This session will highlight a variety of strategies for achieving high impact in your dealership’s marketing using social media and low-cost or free local and industry media to tell the story of your business, its capabilities and areas of expertise, noteworthy successes and engagement with your local community.  Panelists will address the “how to” elements of launching and sustaining a business blog and connecting it to other social media platforms for maximum visibility and impact, and how to become a resource and develop strong interest and working relationships with local and trade media at little or no cost.

Dealers and manufacturers are finding it increasingly difficult to hire experienced contract furniture salespeople.  They are looking to ‘grow their own’ with sales talent from outside of the industry who have the right sales “DNA” and skill sets to find and secure new business opportunities.  With any new hire it takes an investment of human resources, time and energy to bring sellers up to speed on the nuances of the furniture industry. 

In this workshop, Debbie Junge an experienced industry consultant with dealership sales and operations management experience, will provide an overview of the key elements of finding, hiring and efficiently on-boarding the right sales talent for your dealership.  They will address topics such as: screening individuals for the DNA of top sales performers; creating job descriptions, expectations and performance measurements; developing a checklist of activities for new hires; establishing an effective training program; and rewarding results.

As our economy recovers, major corporate and federal government clients increasingly are focused on restructuring their workplace environments to attract and retain top talent, maximize the flexibility and efficiency of their office real estate footprint, and fully embrace new patterns of workforce mobility, collaboration, technology use and other emerging workplace behaviors.  This moderated panel session will bring together corporate and government thought-leaders in interior architecture and design from California, who are at the forefront of strategizing and managing implementation of these broad-based workplace changes, to share their recent experiences and views on emerging best practices.”

After a period of relative stability in industry products and business strategies, fundamental shifts are occurring in our economy, society and customers’ workplace needs.  These are impacting the roles dealers and manufacturers play in helping clients create more effective and efficient workplaces for the future.  This session will bring together three leading industry manufacturers’ presidents who will highlight their perspectives on these major trends and the implications for dealers’ future strategic choices in terms of profitable business models and service capabilities.

Commercial real estate brokers and project managers progressively have played a more central role in working with end customers as well as general contractors, A&D firms and dealers to manage the design, construction, furnishing and ongoing management of corporate, government and institutional facilities.  As strategic partners of such customers, they have become key influencers of the selection of GC’s, architects and interior designers, as well as the furniture specifying and buying processes in a growing number of markets.  To remain successful in today’s markets, office furniture dealers must have strong working relationships with commercial brokers and project managers and position themselves to be a valuable resource to these companies.

This moderated panel session brings together executives of leading commercial brokers and project management companies from Arizona and California who will share their experiences in working with dealers and outline their expectations and priorities for this important relationship.

This session is designed for those who are skeptical about the merits of social media, particularly LinkedIn, as well as novice users of LinkedIn who are interested in knowing how to more effectively use its broad-ranging capabilities to improve their branding and marketing efforts. Topics will include not only why business professionals should embrace LinkedIn but also how to navigate the world’s largest business networking site, create a powerful personal profile, and develop a strategy that will lead to more customers, business opportunities, or perhaps even a new job.

Dealers and their aligned manufacturers have a common stake and concern about the future of our industry’s distribution, particularly with respect to ensuring a smooth transition from one dealer principal to another when an ownership change occurs.  This is one of the most important and sensitive topics impacting the dealer-manufacturer relationship and one that is not always raised in a timely, effective way.  OFDA has assembled an experienced panel of manufacturer executives responsible for dealer development and distribution who will comment on recent trends in dealership management and ownership transitions, and share practical insights into the critical factors that have influenced the degree of success achieved.

LinkedIn, the world’s largest business networking site (over 100 million members), allows you to exponentially expand your network, build a unique personal brand, improve your ability to find and be found by others, and much more.  In this session you will learn how to use LinkedIn’s 100 million “resumes on steroids” to find customers, employees, suppliers, and referral sources.  The presenter will share tips on how to write a compelling profile, develop an effective LinkedIn strategy, and maximize the ROI of the time you spend on LinkedIn.

Jason Kirby returns to the 2011 OFDA Dealer Strategies Conference to educate dealers on the powerful role marketing can have in increasing revenues. Jason will be joined by two office furniture dealers that have first-hand experience reaping the benefits of their marketing endeavors. These dealers will answer questions dealers may have about different areas of marketing and potential return on their investments based on their experiences.

This session will outline the myriad marketing channels dealers can invest in and explain why certain channels are ideal for some dealers and wrong for others.  Jason will discuss the resources required by each marketing channel and how dealers can forecast ROI and measure the data for each campaign. Attendees can expect to complete this session with a strategic understanding of how best to maximize the ROI of future marketing campaigns.

