Numbers How does your distributor’s buying group benefit you? By: Ginny Petru Strength In H Have you ever wondered how your supplier’s buy-ing group affiliation benefits you and your business? Do you even know if your local distributor is in a buying group? In order to fully understand the benefits, you need to know what to look for in your distributor’s buying group affiliation and how it supports your business. In our current JanSan climate, it would be dif-ficult to find a distributor who is able to meet the demands of today’s end user without being asso-ciated with a group purchasing organization (GPO) or buying group. In fact, the list of GPO’s distributor members is literally a “who’s who” of the most dynamic, innova-tive and supportive distributors in business today. Across all GPO structures, there are common denominators that benefit the distributor’s cus-tomers. All GPOs, no matter the structure of the group, have solid relationships with the manufacturers. Ginny Petru is the director of marketing for NISSCO LLC, a supplier plus dis-tributor GPO. She is also a partner in AXIS Group Marketing Organization, a provider of marketing communication services to the JanSan industry. Petru is president of Petru & Associates Ltd., a company that has provided market-ing services to the JanSan industry for 20 years. for more info Visit www.cmmonline.com and type in search keyword: Distributor . For more information on related products, visit www.cmmonline.com , select SUPPLIER SEARCH from the main navigation bar, and enter keyword: Buying Group . By leveraging the power of communal purchasing, distributors who are members of buying groups can usually offer lower prices than their independent competitors. 26 CM/Cleaning & Maintenance Management ® • May 2012
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