AFDR's Meyne discusses '08 goals for DSR membership

Nation's Restaurant News,  Dec 17, 2007  by Caroline Perkins

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The Association for Foodservice Distributor Representatives, or AFDR, the first national association for distribution sales reps, has a new executive director. Rob Meyne took the reins in November. He has nearly 20 years of experience in foodservice, most recently as vice president, corporate communications, at U.S. Foodservice, the No. 2 U.S. broadline distributor.

Prior to working for USF, Meyne was executive director for Carlson Restaurants Worldwide/T.G.I. Friday's and senior director of public affairs for R JR Nabisco. Recently, he spoke with Nation's Restaurant News about his vision for the near future of AFDR. NRN is the founding media sponsor of the organization. The mission of AFDR is to raise the level of professionalism of distributor sales reps, or DSRs, across the industry.

How did you become interested in heading up the AFDR?

The whole area of supporting and helping DSRs do their jobs better is underserved. Sometimes manufacturers forget that that personal link between a DSR and an operator customer is the key to a sale. As a result, they leave the DSR out of sales planning. Some distributors, also, are not able to provide proper resources for training and development. I believe that the AFDR has a great opportunity to fill this need.

In other words, DSRs could do their jobs better with help coming from a supportive organization?

People forget that this is a personality-driven business. We get enamored with technology, but basically people want to speak with people. Greater professionalism among the DSR community will serve the whole industry.

What kinds of benefits are available now to members?

Right now we have a product put out by LifewareTech called DSR Radio. It's an hour-long CD filled with interviews with manufacturers, operators, DSRs and other key players. The interviews are focused on specific selling tips and tools. A new CD arrives by mail each month and the DSRs can listen in their car as they drive from customer to customer. The content is really lively--even to the point of being a little irreverent--and entertaining as well as a great tool to educate reps about sales techniques and product information.

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We also have a newsletter called The Professional. This is filled with sales and marketing tips, food and nonfood product knowledge, news and has an AFDR All-Star featured each issue. In addition, we are in the process of building what we call the Resource Center. It's a database of brand information that will have sales sheets, video and audio available. The goal is to have it be the most complete single-source resource for brand information in the industry.

We've just finished a revamp of the association website, which is www.afdr.org.

What are the top three things on your agenda for 2008?

First, I'll be concentrating on building the sponsor base. The AFDR is supported solely by sponsorship. I'll be looking for the right support and the right relationships to drive the organization forward.

Second will be a focus on building membership. Right now we have around 1,500 members. The goal is to reach 5,000 by the end of the year. And, finally, I'll be ensuring that we are offering the right array of services and communications vehicles. The strength of any association is how well it meets the needs of its members.

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