Tom Johnson is the president and CEO of Johnson Commercial Agents, an independent (or, as they prefer to call it, interdependent) marketing agent for food service manufacturers.
He is also a member of the Manufacturers“ Agents for the Food Service Industry (MAFSI). Tom came to our attention through Suzanne Gregory, the Director of Public Relations for MAFSI.
Johnson Commercial Agents (and its sister company, Johnson Diversified Products) are second-generation family businesses.
Not only have they integrated Internet technology into their businesses, but Tom is MAFSI Technology Certified 401, meaning that he meets Expert Level technology standards. We will discuss the MAFSI Technology Certification later in this article.
Tom“s father, Warren E. Johnson, started the company in 1958 and it was incorporated in 1967.
Warren had begun in sales for Honeywell Controls and had regular dealings with food service equipment manufacturers. He was a successful salesman. So successful, in fact, that one of his clients hired him to be their Sales Manager. This trend repeated itself as he later went to work as a Sales Manager for another one of his clients, Hockenberg“s Food Service Equipment & Supply Company.
In the late 1950“s, Warren attended a National Restaurant Association trade show in Chicago.
By the time he left, he had secured contracts with seven different companies to serve as a manufacturer“s agent. He took on sales territory in Minnesota, and eventually the family relocated there.
Over 40 years later, the company he grew still has its roots firmly planted in Minnesota, and the second and third generations (which also include Tom“s brother Paul) are using the Internet to help reach clients across the country.
The use of Manufacturers“ agents is an old idea that has become new again. As more companies are outsourcing and reorganizing, using independent agents has become a cost effective way of managing field sales without investing a substantial sum in building, training or maintaining a sales force.
Tom, and the staff of Johnson Commercial Agents, are independent providers of field sales and marketing services to 21 manufacturers of food service-related supplies.
Their portfolio of product lines covers everything from ventilation and exhaust systems, to large-scale convection ovens to pest control services. Tom works under a contractual arrangement with his clients, and has a defined geographic territory.
Johnson Diversified Products (JPD), markets specialized products to it“s roster of food service clients. The two companies, although separate entities, have a symbiotic relationship.
Quizno's Subs, for example, is a customer of Johnson Diversified Products. Randell Systems- a principal of Johnson Commercial Agents-- allowed JDP to operate as a distributor, selling to Quiznos Kitchen Equipment contractor. JDP then purchases exhaust hoods from Randell on an OEM basis, but in addition, they may also buy other components from other
manufacturers. All of these components are bundled together and packaged under a new brand name, in this case, QVentT. This QVentT ventilation system
is customized for Quizno's franchises, and every new Quizno's outlet is fitted with the QVentT system.
An account the size of Quizno“s needs special attention. Part of that takes the shape of a separate website. Tom and his staff created www.qvent.com, which is dedicated specifically to satisfying Quizno“s need for information on the QVent system.
Other JDP customers, including Target and Dairy Queen, have their own sites created by JDP as well, and most are actually proprietary intranets.
The web sites have allowed them to automate and extend their business in ways other agents can“t, and they provide an instant avenue to customer service for their clients. The sites see heavy traffic, too: Quizno“s opens roughly 500 stores per year, and each store will the site at least once in order to download necessary forms.
"We get tremendous play of the web site just for this one account. [Quizno“s franchisees] need to download their engineering documents and their submittal documents, there“s a questionnaire they need to complete that helps us identify which products they will need for their store. It“s an account that has largely paid for one web site."
Without these web sites, Tom and his staff would have to have to handle each new store one at a time.
"We“d have FedEx, we“d need to make a million phone calls, we“d have to have additional staff in the office. We don“t have any administrative staff to speak ofwe“re very lean. There are 6 people between our two companies."
The driving force behind JDP's web presence is Tom's brother Paul, the company's Vice President and Director of Information Services.
Paul, who has an electrical engineering degree from Notre Dame, was orignially a software designer for Metrontics, but came back to the family buisness in 1994. Tom credits him with having all the necessary know-how to get JDP online.
"I could have the vision," says Tom, "But I needed someone to put the rubber on the road.
Tom“s 24 year old son works on developing web content and building the sites. The company“s home page, which has information on both Johnson Commercial Agents and Johnson Diversified Products is located at www.jdpinc.com.
Many other new sites are under development for the company; some will be client-related, such as qvent.com, and others will focus on the direct marketing of niche products nation-wide to end users such as restaurants, supermarkets, and public schools.
His son“s presence represents not only the 3rd generation to be involved in the business, but in a more symbolic fashion, it shows a changing of the guard. After Warren Johnson retired, he and Tom had a conversation that illuminated for Tom just how much business had evolved.
