ambassador for your company"
You're an
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Jim Forde visits 130 addresses each month
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HEINEKEN INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE NR. 14
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PAGE 5
"As a representative you're an ambassador for your com
pany. Also in your free time. You always have to realise that.
Whatever you're doing, you have to remember that people
always see you as the man from Heineken and Murphy's. So
you have to bear that in mind. I like my job; I get lots of enjoy
ment from it. And so I don't see it as a problem to be an
ambassador for Heineken in my spare time as well."
'A' customer
Building up a relationship
Yacht clubs
Murphy's Stout
Advice
Planning
Jim with the computer printout within reachin conversation with Shaemus Sheeran,
owner of The Club.
Jim Forde at the entrance of the Royal St. George Yacht Club: "Show your customer
that you want to help him.
Jim Forde, aged 48, has been a repre
sentative at Murphy's Brewery in Ire
land for ten years. Since the brewery
was acquired by Heineken his district
has covered several areas to the south
and north of Dublin. One day early this
spring Heineken International Maga
zine accompanied him on a visit to six
pubs. At first there were seven addres
ses on his list, but pressure of time
forced Jim to put off the last visit until
the next day. "For that visit I'll certainly
need an hour. You can't talk matters
over properly with your customer in
only five minutes. I prefer to call back
later on. It's better than having to rush
your visit. That's not much use to either
the publican or to me."
The first pub we visit is Foley, classed
by the Dublin sales department in sales
category 'B', which means that Foley
achieves the highly respectable turn
over of some twenty-four kegs of Hei
neken lager each month. The 'A' cus
tomers can expect a visit from a Mur
phy's representative once a fortnight.
Sometimes it's just a brief call, to inspect
the dispensing units and the beer lines,
at other times specific aspects of the
running of the business will be discussed.
The visit to Foley is the first type of
visit. Delivering several rolls of beer
mats, taking a look in the 'cold room'
where the beer is cooled, and having a
chat with the publican to find out if
there are any problems.
After twenty minutes Jim Forde gets
back in his car and fills in a form, noting
down precisely which pub he's visited,
what sort of visit it was, whether the aim
of the visit was achieved, and how much
time he spent on the call.
On our way to the second port of call
we discuss the attitude of the represen
tative towards the customer. "You have
to build up a friendly relationship with
your customer. Which is why it's good
to have a fixed working area for several
years. It takes time to build up a rela
tionship. But being on a friendly footing
with the customer doesn't mean that
you should lose sight of the interests of
the business. The customer may be very
important, but he's certainly not right
all the timeIn my view the crucial char
acteristics of a representative are loyalty
and honesty. Loyalty to the publican
and to Murphy's. Honesty is essential.
If the publican asks you a question and
you don't know the answer, simply say
'I don't know, I'll find out for you'.
Don't tell him some tale that turns out
to be wrong."
That day's second pub is The Club - a
big, successful establishment with an at
tractive interior. The landlord Shaemus
Sheeran has just popped out for a while
and so Jim Forde decides to try again
later in the day. We set off for the Royal
George, one of the two yacht clubs in
Jim Forde's district. Just before we en
ter the Royal George, Jim pulls a big
computer printout from his case. "This
fist is a must for every representative. It
shows a statement of the payments posi
tion, how many Heineken taps each
pub has and how much its turnover has
been over the past eight weeks. I can
also see from it how much was sold dur
ing the same period last year. With all
those facts you're well prepared when
you enter the customer's premises."
We find ourselves in the midst of a
major renovation of the club interior.
But the stacked chairs and bare walls
cannot disguise the good taste of the
club's traditional interior. They're busy
installing a new bar in the club.
