Two PrimeAd Suppliers Endorsed for Success

PTE contacted two Prime Advantage Endorsed Suppliers—Elk Grove, IL based-Bearing Headquarters (BHQ) and Main Line Supply in Charlotte, NC. Based on their responses, it seems Prime Advantage provides advantages not only to buyers in the consortium, but also to the sellers.

Jim Scardina, senior vice president of Bearing Headquarters, is certainly a believer. “Prime Advantage has helped our bottom line because of the relationships developed through the conferences held by Prime,” he says. “It is not often you can get to see 45-50 customers and potential customers over a two-day period. Prime makes it attractive for their members to stay with PrimeAd.”

Scardina also provides an even more tangible example of just how BHQ’s bottom line has improved with Prime since joining in 2001.

“As recently as two years ago, we were introduced to a new member via a Prime-sponsored ‘Lunch-and-Learn.’ It is Prime’s way of getting new members involved with the features and benefits of the Prime supplier group. This customer has the potential to do very high six figures, and HBQ was not a supplier. Two years later we are on the road to becoming one of their major suppliers and have grown our business to six figures (with them) from zero.”

Main Line Supply has been a Prime member since 1999, and since that time has also seen its profit margins improve, along with enhanced buying power, according to Linda Zierolf, a sales associate for Main Line.

“Being a part of Prime has helped our bottom line with new customers and with volume so that we can purchase better, too,” she says. “Being a member has also reduced our sales and marketing costs.”

Indeed, BHQ’s Scardina is most appreciative of PrimeAd’s marketing support. He’s especially satisfied with the group’s communication efforts.

“Our (Prime) representative is in touch with us not only at the conferences, but throughout the year as well,” he says. “When we have concerns regarding our ability to capture additional opportunities, they are only too happy to open some doors for us.”

But perhaps best of all, according to both Scardina and Zierolf, are the Prime conferences where need-specific contact with suppliers and buyers is the norm, and opportunities to grow their businesses plentiful.

“I find them to be very helpful in terms of what they accomplish over a two-day period,” Scardina says. “This is work unlike conventions where all kinds of activities occur. The Prime Advantage conferences put you one-on-one with the customer. Trade shows don’t come close, in my opinion.”

Main Line’s Zierolf is another big fan.

“With the conferences, we no longer have to make separate trips to customers,” she says. And as a result, “We have new customers that are now lasting customers due to the conferences.”

And what is the ultimate benefit of the conferences, according to Zierolf?

“Thirty-seven new customers we never knew existed.”