Strategy January 10, 2018
Distributor Salesperson of the Year Finalist: Kevin Mullaney, Brandito
The Advantages Distributor Salesperson of the Year and award finalists were determined by a panel of ASI staff using the following criteria: annual sales, year-over-year increase in sales, colleague testimonials, prestige of clients and creativity in recent promotional campaigns.
Kevin Mullaney
Brandito (asi/325944)
As Shockoe Marketing Group’s first hire, Kevin Mullaney was tasked with rebranding the Richmond, VA-based company. The then-26-year-old racked his brain for creative names, but he came up empty. Then he grabbed a drink at a local watering hole, Bandito’s Burrito Lounge, where he and his friend go for karaoke night. Like a careless whisper, the Bandito name passed through Mullaney’s mind.
“It sounded like brand, which is what we work with, and bandana, a promotional product,” he says. “Everybody brushed it off, but they were thinking small. I knew people outside Richmond would like the name.”
Five years later, Mullaney is now vice president of Brandito, helping the company earn Counselor’s Fastest-Growing Distributor distinction in 2014 and a 50% growth rate last year. Serving the Mid-Atlantic region, he has reached nearly $2 million in sales this year, working closely with Fortune 100 companies as well as local businesses. “Our best clients are the ones that allow us to truly be consultative and trust our ideas,” Mullaney says. “We try to look at ourselves as a partner instead of a vendor.”
One creative example: When a major client gave out Bluetooth speakers to their employees, Mullaney’s team created a custom pre-recorded message that replaced the typical “power up” sound with the catch phrase of the company’s celebrity endorser. “People freaked out and we made our buyer look like a hero,” Mullaney says.
While more established distributors have deeper pockets and greater resources, Brandito prides itself on that outside-the-box mentality, fueled by Mullaney’s high energy and relentless work ethic. Consistently shouldering the largest sales numbers in the company, he values his leadership role and strives to inspire the rest of his team to do their best.
“Growing our team has been more challenging than growing our book of business,” he says. “We have a really unique culture of 13 individuals who are trying to disrupt this industry. We have no ambition for being average or good – we have a company mission to try and get better every single day.”