Naturally there's also a Heineken tap
on the bar. Jim Forde goes along to the
cold room to check the newly fitted pip
ing. It seems that a final check by a Mur
phy's technician is needed. The club
nanager is present as Jim immediately
phones up and arranges for a technical
employee to drop in that same after
noon. Back in the car Jim explains how
he works: "These things are important
to the manager/publican. As a repre
sentative you can't just say 'I'll get
someone to call round'If you get on the
phone straight away and arrange for
such a visit, you're building up goodwill
with your customer. He knows you're
there to help him sort out his prob
lems."
Five hundred yards further on we pull
up in front of the monumental building
of the Royal Irish, the second yacht
club. Just as stately and elegant as the
Royal George, equally rich in tradition.
There again Jim Forde takes a look
down the cellar, checking that the beer
pipes are clean. "That's extremely im
portant. We have a quality product and
so you've got to guarantee that quality.
Dirty beer lines make the beer taste off,
and obviously that's not what we want."
Every pub we visited sold Heineken
as its main brand of lager. Unfortunate
ly, we don't come across any Murphy's
Stout dispensers, except in the club at
Dalkey. "In Dublin we're not strongly
represented with Murphy's Stout. If the
publican wants Heineken lager, we
don't try to steamroller him into stock
ing Murphy's Stout as well. It simply
doesn't work. If I go along to a landlord
and suggest that he should start serving
Murphy's Stout I have to be sure be
forehand that he'll take at least one keg
a week. If I can't be sure of that, I don't
make the proposal, because less than
one keg a week means that I can't be
certain about the quality of the beer.
The keg would then be standing around
for too long and the beer would no long
er be in peak condition."
Our call at the Dalkey Island Hotel is
brief. The landlord is on holiday for a
week. We quickly drive back to The
Club so that we can have a chat with
Shaemus Sheeran about his slightly dis
appointing results over the first two
months of the year. But Sheeran in fact
sees a very rosy future for his pub. He
explains at great length what a success
ful month he had in March, but agrees
that January and February were poor.
His results do not seem to tally at all
with Jim's computer printouts. "The
first two months weren't so good, so the
figures are correct. February was partic
ularly bad. But, thanks to the good
weather over Easter, we had excellent
sales in March." Jim decides to wait for
the new figures to get a better idea of
how Heineken lager is selling at The
Club.
Our next address is called Queens, a
pub that was very popular not so long
ago but has recently not been attracting
enough of the kind of public that the
pub's manager would like to see. A
lengthy talk ensues between the manag
er and Jim Forde. This shows that Jim
certainly feels at home within the new
Murphy's marketing structure (see arti
cle elsewhere in this issue). At moments
like this the interests of Heineken take
second place to those of the manager.
Jim gives advice and is sometimes very
outspoken in his criticism of the existing
situation in the pub. Ultimately the de
cision is taken to draw up a plan for
Queens two weeks later.
The last address on our rounds that
day is located just around the corner
from Queens. It's called Sorrento and is
managed by Dan Finnegan, one of the
committee members of the local Licen
sed Vintners Association. This is the as
sociation that promotes the interests of
Dublin's publicans. Jim would like to
talk about the slight decline in Heine
ken lager sales in January and Febru
ary, but finds he will have to postpone
the subject until a forthcoming visit.
Mr. Finnegan cannot spare enough
time to talk about this in detail. "As a
representative you simply have to ac
cept that you often can't get to see the
landlord. It's part of your work, and at
times it is necessary to phone and make
an appointment."
Every Monday, Wednesday and Fri
day morning Jim's first call is at his of
fice. He hands in his visit reports and
has a talk with the head of the telephone
sales department about any new prob
lems with deliveries to his customers.
Each Friday he draws up his planning
for the following week. Jim specifies
which customers he intends to visit each
day. His list contains 130 addresses of
pubs. One hundred and thirty custom
ers every four weeks. "A" customers
are contacted twice during the month.
Jim drives about 1,500 miles a month to
visit them all throughout his district. "If
you do your best, working as a repre
sentative is tremendously satisfying.
Jim Forde notes down the results of his
meeting at Foley.
