Team Insight

B oth combine the best of their tech smarts with a team dealer's shoe leather. In the end, as one platform executive says, they are writing a new chapter on the Amazon effect, with team dealers the main character. ust as team dealers continue to evolve, so do the companies behind the tech- nology. OMG and TUO are upping their games to better serve dealers. OMG: Tech Smarts and Shoe Leather It all started when Kent McKeaigg wanted to support his father, Ronnie, in finding an easier way to sell to teams. He had watched his dad for more than 35 years collecting countless paper order forms and chasing payment from parents for certain orders. There had to be a better way. Kent opened an online store for his father and created a whole new way of selling for team dealers across the country. His idea back in 2008 spawned OrderMyGear, which provides an online platform for dealers to sell everything from spirit packs to fan wear. And the platform continues to evolve in its effort to boost efficiency and sales. Over the past couple years, OMG has focused on four key areas: product selection, store building by team dealers, marketing and report- ing, says VP–sales Ryan Wenkus. No stranger to the team business, Wenkus joined OMG two years ago after spending two decades as a roadman in Minnesota. He also was one of the first team dealers to use team stores to service his accounts. He now works to support the platform he found useful and constantly works to make OMG improve its performance for team dealers. Product selection means working with every conceivable supplier to upload photos and detailed product descriptions of their offerings. Rather than build it from scratch, dealers now pick the items they want to promote and it automatically populates as they build the site. "We've spent the past two years educating vendors and their sales reps on how important these stores have become to their business as team dealers work with schools, leagues, booster clubs and more," Wenkus explains. Building such stores has become much easier, Wenkus notes. The digital files even upload sizing. What manually used to take a few hours can now be accomplished in as little as 15 minutes, thanks to all the backend files available at the push of a few keystrokes. "We have to build up the way team dealers launch the store," Wenkus says. Team stores mean volume and the faster they can be built, the more efficient a roadman becomes. To make his point, he remembers when $1 million was the mark of a successful roadman; today, that number has doubled. If you build it, they will come, but only if you properly market it. To do so, Wenkus wants team dealers to work with the coach or key buying influence. "You have to make the coach a marketing manager," he says. Consequently, OMG makes it easy for the coach to simply provide or upload his or her file of emails and it pushes out a mes- sage and the store to players and parents. It even sends out reminders when someone has failed to place an order. The coach can then follow the order on a dashboard. "We've run data on this and the stores do 30 Team Insight / September 2018 WRITING THE FUTURE OrderMyGear and TeamUniformOrders are bringing the team business into the 21st Century. teaminsightmag.com IDEAS TECH Calling on schools, organizations, leagues and teams still remains a critical component of a team dealer's service and success. However, technology now provides a way to up both a dealer's service and success. Yes, e-commerce is big and getting bigger in the team business. And two major players – OrderMyGear (OMG) and TeamUniformOrders (TUO) – are driving this by offering platforms that allow team dealers to sell and service while automating the ordering and delivery process. Phoro: ordermygear.com/about OrderMyGear is changing the way dealers do business from its high-tech offices in Texas.

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