Re-energizing the Staff
The metro yards suffered from a host of problems, chief among them plummeting sales driven by the recession. That led to negative attitudes, defeatism, sloppiness in fulfilling orders that did come in, and a general lack of professionalism in the yards as well as a lack of respect for other co-workers.
Shortly after taking over, Jane interviewed all the employees at each yard. “The first thing I did was get rid of all the people with a negative attitude,” she says. “It just poisons the well.” Jane ended up firing 16 people from those facilities, including the managers in Rockford and Apple Valley.
“I saw a business that was paralyzed. People would come in, do their jobs and go home,” says Jane.
Admits former Apple Valley sales assistant Jocelyn Clemens: “Every day I came in and got online and looked for a job. Now it’s a great place to work.” She just applied for, and was promoted to, the assistant manager job at North Branch.
To run Apple Valley, Jane hired Bill Jensen, a former worker at nearby Scherer Brothers. (He’s the person quoted at the start of this story who hadn’t thought much of Lamperts.) “The attitude has changed in the yard,” Jensen says. “People now have regained some dignity and are taking pride in their work. We are no longer schlepping 2x4s. Now we go to our customers and say, ‘How can we help you?'”
North Branch manager Charlie Hult, who has worked 34 years at that location, says he trusts Jane’s vision.”It was a fresh pair of eyes on the business” that Jane brought, he says. “She sees the big picture and she is very good to work with. She is really open to communication. She put her management style of operations in and made it work.”
Along with changes in infrastructure, Jane also ushered in a new sales culture.
“When the market hit bottom here, it gave us an opportunity to create a new mode of business,” she says. “My first thought was to increase sales. I went out with the salespeople. I personally promised people that they would not be disappointed. …We didn’t always get a customer, but we got enough to change our business.”
That change wasn’t restricted to existing sales reps and existing customers. Jane has pushed to get the company to sell to a wider range of customers, particularly larger builders. “Before I came, our guys were nervous that Lamperts couldn’t service the bigger customers,” she says. “Now there is better teamwork between operations and sales. I was the only shot they had, and I was willing to do the work.
And there’s been one other big change: Everybody sells.
“If a truck driver goes by and everyone is busy, he will service that customer,” she adds. “Our whole business now is geared to sales and customer service. We changed our attitude of, ‘We can’t service this customer’ to ‘Yes we can.’ Whether the plan was right or wrong, we had a plan.”
There is a competitor’s yard whose salespeople guarantee they will meet with their customers once a year, Jane says scornfully. Her tone leaves no doubt that this is the height of absurdity, especially in a market as hard hit as the Twin Cities, where Hanley Wood Market Intelligence finds building permit issuances have dropped by 64% since 2005. Jane says more than 50% of the area’s builders have left the market.
“We understand that we earn our vendors’ business every day,” she says. “We have to find out what our potential customers aren’t getting and give it to them. It’s not always price. Sometimes, it’s something small, like just listening to them.
“We are on call, all of us, 24 hours a day.”
