Strategy January 10, 2018
Distributor Salesperson of the Year Finalist: Tricia Murray, Staples Promotional Products
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.
Tricia Murray
Staples Promotional Products (asi/120601)
Tricia Murray calls herself “a firm believer in having a strategic plan.” And she certainly had one when it came to her career. But sometimes plans should be made in pencil.
Murray started out in marketing but was looking for a way into the events planning world. When an opportunity opened up at a distributor that was the merchandise division for a major travel and events firm at the time, she took it. “I hadn’t planned to stay in promo, because I really wanted to get into events,” she says. “It was only supposed to be temporary.”
Ten years later, she got a call from a recruiter who asked about her interest in a position at Corporate Express Promotional Marketing (which would soon be acquired by Staples Promotional Products). She accepted, realizing that she’d been bitten by the promo bug.
Since then, the strategic account manager for Staples has made a name for herself as a trusted advisor for clients. And it’s not just for promotional products; one global automotive company often comes to her first as they’re planning major marketing and loyalty campaigns, because of her knowledge of the brand and marketing strategy.
“I absolutely love it,” she says. “I love helping clients build their brand, and I love marketing and product launches. I’m lucky to have an internal team that helps me with these initiatives.”
So strong is the relationship with her support team that between 2009 and 2017, Murray brought one client from $1 million in business with Staples to $12 million; she credits much of that growth to her consultative approach.
“You have to understand your customers’ business,” she says, adding that 60% of hers comes from in-person networking. “Earning their trust gets you a seat at their table. I go to national training conferences, marketing meetings, consumer-facing meetings. It’s all about face time.”
This is especially important in an effort to compensate for clients’ tendency to want everything at the last minute. Murray makes it a point to find out what they’ll need in the near future, and start working on it for them.
“I can’t stress enough the importance of seeing clients and being involved with them,” she says. “I raise my hand at meetings and offer ideas. You have to get in front so you can start planning something for six months from now. And then it’s taken care of and they appreciate that.”