Ralph was all business; Ted was getting all the business.
Ralph and Ted both came to work for me about the same time, and both were promising prospects. They knew construction well, had some outside sales experience, and were highly motivated.
But if I had to bet on which one would ultimately generate greater volume, I’d have put my money on Ralph. One of the intangible qualities every salesperson brings to the job is style, and Ralph reeked of the efficient, no-nonsense approach that appealed to so many builders.
By contrast, Ted seemed to have been born without an urgency gene. No matter what he was doing, he always seemed to have time to chat. I wondered if his easy-going style might make it tough for him to establish himself with those “if you’re not panicking, you don’t understand the situation” builders.
I was a little surprised when Ted’s sales began to skyrocket while Ralph stalled at the $3 million annualized pace. Ralph was only getting bits and pieces of his jobs, while Ted was getting the vast majority of the product categories from his customers. I decided to ride with both of them to try and figure out why.
As soon as Ted stopped onto a jobsite, he shifted into lower gear. He’d marvel at how the sider detailed the cornices, then listened to the guy’s story on how he became an artist with siding. He joked with the young man who was cleaning up and said it looked like you could eat off the floor. He also talked to one of the gypsum installers about his brand new truck. Whenever Ted ran into a certain carpenter—an Atlanta transplant—he’d holler, “Hey, Bubba, are you over the Falcons loss in Super Bowl XXX yet?!?”. Occasionally, the builder, seeing Ted’s truck on site, would have to hunt him down if he needed him for something.
Ralph, on the other hand, barely nodded to the subs as he made a beeline through the house in search of his target. “The builder’s the decision maker,” he’d tell me, “and I doubt that he’d appreciate me holding up his job just to chitchat with the help.”
Then one morning, Ted and I were at the local breakfast diner picking up a bag of goodies when Hank—otherwise known as “Bubba”—spotted us from his corner booth and called us over.
“Man, you’re going to owe me coffee and doughnuts into the next century,” he grinned as we sat down. It seems we had mistakenly left the baseboard off the interior package the day before. When the builder went ballistic, Hank told him he had forgotten to put it on the order and picked it up himself on the way home. Hank said, “You’ve covered for me many times, so I figured I’d do the same for you.”
“You’re a lifesaver,” said Ted as he grabbed Hank’s check.
We ordered coffee while Hank told Ted about a new contractor in town that had asked him to bid on an upcoming job. “He has been buying from XYZ Lumber, but don’t worry—I put in a very good word from you and so did the framers. He might not be willing to give you a shot yet, but we’ll stay on his case. Here’s his contact info.”
We chatted awhile longer; between work, football, and the miserable wet weather, we chewed up almost a half hour. Finally, we got up to leave. “I almost forget,” said Hank. “You didn’t hear this from me, but you know the house that John Doe is building over on Maple Street?
We did, as we were supplying it.
“Something’s up. John is way behind in paying the subs. You might want to keep an eye on him.” We thanked him. As we left, I seriously considered setting up Hank with an open tab at the diner.
At our next sales meeting, I got on a soapbox. I made some of our underperforming salespeople ride with Ted so they could see him in action. I also told them that building relationships with subcontractors was not only important … but expected.
Once they saw Ted’s results, they immediately bought into the idea. They regularly told me how hard they worked to meet our “sub”-standard performance criteria.
Mike McDole has 40+ years of actual LBM experience, including being SVP of a large regional pro-dealer, and is the principal of Firing Line LBM Advisors. He’s also partners with Greg Brooks of the Executive Council on Construction Supply and his LMS. Mike can be reached at 774.372.1367 or Mike@FiringLineLBM.com.
