It was January 1995, and my first venture into another part of the produce industry.
After 22 years in retail, I joined a Denver-based produce brokerage, Ringer & Son. I made the move for lots of reasons, though I wasn’t sure what to expect working in an area not at all like retail.
Beforehand, I recall getting some good advice from my old boss, Mike Aiton, a longtime produce director whom I’d known since I was a courtesy clerk in the mid-1970s. He told me, “Just do what you say you’re going to do, and you’ll do fine.”
Such a simple message — with a lot of emphasis placed on the do’s.
Of course, I planned to do whatever I’d say I do. I’d been doing that for some time — or at least I tried. When I got off the phone with Mike, I thought, doesn’t everyone in business do this?
Apparently not.
Think of all the unkept promises that people make every day, whether intentional or not:
- “I’ll get those price quotes over to you right away.”
- “Hey, I’m going to send you a sample of a new variety that I think you’re gonna love.
- “I’m in town next month, let’s get together for lunch.”
- “Thanks for the samples. We loved those pluots. Give me a week to get item numbers set up in our system.”
A week passes, then a month, with little or no follow up. Same thing with all the other assurances. It’s like what we used to murmur to one another at the Ringer sales desk: “Yeah, yeah, the check’s in the mail.”
I suppose it was naive thinking on my part. Cutting my teeth in retail, if a person said they intended to do something, they’d better do it or risk ruining what reputation a person had at that level.
It happens in all walks of life. At home, I can’t tell you how many times a tradesman on Craigslist is a no-show. When they do show up, it’s impressive. When they show up on time to do a job, with know-how and materials in hand, and do what they say they are going to do, it’s a reason to celebrate.
That’s something that we took for granted, not so long ago, in the golden years of mostly qualified tradesmen found in the good old Yellow Pages.
In produce retail, it’s simple. Come in as scheduled. Arrive early. Walk the department before you clock in, including the back room and cooler. Be at your work area on time, fully equipped, prepared and ready to stock. Provide great customer service. Work methodically at whatever you’ve committed to, and do it with a sense of urgency, but also correctly and carefully.
These are things that you said you’d do in your interview, right? So do your best to follow through.
As a fresh produce broker, this meant lining up trucks and having drivers at a starting point a few days out. It meant getting price quotes and product descriptions out to buyers before they even arrived for the day. It meant knowing what items were in demand and how quickly you could load and deliver to your customers.
All this so that when the calls were made on an early Monday morning, you knew what produce each customer might need and how much they might load; how many picks (pick-up points) and how many drops (customer drops on the receiving end) you anticipate.
It means being in lockstep with your trucks and dispatching drivers on a timely basis. It means knowing what to do when things go sideways. All so that when you say things will happen, they do happen, knowing when the customer could expect to see the produce arrive at their dock.
Does it always go as planned? Hardly. There’s too many moving parts to honestly say otherwise. But if you work at it long enough, you minimize the mistakes and eventually gain a reputation as the person who can perform well on a consistent basis.
By doing what you say you’re going to do, you build your business, you build a good reputation and you build trusting relationships. This works well with suppliers. It works with retailers, especially in the produce aisle.
“If you were really great and powerful, you’d keep your promises!” — Dorothy, firmly expressed to the Wizard in “The Wizard of Oz”
Armand Lobato works for the Idaho Potato Commission. His 40 years of experience in the produce business span a range of foodservice and retail positions. Read more of his insight here.
