March is the perfect time to have all of our managers and sales staff attend our national sales conference in Rochester. The weather is cold, business doesn’t hit full stride until spring and it is good to participate in some higher education.
The conference started out with some excellent computer training. Brushing up on the latest technology to interact with our customer base pays dividends all year long. Following that was a very inspiring presentation by Keni Thomas. In 1993 Thomas was deployed to Mogadishu, Somalia with the 3rd Ranger Battalion as part of a special operations package Task Force Ranger. The battle that followed was recounted in the highly successful book and movie “Blackhawk Down”. His message of “Train as you Fight – Fight as you Train” epitomizes the Ranger motto, “Rangers Lead the Way”.
New this year, the vendor booth show portion of the event was moved to the spacious Dome Center ten miles south of Rochester. This facility offered the room needed for our vendors to spread out and interact with our employees.
On Saturday there was a very informative panel discussion with Eli Futerman, Danny Chessin, Arie Schochat and Josh Futerman. Questions were submitted from the audience and moderator, Clint Bentley served them up to the panel. It was insightful and informative at the same time.
the afternoon brought presentations from some of our key vendors. BBB, Deka, Bosch, Gates, WIX Filters, Tenneco, Dorman, Standard Motor Products and Federal Mogul all brought their best information and sales ideas to the crowd so they will all be ready for the spring selling season.
The event ends on a high note with the awards banquet. Top honors included Standard Motor Products receiving Vendor of the Year and Jeff Bonner receiving the Dave Dunn award for largest sales growth over the previous year – just to name a few. Congratulations to all of the award winners for their hard work and dedication.
Thank you.
