Vince is the Director of Truss Operations for American Prestige Builders Supply in Winter Haven, Florida. Vince began his career in the building component industry building trusses and wall panels in the shop. He has worked as a production manager, designer, sales rep, sales manager, general manager, and VP. I’ve known Vince for about 25 years, beginning when we worked side-by-side at the old Scotty’s truss plant in Winter Haven.
Reflections on Sales
GI: When you first made the transition from design to sales, what was your initial strategy for being successful in that role?
VG: Knowing that most sales reps in my market were lumber sales reps, I wanted to utilize and leverage my technical knowledge by providing an added value to the builder and framer. Offering to ‘value engineer’ the truss portion of the project before the prints were finalized was one way I was able to do that.
GI: Can you be more specific about what “value engineering” means in this context?
VG: For production builders, it means offering to work with them prior to the finalization of the plans in order to make the framing package as cost-effective as possible. This might include suggesting a post to reduce the plies of a girder. A solid beam that will present a challenge for A/C or electrical trades might be replaced by a flat girder. If the trusses can all be run in the same direction, girders can be eliminated. Simple things, like suggesting that a 26’ 2” span be made a 26’ span to save material, can help the builder save costs. Working with one builder, we realized that by lowering the pitch from 6/12 to 5.87 we would save 2’ of material on every top chord with no appreciable change in the overall look of the house.
GI: How does ‘product knowledge’ rate in terms of importance to the success of a sales rep in our industry?
VG: It can be a very effective weapon contributing to the success of a sales rep. On the other hand, it isn’t an absolute necessity to achieve sales success. Many very successful sales reps know next to nothing about trusses and prefer to keep it that way. The less they know, the less likely they will get tied up with a customer or a framer answering technical questions. For sales reps with little to no understanding of trusses, we compensate by providing them with technical support through either our design staff or a manager. As a manager, I actually prefer this arrangement. Building more relationships with the builder and framer strengthens the overall company relationship with a customer. This will be important should a sales rep leave to go to work for the competition. If he or she is the only relationship the company has with that customer, the likelihood of retaining that customer’s business is slim. With multiple relationships, the company is in a stronger position to retain customers should a sales rep leave.
GI: You were at one time a truss sales manager for a company that had several lumber yards. Were you successful in working with ‘full-line’ building supply sales reps and helping them sell trusses?
VG: The results were mixed. In most cases we were able to leverage the existing relationship into truss sales, but there were some sales reps that simply could not get past the fear of the technical nature of trusses. We sometimes found our customers were discovering for the first time that we even offered trusses; this was after we had been selling them lumber for years! Although the sales rep’s ‘relationship’ isn’t nearly as important today as it was during better market conditions, it can still play an important part in customer’s decision making process.
GI: Any conclusions based on those experiences?
VG: I believe it is most effective for the company to utilize full service sales reps rather than having multiple sales reps calling on the same customer. If technical assistance is needed, a technically savvy support person can help fill that void on an ‘as needed’ basis.
People
GI: You’ve run your own company, hired sales reps and designers. What qualities do you look for in each?
VG: As managers, we all want the ‘whole package’ if possible, but we rarely find people like that. A designer with people skills (in addition to his or her technical skills) can be of great value to the company. Customers can get just as attached to a quality designer with people skills as they can to their sales rep, and more importantly, they can be just as loyal. With respect to the qualities I look for in a sales rep, I have found that a highly competitive person with a need to excel is probably the most important trait. These past three years we have discovered which of our sales reps were great ‘maintainers’ and which sales reps had the ability to hunt and capture new business. There were fewer hunters than we thought.
Business Basics
GI: Beyond sales, what are the basics, the “blocking and tackling,” that a component manufacturer must do?
VG: Know your costs. I think it is imperative to have an accurate estimate of what your labor and overhead will be on each project that you bid. That’s not always the case with all suppliers and I think that’s why purchasing agents see such a large variation in prices from one supplier to another. It’s easy to get your material costs once you’ve run the job but I’m not sure if all suppliers have a handle on what their labor and overhead will be. Even if your monthly bottom line is acceptable, that doesn’t necessarily mean you did well on every order that month.
I am also a big proponent of a performance-based incentive program for the shop. It’s amazing how much more efficient people can be when they can easily calculate how it will benefit them.
An effective scheduling system is important because it helps to insure that all delivery requests are met or are at least addressed well in advance to prevent any unpleasant surprises for your customer. Miscommunication of the delivery can be a real reputation-damaging event.
Lastly, I would say responding to problems promptly can go a long way in making a positive impression.