It’s a blockbuster-worthy storyline, which is perfect when you consider that one of Josh Ebrahemi’s biggest clients is Paramount Pictures: As a 22-year-old, he started at Jack Nadel Int’l (asi/279600) – the CA-based Top 40 distributor – right out of college as a ramen noodle-eating intern, living paycheck-to-paycheck. Cut to 16 years later, when this 38-year-old phenom has been JNI’s top-selling rep for 11 times garnering him the annual “Marty Nadel Award,” pulling in eight figures a year for the company and enjoying 5% sales growth YTD. How does he keep topping his own success? Spoiler alert: By giving his clients such wow-worthy service that they wouldn’t dream of buying from anyone else.

Podcast

Click here to listen to a podcast with JNI's Josh Ebrahemi -- the 2019 Advantages Distributor Sales Rep of the Year -- and ASI's Editorial Director Michele Bell in which they discuss Ebrahemi's strategy for finding and keeping his Fortune 500 clients and growing his eight-digit annual sales.

Whatever it Takes
Ebrahemi sells promo items into a multitude of markets that include, but aren’t limited to, insurance, movie studios, music, tech companies and fitness, with Farmers Insurance and Viacom being two of his top clients. Keeping clients like that happy and engaged isn’t an easy feat, but it’s one that Ebrahemi is uniquely positioned for, given his adherence to a Nordstrom’s-like service mantra.

“I sell service; everything about how I sell is easy, genuine and honest,” says Ebrahemi. “I’m not the cheapest, but I try to make gifting and promotional purchasing as easy as possible for my clients. I treat my vendors and clients the same and exactly how I would want to be treated if the roles were reversed.”

Ebrahemi is also known for his creativity, so far out of the box that the box has been smashed and composted. “There are two projects I thought were really creative that I completely invented: One was a custom jack-in-the-box for a movie,” he recounts. “This was my foot in the door to DreamWorks and my first project that landed me the account. Normally music boxes have a plush character pop out, but they wanted more detail so I had a plastic injected molded character made to pop out. He was housed in a metal tin because in the movie, the characters are on a freight carrier in a wooden box like that. When he pops out it plays 15 seconds of the song.”

The second campaign was a custom plastic injection molded, automatic-dispensing candy machine in which he worked countless hours figuring out how to do it and pitching ideas to a law firm. “This item never existed in retail at the time, but I thought it would be a great idea,” he says. “In order to manufacture it, I worked with a factory in China that did automatic soap dispensers and had them tool the piece for me so I knew it would work. Out of 9,000 pieces we made, only two were faulty and returned. It came in a custom creative box that I made, along with a fresh bag of Skittles inside. It was my favorite project of all time because it was something I basically invented from scratch.”

Ebrahemi is quick to point out that his success didn’t happen in a vacuum, and points to the leadership at JNI, specifically company president Craig Nadel and Debbie Abergel, the chief strategy officer, and Ebrahemi’s team of five who work with him on his orders, client follow-up and strategy. “We take care of each other like family, and they’re so important to me,” he says.

As a consistent team player and top producer, Craig Nadel made the decision a few years back to make Ebrahemi a vice president and partner at JNI with equity in the company. When asked what makes Ebrahemi such a stand-out, Nadel replies, “Really, everything. He gives great service, is incredibly creative and is a great teammate in the office, with everyone. He also participates in everything. When I was young, I was a Lakers fan – Kareem and Magic were the best players on the team who led by example, worked hard and passed the ball. This isn’t true with all stars, and having a top salesperson who compliments others, passes if you will, is wonderful. Josh is that.”

Bill Grassmyer, owner of NJ-based supplier MediaTree (asi/70303), couldn’t agree more. “Josh is the best distributor I’ve ever worked with, bar none,” he says definitively. “He’s highly creative and is equally as concerned for the success of his customer as he is for his supplier partners and internal staff. This holistic approach puts him in a class few ever achieve in this industry; he’s a great leader.”

“Josh is the best distributor I’ve ever worked with, bar none.”Bill Grassmyer, MediaTree

It’s All in the Details
And lest you wonder how someone who operates at such a high level – Ebrahemi opened four new company stores in 2018 alone and now oversees a total of nine stores – keeps that momentum, he’s the first to admit there have been some stumbling blocks and learning curves along the way.

“My greatest challenge were these polyresin custom guns I made for Warner Bros. Music, which was for a full gift set – 8,000 of them – for the band My Chemical Romance,” he says. “I flew to the factory in China to make sure everything was perfect, but once I got there, I found out it was a family factory that the importer sourced. I immediately pulled the order and found a new factory to make the order for me and produce the level of quality my client needed. It was a 48-hour trip to China where I traveled on two planes and six hours in a car driving back and forth with no translator.”

Debbie Abergel, who’s worked with and mentored Ebrahemi for years, can attest to the Herculean way he moves mountains for clients. “Josh stands out because he literally excels at everything,” she maintains. “JNI has one of the greatest salesforces in the industry, and for Josh to be the top salesperson here for more than 10 years straight is saying something. He just has great energy; people want to be around him and he delivers.”

Rob Spector, president of Montreal-based Spector & Co. (asi/88660), concurs. “Josh is all about service, dedication and total commitment to the client,” says Spector. “He has tremendous creativity that ensures his clients have the perfect branded product to match whatever campaign they’re executing.”

CJ Schmidt, president of Top 40 supplier Hit Promotional Products (asi/61125), says of Ebrahemi in his nomination for the sales rep of the year award: “The guy is as good as it gets and deserves this award. I work closely with him and his team and they are top notch.”

And for Ebrahemi himself, who has gotten so much out of his career at JNI – including meeting his wife, Mallory, a top sales rep herself – six years ago, he keeps his sales mantra relatively simple. “I really like to help out others and have always suggested to all the salespeople I know in this industry to always be themselves,” he says. “Always look at everything with a long-term approach, and be honest and genuine and put the client first. If you treat people really well and they trust you, you’ll have clients that stick with you forever. For me, retention business is the only business.”

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