Voting to choose the finalists to potentially win the prestigious aftermarket distributor of the year award will end tomorrow, July 2. The annual award is given to the top aftermarket warehouse distributor who serves RV dealerships, retail stores and repair shops.
Each year RVIA’s aftermarket suppliers in good standing vote to select the award finalists. Suppliers choose from a list of RVIA distributors and first narrow the list down to the top three aftermarket distribution partners in the industry.
The contest to pick the distributor finalists is extremely tight. Only a single vote or two separate several distributors in contention to move on to the next round of voting. On July 5, those finalists will proceed to round two of the voting process that identifies the ultimate winner, based on specific criteria. Voting has been ongoing for several weeks with only a single day left for suppliers to cast a ballot.
This week, several distributors on the RVIA aftermarket awards taskforce sent a letter to their supplier base in an effort to “get the vote out” and bring awareness to the award. The letter read:
.Dear RVIA Supplier Member,
We wanted to drop you a quick note regarding the annual Distributor of the Year award. Your vote is vitally important in choosing who wins this year. RVIA has sent out a couple of emails with a link to cast your vote. The process is simple, just pick your 3 top distributors from a dropdown menu. Voting should really take less than 5 minutes for the first round.
We’ve identified criteria for you to consider before making your choices.
Once we have all suppliers cast their votes, we will narrow the list down to the 3 distributors who received the most votes from the most suppliers. We will then send a second round of ballots out to determine the ultimate winner.
In that second round, we will ask you to give each of the top 3 distributors a score in each of the criteria categories. The distributor with the highest overall score in that second round will be the winner.
We are getting short on time and need to do the second round quickly, but we can’t do that unless we get full participation from all the suppliers.
See the attached voting link: https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/8ba7aaa7f5a94501a44a39c9afbe1ab0
Thank you for your participation.
Awards Committee Task Force
In round two of the voting, suppliers will be asked to give each of the finalists a “good, better or best” ranking in each of the following criteria:
- Transparency: Does the distributor share data if requested (which may be deemed as necessary for commissions, sales data, and potential product growth or development)?
- Relationships: Does the distributor display an effort in building and maintaining a long-term relationship?
- Communication: Does the distributor communicate in a timely fashion? Does information flow through to their organization?
- Marketing: How well does the distributor market your products? Do they accurately portray your products in their catalog, website, and sales efforts? Do they properly promote your products?
- MSP/MAPP: Does the distributor reinforce Minimum Selling Price and support suppliers who try to protect the marketplace with MAP pricing?
- Inventory: Does the distributor carry the recommended items and maintain adequate stock levels for your product line? Do they support with replacement parts?
- Loyalty: Does the distributor support your products? Do they make you consider them a true partner?
- Trade Show: How well does the distributor execute their trade show? Does their trade show offer a ROI that outweighs the expenses you incur?
- Training: Does the distributor demonstrate a willingness to offer training to their staff as well as their dealer network? Payment: Does the distributor adhere to your payment terms? Are they taking unearned discounts or other forced deductions?
A Six Sigma approach to scoring will then be applied to each of ballot. A “Best” vote in a category will award nine points. A “Better” vote in a category will award three points and a “Good” vote will garner one point to the distributor’s overall score.
Scores for all votes and categories will be tallied leading to a final winner that will be announced during a luncheon at the RVIA Aftermarket Conference in Atlanta on Tuesday, Aug. 10.
“We’ve really had some good participation for both the supplier and distributor of the year award program this year,” RVIA Aftermarket Awards Taskforce Chairman Dana Nelsen said. “I can’t say how round two of the voting will go, but in round one of the voting the results are really ‘neck-in-neck.’ It is really close, which just speaks to how many amazing distributors we have in our industry. It may be that a single supplier’s vote decides this. It’s that close of a contest. We may still see a rush of votes yet today that completely up-ends who the finalists are.”
RVIA suppliers can cast their vote at: https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/8ba7aaa7f5a94501a44a39c9afbe1ab0
