Crain's Detroit Business - July 2009 Holiday Edition - (Page 13)

Holiday Edition CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS Page 13 A CONVERSATION WITH Tavi Fulkerson, The Fulkerson Group Power sellers Tavi Fulkerson is president of The Fulkerson Group of Bloomfield Hills and one of Crain’s Power Sellers of 2008. Her company sells sponsorships on behalf of event organizers, such as the recently completed River Days in downtown Detroit, the National Summit, last week’s Target fireworks and the Thanksgiving Day Parade. She talked to reporter Tom Henderson about the struggle to sell sponsorships in a down economy. In last year’s Power Sellers section, you projected 2008 sponsorship sales of $14 million to $17 million. Did you hit that target? We were right about in the middle of that last year, about $15 million. We’ll probably see a 2025 percent decrease this year. Hopefully, the worst is over. When the economy collapsed last fall, there was almost a state of shock. People found their budgets changing by the week. Then they began looking for tipping points. I think the Chrysler bankruptcy announcement and the GM announcement were tipping points. Since those, I’m seeing signs of things easing up. The Detroit 3 and tier-one suppliers have traditionally been a big part of the local sponsorship scene. Their troubles must have had a huge impact on how you do business. Auto sponsorship is almost gone, with a few exceptions. The Grand Prix is a client of ours, and we lost that this year. That’s $4 million to $5 million in sponsorships. With the TARP money came restrictions on spending on hospitality and marketing, and that has certainly had an impact with GM and Chrysler. The North American (International) Auto Show is our oldest and biggest client. About 10 of the show’s sponsors are tier-one suppliers, and a tsunami hit those suppliers. Yet, events go on, sponsors are still spending. People are much more careful where their sponsorship money is going. If they did six or seven events a year, they’re doing two or three now. It’s a buyers’ market. People are negotiating price. They don’t want to pay what they paid last year. They’re saying, “This is what I have to spend. Can I get a 5 percent or 10 percent discount?” Of course. No one wants to lose a partner. This is a partnership business. We’re in this together. Has this recession made you a better seller? Absolutely. You have to be smarter. You have to look at business sectors that are doing well, and there are some. Alternative energy, for example. We just signed on to sell sponsorship for the plugging-in conference that the Center for Automotive Research is putting on at the MotorCity Casino in October. I want to get familiar with that space. Alternative energy is going to be the next wave of suppliers. We’re looking at other players in that space but don’t have any signed agreements yet. If you know someone interesting in banking, finance, technology or biotechnology Tom Henderson should interview call (313) 446-0337 or write thenderson @crain.com. The worst of times, the best of sales Sealing the deal I t’s tough to be a salesperson in this economy. Companies are cutting staff and scrutinizing every dollar spent. Others are in a wait-and-see mode. The credit market is nearly frozen. But that didn’t stop Crain’s 2009 class of Power Sellers: Anthony Fracchia of Altruis Benefit Consulting, Christian Grothe of Max Broock Realtors, Bashar Hannosh of W3R Consulting and Joe Wichowski of Ebiz Technology L.L.C. Each of these four, from a variety of industries, found a way to increase sales in a challenging market. The common element: extraordinary customer service. Here are some of the attributes of and comments by and about these sellers: “He’s more of an advocate than an insurance agent.” “Do a great job for people, and that will pay off 10 times over.” He offers advice and information even when there’s no contract to be won. He’s more like a business partner. Read their profiles beginning on this page and watch video interviews with them at www.crainsdetroit.com/powersellers. been good, there are some bright spots, such as three monthly increases in the past four months for manufactured durable goods, acSales numbers across the country are as cording to government reports. That means scary as a horror movie, and metro Detroit companies are placing orders for things they more often than not is the star of the financial expect to sell. In May, orders increased $2.8 billion, or 1.8 slasher flick. But there are some heroes out there mak- percent, to $163.9 billion over April. Machining sales — lots of them. And