At 60, Nailon is a salesman molded in the old-school tradition of always reminding his customers, simply, that he is there. Johnson points him out as having an overtly organized approach to everything he does. He arrives at work every day at 6 a.m., and still uses a sales call log to make sure that he has regular interaction with all his customers. That means contact, either on the phone or in person, at least once a week for his largest accounts, and at least once a month for his smaller contractor customers. With more than 40 years of experience in the lumber business, he knows how much that sort of work-a-day approach to the job pays off.
“I’ve got a daily planner book that I use religiously,” Nailon says. “And every day, I go through and make my calls. I don’t leave until I’m sure that I’ve completed everything, even if that takes until 8 o’clock at night. But of course, that usually doesn’t happen, because I start pretty early.”
Nailon says his main focus with customers is making sure that he simply does what he says he’s going to do. “We take a lot of pride in our service and our approach to the job,” he says. “That’s my whole basis for building a rapport with the contractor. If he calls me and I tell him his order is going to be delivered Tuesday, by golly, that’s going to happen.”
But Nailon can only be confident that what he promises is going to happen because he’s got the rest of the Home team backing him up, from Johnson down to the clerical staff. The latter is overseen by Jim Tuff, Home’s controller, who says his goal is to make each customer interaction with the company as pain-free as possible, so that its sales force isn’t forced to put out fires caused by the firm’s back office. “We work hard to make sure customers aren’t having trouble with their accounts,” Tuff says. “If they have a question about their bill, we try to respond right away. I try to drive that home to everyone, to show the support staff how important we are to sales, from the receptionist to the AP clerk to my inventory person.”
That whole-team approach, starting with Johnson’s long walk from the parking lot each morning, has helped produce the hard-dollar results the whole company aspires to. “It really is something that comes from the top, and goes through each level of the company,” Tuff says. “I think that makes the sales job 10 times easier.” —Joe Bousquin is a contributing editor for PROSALES.
Vital Statistics: Company: Home Lumber Co.
- Year founded: 1947
- Headquarters: San Bernardino, Calif.
- Number of locations: 3
- Number of employees: 120
- 2005 sales: $92 million
- Pro sales percentage: 100 percent
