With customers continuing to reduce their vendor base and asking distributors to do more, how does a specialist survive? Matis Inc. has found partnering with other distributors to be the best solution.

How does a specialized distributor compete in a shrinking market where customers are asking for more? Dan Matis, vice president of Matis Inc., is doing it by distinguishing his specialization and partnering with other distributors who can support his product and service offering. Matis’ niche - dies, molds and pressrooms.

"What we’ve had to do is find specific customers and then tailor our product line to fit those customers," he says. "In some cases we’ve had to broaden our offering to satisfy the needs of the customers we want to go after. So far, it seems to be working. We seem to keep pace with this rapidly changing industry." For Matis, that rapidly changing industry has seen its share of shrinkage. He has experienced the loss of long-standing customers as they move out of his market. Consequently, he has had to find ways to go deeper with the remaining customers who rely on his products and services. Matis put together a catalog that clearly defines the distributorship as a specialist, an expert in the area of dies, molds and pressroom operations, as a way to distinguish his capabilities from other general lime distributors.

"When you’re small like us you can’t be all things to all people. So you have to decide what you want to be, what you’re good at, and then focus on those areas," he says. "As a specialist, you also have to get involved with partnerships that will allow you to provide all the products and services customers who are reducing their vendor base are looking for in single-source relationships.

We’ve realized that we just don’t have the financial resources to expand our product offering or our expertise to satisfy those expectations," he adds. "So we've had to work hard at establishing relationships with other distributors who can help us meet htose expectations."

And if there is ever a situation hwere Matis cannot handle a customer's needs, he has no problem referring that customer to someone who can.

Formalizing Partnerships
Although partnering wiht other distributors is not a new concept for Matis, it's only been about two years that those types of relationships have taken on a more formalized nature.

We've always been able to work wiht other distirubtors to get what we need to serve our customers," Matis says. "But now when customers talk about vendor reductions, we've had to take a more formalized approach to ensure our preferred status with those customers. With a shrinking customer base, you just can't afford to jeopardize your relationships with any customer."

Matis is also determined to handle more requests, referring fewer to other distributors, simply because it’s much tougher to get a customer back. When customers align themselves with a few select distributors, they tend to limit access by other vendors. As Matis’ would put it, that’s just the reality of today’s market.

If a major customer expects Matis to source product outside of his normal inventory, as a preferred vendor he has no other choice but to supply that product. A couple of years ago, customers began demanding more in the way of service. They wanted Matis to reduce their paperwork. They wanted to consolidate their purchasing needs. They wanted to work with vendors who had Electronic Data Interchange capabilities. They wanted more help with application problems. They wanted someone who could qualify other suppliers.

"We essentially became the mobile purchasing arm of our customers," Matis says. "There are times we receive calls from the engineering department of our customers who are looking for help in solving a problem. Basically, some customers want to deal with vendors who can handle a complete turnkey project. Much of this is a result of customers downsizing their internal support departments. "We’re not only seeing customers trying to reduce their purchasing costs, but also that of their engineer-ing support," Matis says. "Customers are eliminating their engineering people and asking us to fill that void."

For Matis, that meant finding other distributors and suppliers who were willing and capable of working with him to meet those types of expectations.

Establishing Expertise
Even though the increasing customer demand has been challenging, Matis sees it as an opportunity to establish his distributorship as the expert in the market. At the present time the demands have been related to Matis’ expertise. If required by the customer, Matis will stock inventory to satisfy a customer’s needs, but only if the customer guarantees to purchase those proprietary items. "We’ve been successful in helping customers reduce their costs by doing a lot of their legwork," he says.

Matis is convinced the partnering arrangement is a profitable way to meet customer needs without a large financial exposure. With some customers, Matis has been able to increase his business by 50 to 100 percent.