CVSN Value Proposition
9 CVSN iNSiDER December 2009 iNDUSTRy ViEW total truck parts Marc Karon President CVSN VAlUE PROPOSiTiON Over the past few years I have had the privi-lege of serving as a Board member and now as an officer of our association. CVSN has been blessed with great leadership and a tireless group of dedicated people who have one com-mon goal; the growth of the association and the advancement of the independent distributor. We all know the accomplishments. In a very short period of time, we have success-fully merged two great associations, CFS and NWRA. We have grown membership in every year and we have joined HDDA and HDMA as owners of HDAW which has become the main industry event for suppliers and independent distributors. This past year, we held the first CVSN Summit with Truck Parts & Service and HDX. Finally, we have just announced an agreement between CVSN, HDDA and AAIA that will allow us to join forces in the area of government affairs helping to fight issues that negatively affect our businesses. Some might feel that this is enough and CVSN has fulfilled its obligation to its membership. However, your Board does not agree. Busi-ness is very difficult these days and business owners are being more careful to allocate critical resources to areas that have the great-est payback. That is why we are adding some important initiatives. CVSN believes that it must continue to improve its value proposition in order to be rewarded by membership from distributors and suppliers. Here are some of the key value-adds that you either already get or will be seeing in the near future. 1. CVSN provides a discount for members to attend HDAW. We also subsidize the cost of attendance. 2. CVSN holds an Aftermarket Distribu-tion Summit with participation from Truck Parts & Service and Datalliance. The ADS provides additional opportunities for Sup-pliers and Distributor peers to network, re-gardless of marketing group affiliation. In addition, there are education programs spe-cifically targeted to help independent dis-tributors achieve better performance from their businesses. This year, the CVSN Board voted to also subsidize the attendance fee for distributor members. Supplier members al-ready get one free attendee with their dues. 3. CVSN has established a working relation-ship with HDDA/AAIA to present a unified front on legislative issues confronting our members. This is only the beginning of an effort to work with other associations to find opportunities to use synergy to solve problems and create opportunities for our members. 4. CVSN will be implementing a certification program as part of an effort to enhance the education and training of inside and outside sales people on product related issues with a goal of recognizing CVSN certified people as the most knowledgeable in the industry. Our members will be able to differentiate their busi-nesses to customers because of this certification 5. CVSN will employ a task force to define the best requirements for supplier sales people. This will benefit both supplier and distributor members. CONTiNUE ARTiClE ON PAGE 14 ยป