of Fellowes across the board. Right. I think we still are very strong in storage and org with the Bankers Box brand. I think there’s still opportunities there in recycle bins and some of the sustainability plays within the Fellows portfolio. We have the new Bretta offering which is receiving some rave reviews. We had it here in President, we have it in white now. So I think it’s just leveraging the portfolio of Fellows overall and becoming more solution based selling versus product specific selling and I think that’s a trend we’re seeing across the board. Simplify the selling process for, well simplification
[00:01:24] Speaker A: is huge for us and we’ll talk about that. What are some of the trends you guys are looking at into 26? Is it. You know, things are reshaping obviously. We all hear about people being back in the office, but they’re working differently and what does that look. But what are you guys seeing?
[00:01:35] Speaker B: Yeah, I think it’s recognizing the needs of the office space. Right. I think one of the things we learned is that people are concerned in areas where they share, where they share spaces for a long period of time. So hence air quality is big, I think ergonomics is big, I think sustainability is big. So building campaigns around those three categories and really identifying the pain points and the needs of the consumers we’re dealing with. And again have a prescriptive approach. Right. Be very specific and hone in on the ROI deliverance.
[00:02:06] Speaker A: That’s awesome. That’s super interesting. When we talk verticals, it’s a big focus for us in the new year and moving into 26 vertical markets. And for us we break it down into like to four majors, kind of the state and local government space along with education, so higher ed, K12, obviously healthcare, acute non Acute federal government makes its own kind of space, if you will, and then enterprise. So for enterprises for us it’s kind of your, maybe your class A facilities or stuff like that. Where if I’m a dealer or a distributor and I’m a customer of SP and I’m thinking about the Fellowes brand and your products. What, what, what vertical or how can I position you guys for different verticals and what are you guys seeing as your, your, your leaders in that space?
[00:02:49] Speaker B: I think you can leverage fellows across all those verticals. I think we have a product portfolio that touches all. I think what we’re finding is where are people looking for a healthy work life balance?
[00:03:00] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:03:01] Speaker B: You know those verticals and leveraging the fellows ergonomic play, sustainability play, air quality, pay and how that fits into those specific customers and verticals. I think as people get more back into office, education, government, I think we have the ability to sell the full Fellows portfolio and become more relevant in those channels.
[00:03:22] Speaker A: Okay.
And what tools are available? How can a customer be successful in that space?
[00:03:27] Speaker B: I think a customer can be successful in a couple different ways. One is to get the fellows team involved. I think leverage the, the heritage, the knowledge, the experience that the fellows team has in those verticals. We have a tremendous amount of collateral specific to the verticals. We have specific pieces with part numbers associated to it to simplify the selling process.
And as we leave the customer, you know, the leave behinds that are necessary to allow them to go out and access the product needed.
[00:03:56] Speaker A: That’s fair. That’s fair. Big thing for us here at SP as we move into 26 and we’re launching it is really our new mantra and it’s all around simplifying complexity. You’ll start to see that more and more in our branding and our stories. Spr, simplifying complexity.
What are some ways that we work together that will help our customers simplify that complexity? So when our customers are out talking to an end user and they’re trying to figure out how to position your product or your brand, what are some of those ways that we can just simplify complexity altogether?
[00:04:22] Speaker B: I think the biggest initiative would be understanding what the customer is looking for. Right. What’s the pain point? What are they looking for? Are they looking for sustainability gains? Are they looking for an air quality solution? Are they looking to enhance the ergonomic basis within that environment?
I think as we gain better perspective of the end user, I think we align our solution selling to that and give them the overall portfolio versus a specific product and need yeah.
[00:04:50] Speaker A: You mentioned a little bit earlier about consultative selling and how you guys are morphing into that. Will that start to influence how your marketing collaterals put out there to kind of give the dealer, the distributor, the distribution partner, our customers ways to have conversations that are different?
[00:05:07] Speaker B: I think there’s an evolution within our marketing. Right. I think we’re understanding in the consultive selling space it’s not really about product attributes, but it’s what’s important to the customer. What do they need? What’s the ROI from the fellows product?
[00:05:21] Speaker A: The need behind the need.
[00:05:22] Speaker B: The need behind the need. Exactly. And I think we’re evolving into that. I think we have great collateral, but in my opinion it’s been very product centric. Sure. So I think it’s really identifying the pain points, identifying the talk track and then giving that to the SP team to then bestow upon the, the, the, the dealers in the marketplace.
[00:05:42] Speaker A: That’s awesome. Bob, thank you so much for taking some time with us today. We’re thrilled to have you on our new podcast Distribution Unpack. And thanks again.
[00:05:52] Speaker B: Appreciate it and thanks for the invitation here.
[00:05:53] Speaker A: Anytime.
[00:05:54] Speaker B: Lovely day.
[00:05:55] Speaker A: Anytime.
[00:05:56] Speaker B: Good cat.
