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16 for team-building, it is not required. Reg- ular meetings to discuss new products or quarterly sales goals also can double as team-building experiences, so long as all employees are brought together and encouraged to interact and share knowledge, says Ian Coburn, president at GPA Training. Due to its large footprint across Can- ada, Fort Garry Industries uses regional rather than national sales meetings as its preferred method for communicat- ing company and product information, says Dave Cannon, senior manager of business development. Cannon says the "sharing of knowledge" at these regional meetings is one of the most overlooked benefi ts of each event. "It's something you really see around the tables at our meetings," he says. "Once everyone is together, you can get those conversations going where every- one starts sharing what they are doing that's working for them and enabling them to be more effective." But company meetings aren't only valuable because of their conducive- ness for revealing best practices. For large distributors like Fort Garry, on-site meetings also are sometimes the only opportunities employees get to meet and interact face-to-face. Relationships be- tween employees successfully developed over email or phone are wonderful, but it's no secret that bonds are formed faster through personal interaction. It's why Mike Cueto was such a fan of team-building exercises in his prior role at Velocity Vehicle Group (VVG). "I recommend to any distributor who can [alter] their sales meetings to make sure those meetings are not just product training events," says Cueto, who since retiring from VVG has founded Heavy Duty Training & Consulting, an after- market sales leadership and management fi rm. "Product training is important, but it shouldn't be everything. You need more than just product knowledge to be successful." When he scheduled regional and corporate sales meetings at VVG, Cueto says he would always include time within an event itinerary for networking and team-building activities. The benefi ts, he says, were obvious. By enabling employees from different departments and locations to spend time together in a non-business setting, they would inevitably form bonds that would remain in place once they returned to their respective duties. The result was a stronger, more engaged team more com- fortable communicating best practices and customer information across the entire VVG network. That additional benefi t also has ap- peared at the GenNext and Commercial Vehicle Solutions Network (CVSN) Distributor Training Expo (DTE), says event founder and Minimizer Director of Marketing Steve Hansen. Hansen says his initial desire in T R U C K P A R T S & S E R V I C E | J u l y 2 0 1 8 Velocity Vehicle Group uses a custom-built customer relationship management system to record and share customer data throughout its sales team. Cover Story

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