they’re selling ery, up three of the past four months, had the largest monthly increase — myriad goods and services. $1.6 billion, or 7.7 percent — to For example, Anthony Frac$22.5 billion, the reports show. chia, partner at Bingham Also, Michigan retailers’ Farms-based Altruis Benefit Consales inched up in May, halting sulting and one of Crain’s 2009 a two-month decline, according Power Sellers, expects compato the Michigan Retail Index, a ny sales this year of $5 million, joint project of Michigan Retailquadruple the amount of five ers Association and the Federal years ago, when he joined his Peter Ahee, Reserve Bank of Chicago. father at the insurance conEdmund T. Ahee Jewelers The May index survey sulting business. His personal sales goal for this year is $1.5 million, up from showed that 31 percent of retailers increased sales over the same month in 2008, while 54 $1.3 million in 2008. That’s impressive when one considers the percent saw declines and 15 percent reported numbers: First-quarter sales for large U.S. re- no change. The results create a seasonally adjusted tailers are down $43.4 billion from the last quarter of 2008 and $20.8 billion from last performance index of 35.2, up from 32.8 in April. A year ago May, the index stood at 43.4. year’s first quarter. (Index values above 50 generally indicate an Ouch. One of the more frightening set of numbers increase in positive activity, while values beis home sales, which saw a nearly 33 percent low 50 indicate a decrease, the retail associadecline nationally last month compared with tion said.) While the future is beginning to look the year before, according to U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban brighter for sellers, it still will take hard work — and adhering to good advice — to rise Development measurements. Realtor Christian Grothe at Birmingham- to the top. “Do everything to please the customers, based Max Broock Realtors, another Power Seller, has been able to buck the ugly trend. even if the sale is somewhat smaller. They’ll He sold 73 homes of all types last year for remember that exceptional service, and when nearly $14 million, and he expects to hit $17 the economy improves, your loyal customers will buy more and bring you more business,” million this year. Grothe credits exceptional customer ser- Peter Ahee, co-owner of Grosse Pointe Woods-based Edmund T. Ahee Jewelers, told vice for his success. “You name it, I try to get it done for them,” Michigan Retailer for a story on sales during a distressed economy. Grothe said. Bill Shea: (313) 446-1626, bshea@crain.com While the trend overall for sales has not CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS BY BILL SHEA Do everything “ to please the customers. ” Anthony Fracchia Partner Altruis Benefit Consulting, Bingham Farms 2008 sales: $1.3 million 2009 sales goal: $1.5 million nthony Fracchia, 34, lived in Japan for a year and a half as a management consultant for Metasolv Software Inc. But in 2004, his father, Robert, beckoned him home to join his insurance consulting business, American Insurance Agency L.L.C. Fracchia obliged and returned with a new name for the company and a notion. Altruis Benefit Consulting was spawned from Fracchia’s belief that doing right by your customer is more important than making a sale — although the two are often entwined. Alwww.crains truis stems from the detroit.com Latin word altruism /fracchia — a founding principle of Buddhism, Fracchia said. “My goal is to bring honesty, integrity and professionalism to this business,” Fracchia said. “Altruism is at the core of everything we do.” But business is, too. Sales are expected to quadruple this year, See Fracchia, Page 15 “ My goal is to bring honesty, integrity and professionalism. ” Anthony Fracchia NATHAN SKID/CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS http://www.crainsdetroit.com/powersellers http://www.crainsdetroit.com/powersellers http://www.crainsdetroit.com/fracchia

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crain's Detroit Business - July 2009 Holiday Edition

Crain's Detroit Business - July 2009 Holiday Edition
Contents
Isotope in Short Supply
Biz Groups Petition Drive Fails
Tourism-Marketing Funding Plan Opposed
Historic Black-Owned Bank Holds Off Federal Takeover
New York Investor Builds Major Stake in Radio's Saga
Cell Phone Chain Gains Ground in Metro Detroit
Bill would Nix Occupancy as a Factor in Setting Building's Taxable Value
Federal Funds to Overhaul Unemployment Insurance Computers
IT Company Made Most of Dot-Com Bust
Focus: Power Sellers

Crain's Detroit Business - July 2009 Holiday Edition