Laura Newman
Last year Laura Newman wrote $2 million in millwork orders sold out of Hayward Lumber’s store in Santa Maria, Calif., a figure that represents about two-thirds of the store’s mill-work business in 2005 and made Newman Hayward’s top millwork salesperson for all seven of its locations.
Not bad for someone who started with the Monterey, Calif.–based pro dealer nine years ago as a part-time employee, inputting quotes and supporting outside sales. But Newman brought with her considerably more industry-related experience than one normally finds in new hires, especially women who enter this field. Prior to joining Hayward, she had worked for six months at a millwork specialty dealer called The Door Stop. She took that job after having gone through a divorce from her husband, a home builder with whom she worked on jobsites “pouring concrete, drilling holes for electrical and plumbing, you name it,” she says.
Her big break at Hayward came within two years of being hired, when her boss left the company in the middle of a half-finished 25-unit housing development the dealer was supplying. Immediately, she found herself ordering products, coordinating shipments, scheduling subs, and inspecting their work. By 2002 she was out in the field selling windows and doors for the Santa Maria store, and broke the $1 million sales barrier the following year.
About 10 percent of Hayward Lumber’s 450 associates are women, and most are in office jobs. Newman is the company’s only female outside salesperson, and she says that her gender sometimes doesn’t sit well with builders and remodelers, although she hasn’t encountered anywhere near the same resistance some women at other companies report. “When I was doing inside sales, I heard quite a few familiar voices from my time at The Door Stop.” Customers got to know her better when she worked the store’s counter. Newman has observed, too, that customers like working with her “because I can provide them with a perspective that goes beyond the structural to the ‘cosmetics’ of the door.”
Newman is at jobsites “all the time” working with contractors. Her budget in 2006 is to sell $1.5 million, although she thinks she can hit the $2 million plateau again, even though building permit activity has slowed in her market. But while she says Hayward Lumber affords its employees the opportunity to grow “as much as they want to,” Newman —who is engaged again, and has two teenage daughters and a son—is like a lot of the women interviewed for this article in that she isn’t focused solely on climbing the corporate ladder. “Five years from now I see myself in the same job with the same company,” she says. “I’m happy with my freedom; there’s no micromanaging, and I get to make decisions that help our customers.”
