Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/177159
Next Generation continued beginning," she says. "Customers would ask me to find the most obscure or unique item on their bid. I even see this now with the new salespeople who start atTucker.They get so frustrated and want to know why customers don't ask for "normal" items, but in the beginning, people want to know if you can handle the hard stuff because the regular items are just icing on the cake. "I didn't know all the answers then, and I still don't, but I'm always hungry and I'm a sore loser." Case in point: The story behind Tucker's first close. "Everyone assumed that I was given my accounts when I first came to Tucker," she says, "but I started with nothing except a few leads. One day The Standard New York, a hot new hotel, happened to call into Tucker. They needed to see someone ASAP, and I was the only salesperson living in that area of Manhattan. I got the hot lead, walked in at 6 p.m. on a Friday, and it's still one of my largest customers." For the past five years, that's been the M.O.Work harder than the competition. You can't be a truly successful salesperson in this industry and work less than 50 hours a week, Tucker insists. She plays to obvious strengths—like using her Cornell network to connect and build, or catering to nightclubs and other customer segments in need of flexibility and her brand of social prowess. "Managers and owners loved that they could always reach me any time of the day or night," says Tucker, set on carving a niche in nightlife at the start of her career. "I had come from nightlife, so working long, odd hours was fine by me if it meant getting orders." Targeting young up-and-coming New York entrepreneurs also has been a big part of the strategy, something Tucker saw as an opening for herself and her company when she joined the team. "I knew this wasn't a niche we had tapped into," she says. "Our sales manager, Neil London, already had all of these wonderful established restaurant groups, businesses that were lucrative and respected in the market. But there were new groups in town—with one restau32 FEDA News & Views I think that by putting myself out there at events and receptions in NYC, and at all the major trade shows around the country, most of the business finds me. rant looking to grow to three or two expanding to four—that weren't being serviced by our company, and some of them I had relationships with through my network at Cornell or my social network.There was a big opportunity there to bring people like me over to our company and give them the service I knew they needed." A Social Salesperson Tucker is part of a new breed of sales professionals blogger and social sales expert Jim Kennan calls social salespeople—a group that strategically uses social media to help them make quota, and in many instances exceed it. For them, "a lead can be someone complaining on Twitter that their current vendor is driving them crazy. …or a question in a LinkedIn group," says Kennan in "The Rise of the Social Salespeople," an article he co-authored with Forbes contributor Mark Fidelman. In search of data to support the claim, his company, A Sales Guy Consulting, recently surveyed 511 salespeople and sales managers about their social media use. According to the stats,78.6 percent of survey participants who used social media for sales purposes in 2012 outperformed their counterparts. Other key findings—More than half of survey participants stated they closed at least one deal in the past year as a direct result of social media; 10 percent attributed it to five or more sales. In order of use, LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook were the sales vehicles of choice for survey participants. Tucker tweets a lot, and is a big fan of Instagram. Most of the activity falls under personal use but it's led to a busy social calendar,more networking opportunities and some strong sales leads. "Business has grown a lot that way," says Tucker, who also uses the tool as a means to build her personal brand. That's the thinking behind the "Purveyor of Parties" tagline that appears on Instagram and a few of her other social media pages. "Who doesn't want to throw a great party," she says. "Everyone wants their restaurant to be busy or their nightclub full. My job is to provide my customers with the vision, value and great design to make that happen." Her Competitive Advantage The nuts and bolts of selling is where she really excels,which is not surprising given her gritty New York exterior and geeky inner core. Both served her well at Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration, known for readying its ungrads for the real world of hospitality with an onslaught of coursework in everything from the culinary arts to supply chain management."I still have a lot of my Cornell notes on my bookshelf in my apartment," says Tucker. Forever the student, she still thumbs through them and takes plenty of notes out in the field."I've always enjoyed learning," she says,"and that's transferred over to E&S. I read every new catalog available, from any manufacturer I come across, and when there's a major trade show in Las Vegas or Chicago, I'm there. I think that by putting myself out there at events and receptions in NYC, and at all the major trade shows around the country, most of the business finds me." The International Pizza Expo, The Night Club and Bar Show—Tucker attends about a dozen shows a year and visits every booth, time permitting."The Night and Bar Show is an interesting one," she says. "There's lots of furniture there,which is something I think people in our industry should pay more attention to." And then she veers off into trends. There is a big growth in polycarbonate glassware. Steelite is at the top of its game in terms of its tabletop creations. On the technology front, Vollrath is doing some exciting things with cookers and warmers. Everything old is new, like the classic white embossed patterns her customers have been requesting as of late. Her competitive advantage is her natcontinued on page 37