Dealer Builds Pro Business On The Beach

Forget the fancy circulars and free pens. Forest Tek Lumber, Tavernier, Fl., spends all its ad dollars on rhe beach.

For the last seven years, the dealer has devoted its advertising budget to a contractor incentive program in which customers earn points toward exotic, all-expenses-paid vacations.

Late next month, Forest Tek will take 90 guests (45 couples that each accumulated I92,OOO points) on a trip to Cancun. The company pays for airfare, transporation to and from the hotel, a week at an all-inclusive resort, and all functions, such as a golf tournament.

Twelve guests enjoyed the first trip, a seven-day Caribbean cruise in 1996. Every year since, the excursions-to destinations such as Costa Rica, Puerto Rico and Margarita Island off the coast of Venezuela-have grown by about 10 people.

"The program works well for us," says co-owner Allen Wood. "It often gives us last shot at an order. (Our customers) obviously want the points. If we can be competitive, we'll get the order."

Like airlines' frequent flier pro- grams, contractors earn points for each dollar they spend. Different products earn different numbers of points, such as a single point for each dollars spent on a commodity item and multiple points for higher margin products. "We'll also offer more points for promotional items," Wood says. "We recently started a kitchen cabinet division that we're promoting, so customers earn six points per dollar spent on kitchen cabinets."

He says, "Our Triad computers track each customer's purchases, so we worked with Triad to create a custom program that keeps track of each customer's points. Every month it generates a points statement for each customer."

Forest Tek hasn't decided where they'll go next year, but the program is a keeper. There will just be one change. "We're raising the points next year," Wood reveals. "We haven't raised them in some time."

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