Pallet sales is not rocket science, but it certainly isn’t easy either. It takes street smarts and hustle. Keith Reinstetle has been selling pallets for more than 40 years, and he helped build some of the largest national pallet sales programs in the country. He is set to retire this month as the vice president of national sales for PalletOne, Inc. He recently sat down with Pallet Enterprise to discuss the current sales environment and his lessons for the future. Reinstetle has mentored many pallet sales experts over the years at companies such as, Ongweoweh Corp. and PalletOne.
The Pallet Enterprise salutes Keith and his impact on the industry. longtime boss and friend, Howe Wallace, president of PalletOne, recalled, “Shortly after Keith joined our team at the end of 1997, an industry friend informed me-‘You just added the best pallet salesman in North America.’ It’s a claim that can be debated, but I can tell you he’s tireless. He’s committed. He’s loyal. He makes friends of colleagues, competitors and customers alike. He’s a warrior like no other.”
Explaining his approach to pallet sales, Keith Reinstetle recalled, “I always worked with a Pete Rose headfirst slide mentality. Pete Rose was my hero growing up and if you didn’t hustle on the ballfield and give it your all you were letting your teammates down. I’d like to think those that know me best agree this is how I went about my work in the pallet industry.”
Looking at changes in the industry since Reinstetle first got into the industry, he noted the fast pace of automation and equipment development over the past decade plus. Of course, the pandemic period created some unrealistic expectations for new pallet salespeople. Reinstetle admitted, “The Covid situation was fantasy land. A lot of the young people that I’m working with I’m trying to tell them that we have entered a more normal period for the industry. It’s very competitive and margins are tight.” This return to normal will produce winners and losers. The right sales approach may just make the difference. Keith Reinstetle identified some of the biggest tips or advice he has for anyone in pallet sales.
1.) Look at an RFQ as an opportunity to get to know a customer or potential customer better.
Some people dread getting a request for quote (RFQ) notice. But it’s a lot like the quote from the movie Forest Gump, “An RFQ is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get.” These requests are an opportunity to better dive into a customer’s true spec and needs. Frequently, RFQs are sent out when a new person enters a purchasing role, and he/she wants to make a name for himself/herself at the company, or there is some pressure to improve pricing internally from upper management.
PalletOne recently published a guide for verifying the pallet spec, which leads to a successful RFQ. You can download a copy from https://www.palletone.com/pallet-bid-part-1-verifying-the-pallet-specification/. This guide identifies that one of the best things you can do is actually go in and conduct a site audit because many times there has been pallet specification degradation over time. Sometimes the initial spec was too robust. That’s where going onsite to see how a customer uses a pallet, what the loads are like, what challenges they are facing, etc. This analysis can improve the pallet spec and potentially save money or at least reduce product damage.
2.) Pallet design is your friend.
Sometimes after a site visit, the salesperson discovers that the pallet design is all wrong. You can make changes to the deck boards, the lumber species used, the nails, etc. That’s where the research done by Virginia Tech and the Center for Packaging and Unit Load Design can be useful. Smart pallet salespeople must know the basics of pallet design and be able to use tools such as Best Pallet™ or the Pallet Design System™ These tools are invaluable to justify spec changes and improvements.
3.) Look to solve for more than just the pallet.
The reality is that many pallet users buy their industrial packaging materials, such as pallets, corrugated boxes, stretch film, pails/containers and more in silos. But all of these elements work together as interactive components. What you do in one area can impact another. Reinstetle acknowledged, “Work done by Dr. Mark White to design the entire unit load system has informed my approach. If you have the right kind of purchaser, they will listen and realize that you can help them with more than pallets. You can help them reduce the total packaging spend, reduce product damage and improve worker safety. But a systematic approach is the key.”
4.) Sustainability metrics are here to stay. More and more customers will be asking for them. Get ready.
Increasingly, pallet customers are coming with a litany of questions about sustainability and environmental impacts of products. While price is still king, many companies want basic sustainability data too. Smart salespeople come with data in hand and are having conversations to find out what information customers require. When customers are palletizing product, they’re thinking of it in number of pallet shipments out the door. Many pallet purchasers don’t really understand how changes in pallets affect the environmental footprint of pallets.
5.) If you are new to the industry, learn as much as you can about the wood resource, the sawmill and pallet production/repair process.
If you are new, you have to understand what you are doing and the product itself including the lumber species and how the production process works. The more you know about these aspects, the more informed you will be when customers ask questions and seek non-traditional solutions. Reinstetle suggested, “I recommend taking new salespeople on tours of the sawmills and pallet production facilities. Lumber is a regional thing, understanding basics of the raw material source is key too
Bonus Tip: Usually, it’s not just the pallet that loses you a customer.
You need to understand what it takes to really get a pallet out the door and make the customer happy. When you understand what happens at the plant level, you are better able to troubleshoot problems and identify them before they become an issue. This includes a lot more than just the pallet itself. This involves the delivery, the paperwork, the payment process, everything. Sometimes, it is the little details that can screw up the whole deal. So, the more you know about the process, the better equipped you can be to truly help a customer because you can identify problem points in your process and communicate those throughout the organization.
Editor’s Note: The staff of the Pallet Enterprise salutes Keith Reinstetle and his impact on the industry. He has been a tireless advocate for wood pallets and improving the pallet IQ of customers. We wish he and his wife Laura well on his pending retirement.