"We were sitting in the kitchen talking, and he said to me `The thing that pushed me into retirement was the realization that I no longer speak the language.“ I asked him what he meant and he said, `I no longer communicate the way the industry communicates.“ My father had a single-line telephone and always did business that way. He said `I“ll always have a single-line phone because I can only talk to one person at a time.“"
Just because advanced technology is available, however, doesn“t mean that everyone is on the same page when it comes to using it. This is where MAFSI and the Technology Certification Program enter the picture.
The Manufacturer“s Agents for the Food Service Industry is a trade organization with roughly 600 member companies.
While serving on the board of directors, Tom felt there was a need for the trade association to have some type of designation for members denoting their technical prowess in the field of market communication. The board agreed, and what ultimately developed was the concept of Technology Certification.
"The national trade association felt that it would be important that, if a manufacturer is looking for representatives in a certain area, and let“s say that the manufacturer has a particular expertise in computers, more likely than not they would want representation that could communicate with them on a similar platform or a similar capability."
"That“s when the trade association decided to put for the concept of technology certification, so when people are researching potential marketing agents in different areas, they have one more criterion with which to evaluate their choices."
Technology Certification provides standardized benchmarks against which MAFSI“s members can measure themselves.
The program describes 4 levels of proficiency from Beginner to Expert and provides a comprehensive list of hardware, software, and peripherals that businesses need to own or have access to in order to move to up through the levels. This is important, because it allows the membership to see not only where they stand now, but shows them what they will need to know to get to their desired level.
A full description of MAFSI“s Technology Certification program is available at www.mafsi.org/technology/index.shtml .
"Through the certification process, the `have-nots“, the people who knew the least amount about computers felt it was important to establish criteria for their rep agencies. To me, that was the real irony behind the development of this certification processthat it was not pushed by the agents or the groups that had all the technology or the systems, it was pushed by the guys who were lacking. And the justification for it was `give me a roadmap for success
tell me what the criteria is to get to the next level so that I have something to reach for.“"
"Not everyone needs to get to Expert level. Not every company, due to the nature of their product lines, needs to move in to some of the things that we“ve moved in to. If you“re primarily selling table tops or pots and pans or things like that, you don“t need all the engineering-based programs and capabilities that we [at JPD] have."
Although it may not be necessary to rank at the Expert level, many companies already have. Beyond JDP, companies like Paragon Marketing in Lenexa, Kansas (www.paragonmarketing.net) and Posternak Bauer Associates, Inc. of Eastchester, New York (www.pbarep.com) have made sure their offices are experienced with the latest engineering and design software and top-of-the-line hardware.
"It“s due to the diversification, when you look at the nature of the manufacturers that we represent, that we found that we could be more efficient in our operations by having some of these technologies."
Tom keeps the production of all of his sites in-house, and feels strongly that having a hands-on relationship with his Internet presence is crucial to the success of these sites.
"The trick to the Internet, as I see it, is that so many people rely on other people to develop their site and retain their content, that very quickly, almost the day their site opens, it becomes static and of marginal value."
"The reason the Internet is important to us is because we update our site daily. We“re constantly massaging our content because we know who it is that“s coming to the site and because we developed it ourselves."
"I refused to get a website going and have someone else develop it for us. We recognize that the greatest value of the Internet is the spontaneity, the real time communication of current content. There are a lot of web sites that are pretty dead, and their content hasn“t been updated."
But while Tom“s companies actively use the Internet to enhance their operational efficiency and organization, He has mixed feelings about whether or not the Internet will actually play a key role in growing his business in an industry that relies so heavily on direct contact and personal relationships between agents, manufacturers, and end use clients.
"All you get with computers, really, is transactional efficiency. I have a hard time believing that computers and technology will lead a company to major growth. It“s one thing if you“re Amazon.com, or if your business is in Information Technology. But that“s not what we dowe“re in the food services business, and we“re trying to provide solutions for food service providers."
"As long as that remains the case, a computer is nothing but a tool. And a tool produces junk if you don“t have a craftsman using it."
"Does the Internet build business for us? I don“t think so. I do think what the Internet has done for us is an awesome job supporting us. If I didn“t have our technology, I know I“d have to have additional people, and what that really means is that I wouldn“t be able to take as much money home."
Tom Johnson can be reached via http://www.jdpinc.com.
Profiles of business owners respected in their industry appear in our newsletter and are available on our web site. We encourage association executives to tell us about their members who are leveraging their inherent advantages (trusted brand, excellent service, etc.) by embracing a "doing it right" attitude into their strategy for growth.
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