Today’s business world increasingly demands that dealers are operationally “lean” as well as “agile” to win projects and execute them profitably.   To maintain a full-service capability without excessive overhead, dealers must look for creative ways to streamline operations while enhancing the breadth of services they offer and managing increased project complexity.  Defining what is “core” to a dealer’s business model and building strong, complementary relationships with best-in-class, independent partners for warehousing, delivery, installation and other operations-related services have become keys to many dealers’ success.   Learn how dealers in very distinct markets are addressing these challenges by working with highly capable operations services companies in their markets.

You’ve put together your financial plan, your business plan and probably a sales plan for the year…..What about the Strategic Workforce Plan?  When 70% of your dealership’s operating expenses are related to your people-related costs, it only makes sense to put together a plan that will help you more effectively manage the talent of your company. 

This breakout session will give you a framework for developing a Strategic Workforce Plan.  You will learn how to develop a simple yet effective plan utilizing some powerful diagnostic and development planning tools and how to put the plans into action in your dealership.

As demand increases for greater flexibility in facility layouts and lower building life-cycle costs, end-users and the GC, A&D and commercial real estate communities are turning increasing to demountable interior wall systems and away from traditional fixed-wall installations.  This presents a large new opportunity for office interior products dealers and their installation partners to get into major interior design/build projects earlier, if they commit to becoming experts in installing and managing these projects and to expanding relationships with the full range of ‘players’ who are involved.  Our expert panel will share their experiences in developing the capabilities to handle such projects profitably.

Will your business meet the test of sustainability? As the office furniture industry continues to evolve, dealership survival will depend even more on providing new and different solutions to customers beyond just the standard products. Every business owner would like to have the magic formula or right balance that guarantees future success…that will allow their company to endure.

 
Learn what panelists from three quite distinct dealerships from across the country have done to increase market share, differentiate their companies, and add to the company’s bottom line.  Find out how they increased or developed new revenue streams by offering new, improved, or alternative products and services.

Complementing our manufacturers’ panel discussion on macro trends and best practices in industry dealership successions, this session assembles a panel of new-generation dealers who will identify key issues that often arise when a family-owned dealership’s management and ownership are transitioned between generations.  They also will outline practical approaches toward addressing those issues based on their recent experiences.

More than 200 dealers participate each year in OFDA’s Dealer Financial Comparison (DFC) survey to benchmark their financial performance with other dealers of similar sales volume, market size, etc.  However, to capture the full value of the DFC participation, dealers also must carefully analyze and apply their benchmarking results to set priorities for specific business process improvements and other initiatives to improve efficiency, reduce expenses and boost revenues and operating margins.  Successful dealers using a variety of business models will join David Solomon, respected industry consultant, to highlight key findings of OFDA’s 2011 DFC survey and share practical examples of how they use this tool to help define and drive improvements in their businesses.

Join Paul Barr and Gil Cargill for a dynamic, interactive session in which they will discuss the unique strategies, tactics and tools that have been implemented within Paul’s organization. When we say “It’s Not Your People It’s Your Process” we are absolutely right. During the course of this presentation you’ll see why the process utilized by the vast majority of the OFDA members was outdated over 100 years ago! Moreover, by adhering to this outdated process many OFDA member companies are under performing against their profit and revenue potentials. During this session, you’ll learn: how Paul and Gil have built a business development center within Paul’s company; how that center has been staffed by a full-time professional Business Development Coordinator (AKA telephone prospector); and how Cargill’s approach has given Premier many novel approaches to the market which are not the old tired cold-calling strategies. Most importantly, you’ll learn how a unique tool has been implemented that helps Paul see the future. No it’s not magic; it’s just good old fashioned sales process management!

Join Gary Gang and Randy Kloostra as they share some of the newest developments with regard to recruiting, sourcing, screening, assessing and hiring applicants for a variety of dealer specific positions.  See how others are utilizing technology to create an engaging candidate experience.  Learn how dealers and others are leveraging new tools to streamline the HR function and drive time and costs out of the hiring process while ensuring qualified candidates and compliance to the various regulations required in today’s world.

Gary Gang is the Director of Sales and Marketing for HRMC and is an expert in the utilization of technology applications for Talent Acquisition and has worked with several dealers in the Commercial Office Furniture industry. Randy Kloostra is a 21 year industry HR and Talent Management veteran with Herman Miller and has his own consulting practice Kloostra Consulting Group.  Gary and Randy will facilitate a dynamic workshop where they will provide several best practices and engage the workshop participants in sharing of their own best practices.