“Reps, You Have a Chance to Help Wholesalers Get Better”

FORMAT: Speech

CLIENT: Rob Ferguson, president, Local Company Group, Winsupply

INDUSTRY: Wholesale distribution

OPPORTUNITY: To speak directly to important partners in the supply chain: independent manufacturers’ representatives

EVENT: The Association of Independent Manufacturers’/Representatives, Inc. 48th Annual Conference, Virtual Meeting, Oct. 23, 2020

CHALLENGE: To move independent reps off the sidelines and convince them to proactively mentor and “bet on the future” of emerging wholesalers so both sides can get better and stay relevant despite disruption and change.

SERVICES: Speech strategy/alignment to company strategy, planning, interviewing, research, message and framework development, speechwriting, line editing, executive speech coaching

APPROACH: Build this speech as a mentoring case for reps, using the speaker’s own “new owner in trouble” story and the pandemic story of Winsupply’s 600 local companies as the backbone so every point about mentoring feels real, not theoretical.

Lean hard on storytelling: Open with a personal inflection-point moment, then mirror it later with the story of the rep who “took the heat” and bet on the speaker himself; this shows what good reps actually do instead of just telling the audience to mentor someone else.

Techniques that stand out include:

• Direct questions to pull listeners into their own memories
• Repeated phrases like “make business happen” and “double down” to drive the theme
• Parallel lists that paint what great reps do
• A concrete call to action framed as “find one wholesaler and take a chance”

SAMPLE: Read the speech, which won the 2021 Cicero Speechwriting Award in the Commerce and Retail category

“I just watched your video (presentation), and you are so right on. It was well done, and I’m going to share it with our sales force.

“This spring we are going to have our national sales meeting, and I’d love to extend an invitation to you to come out and speak to our sales force.

“So congrats on putting that together. Call me. I’d love to talk to you about our opportunity.”

VICE PRESIDENT OF SALES
U.S.-based manufacturer with worldwide distribution