Driven to Succeed

ASB is also finding success in its stock automotive program, where sales reps benefit from solid profit margins, frequent order repeats, quick order entry and a great way to penetrate accounts for additional opportunities. The company’s stock automotive program is a combination of forms and printed products used exclusively in day-to-day operations of new car dealerships. Some of the products can also be used by independent service garages and used-car dealers. Generally, the same people who buy these products for the dealership also buy office supplies, promotional products, direct mail and imprinted wearables.

ASB associate Butch Stone focuses much of his attention on the automotive industry, and was instrumental in developing an automotive catalog featuring approximately 100 items stored in ASB’s warehouse. “ASB has had, and will continue to have, success in this industry because of our dedication to providing the appropriate tools that allow a rep to compete and sell the stock program and then move further into dealerships’ needs by providing custom forms, toners, cartridges and other tech supplies,” he commented.

Anderson explained that it is difficult to be successful in this market without the package goods—stock items unique to the dealership—and many independent distributors are unable or unwilling to finance the inventory of such a program because it means having to buy from one or two available sources and sell items at a much lower profit rate. For many years, this market featured high-volume, multi-part custom forms which are now being replaced by single-sheet, preprinted forms or plain paper.

“We believe we can replace this lost volume by selling items ASB has been successfully selling for many years, including promotional items and wearables. Consequently, new car dealerships become large-volume accounts, purchasing many different products, as opposed to a forms-only account,” said Stone.

Large, nationwide businesses are discovering that they have a viable option to the traditional management programs offered by the majors. In addition to the wide variety of products and services ASB has to offer, customers see benefits resulting from ASB’s concept of employee ownership. Said Wayne Martin, director of strategic operations support, “Once customers realize that our company is employee-owned, they understand that every associate and corporate employee has a vested interest in the success of every account, large or small.”