With offices in Minnesota and Nebraska, Schu Marketing has professionally represented its manufacturers for the past 32 years. Company founder Steve Schumaker successfully transferred the agency to his daughter, Sarah Levens, and the executive leadership team of Rayna Mellgren, John Papera and John Howard. In 2020, the agency became employee-owned. 

Levens attributes a great deal of the agency’s recent growth to the vested interests of each employee. “Our team is motivated in every department at every level to provide superior service,” she says. Mellgren points out that the agency has added seven new staff members in the past three years. The attraction is, without question, the company culture that has been created. Proudly, the company has 37 total employees, and 35 percent are women. 

Industry veteran John Howard has watched the industry evolve; the industry acceptance of women has arrived and is long overdue. In fact, his daughter, Jacque Howard, is an employee-owner at the agency. 

In 2022, Schu Marketing joined AIM/R. We sat down to discover why AIM/R and what impact they expect from their AIM/R membership.

Brenda Cashdollar: What do you find most valuable about your membership with AIM/R?

Sarah Levins: We are pretty new to AIM/R. We joined in 2022, and the first AIM/R convention we attended was at Sandestin. I think learning how to work on our business as a rep agency and considering other people’s perspectives were beneficial. I think it’s eye-opening to see what other rep agencies are finding beneficial or what they’ve had successes with across the country. 

We’re a unique business, so it’s helpful to have a good network of people to talk to and go to when we come across things we don’t understand. That’s what I’m hoping for with our AIM/R membership. We can build our network and continue to learn from other businesses.

BC: Tell us one thing you believe your company could not succeed without.

SL: We couldn’t live without our innovative manufacturers. We partner with manufacturers that make high-quality, innovative products, and they keep coming out with new things. It excites us as an organization to continue going out there and selling and talking to people about these products. 

Finally, our customers are also amazing and we’ve got some excellent relationships with the people in this industry. I think it’s a three-legged stool: our employees, manufacturers and customers. And we manage all of them well. Without that combination, we wouldn’t be as successful as we are.

BC: What advice would you give someone entering the business today?

John Howard: You want to build relationships with everybody. In my 40 years of experience, when I first started, I would call on everybody: the counter guy, the truck driver, the showroom people, and not just the purchasing agent, not just the outside guy, because today’s counter guys are tomorrow’s presidents. You build relationships, but you must build them with everybody.

BC: When you are out there recruiting, what key factors do you look for in those candidates to fit within your culture?

Rayna Mellgren: Attitude and openness. Not many people come into this business with a history or a background in it. So, if you have a positive attitude, a willingness to learn and are open to trying new things, you will thrive. If we can build our culture around a positive attitude, good teamwork and the willingness to accept changes, learn new things and go with the flow, we will thrive. Our candidates are going to thrive. 

It’s how I found some of our best new employees. They don’t have any experience in the industry, but they’re rock stars because they can easily adapt to the different things that we ask them to.

Alan Cohen: Five or 10 years from now, what does the rep space look like?

SL: I think we’ll see a lot more artificial intelligence. I know that’s been a hot button for everybody, but I think we’ll see that creeping into our industry as well. There will be a lot more social media selling, a lot more virtual selling. 

Product-wise, I think we’re going to see more technology integration. Smart buildings and smart products are going to be more prevalent. We will be selling less mechanically operated things and more electronically operated things. Also, sustainability is going to be key. We work a lot with the architectural community and that’s a very important aspect for them when designing a building. 

AC: Will our customers and our manufacturers still need us?

RM: A big part of it is the relationships we build as a rep agency and our customers in our territories. They’re not only our customers but frequently can become our friends. Whereas the manufacturers, it would be a very different type of relationship if they didn’t have a rep for that go-between personal relationship. On the customer side, perhaps they won’t be as loyal without reps to promote their products, but also maintain that relationship with each customer on the level we strive to have. 

SL: It’s beneficial that our manufacturers are working with rep companies like us that are multiline reps. I think our line card is really valuable. We can use to get our foot in the door with some of these companies because I’m not coming in to talk only about one product. I’m talking about an array of products, and I am your resource for that array of products versus if a manufacturer came in there with its one thing.

JH: With all the new products coming out, they’re going to have to be informed of the new products. Often, it’s not only via email or to send a spec sheet. Pricing must be updated, and there are different pricing levels for different customers. We must be knowledgeable about who you’re sending what to. We do different things that would be hard to replace at the factory level.