WORLD CLASS SALES ROUNDTABLE:

Spotlight on Boise Cascade Office Products

Intelligent Technology

By Gerhard Gschwandtner
Publisher, Selling Power

Boise Cascade Office Products (BCOP) has 51 distribution centers in the U.S. and Canada. It is the leading North American contract stationer to service business customers. While stationery products like envelopes, pens and staplers are still the biggest part of their business, BCOP also sells office furniture, panel systems, computer products and services, copier paper and promotional products. BCOP employs 9,000 people; 1,400 are in sales and report to 100 district sales managers. 1996 sales amounted to $1.98 billion.

Boise Cascade Office Products earned the World Class Sales Benchmark Award based on customer satisfaction surveys within the industry. H.R. Chally researchers found five success factors that explain the success of BCOP:

1. Customer advocacy. BCOP salespeople are trained to be customer advocates. Their chief goal is to deliver "lifetime customer satisfaction."

2. Strong product and application knowledge. Salespeople can identify client buying habits and help customers achieve substantial savings through improved purchasing strategies.

3. Regular, quality contacts with customers. Communication is facilitated with laptops, pagers and state-of-the-art information systems.

4. Unfailing support for customers. BCOP salespeople are expected to meet their customer’s special needs in unusual circumstances, i.e., after hours, weekends, during disasters, etc.

5. Information services for improved customer productivity. Salespeople help clients analyze expenditures, track usage by department and set goals for order processing, delivery and cost savings.

Excerpted from Selling Power magazine,
January 1998

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