The ABCs of the Close
As with other top salespeople I have met, Allmond has trouble explaining how he closes a deal. That’s in large part because these folks don’t really “close” in anything resembling an all-or-nothing moment of decision with the customer. Rather, folks like Allmond base their sales success and closing skills on all the preparatory work they do and their ability to find the right resources for their clients. In essence, Cowboy doesn’t sell products so much as he helps his clients make money.
His newest client, the builder of a project with over 200 lots, was seeking a special color of vinyl window for his upcoming development of homes. Allmond knew he couldn’t provide a vinyl window to match the color specifications, and the builder was concerned using wood windows would trigger a dramatic budget overrun.
Allmond confidently asserted the extra cost should be passed onto the home buyers with an appropriate markup. He demonstrated how the builder could sell the upgraded product as an attractive feature. The result was a sale not only for the windows, but for the lumber and millwork as well.
Allmond could make his argument because he did the research needed to speak in a language builders will understand. He did that the usual ways–by reading literature, attending seminars and engaging in technical dialogue with his clients.
That dialogue occurs over the roughly 40,000 miles Allmond drives each year in a 75-mile radius around Rincon in his well-kept pickup truck with 397,000 miles on it. (He put a new engine in at 393,578 miles, asking: “Why waste a good truck?”). Inside, Allmond has customized it with a portable control center: a laptop stand for his computer tablet, top-of-the-line GPS navigation system, telephone stand and Bluetooth receiver.
But Allmond is not about technology for technology’s sake. He also has a small collection of archaic Motorola flip phones that enable him to replace the parts on the obsolete model he uses. “You’ve got make the technology work for you so you can do what is important,” he says.
Allmond also is very much a people person. He knows the value of making a memorable impression–wearing a cowboy hat in southeast Georgia is a good way to be recognized–and when he sets down his 6-foot-1 frame, looks you in the eye and starts telling a story, you end up wanting to hear more. But even when it seems Allmond is there just to shoot the breeze, he’s moving toward a goal.
“Jackie knows what I need,” says longtime client Freddie Long, the son of a builder Allmond first conducted business with more than 30 years ago. “Some salespeople just show up, hang around, ask if they can bid on something. I don’t have time for that. Jackie doesn’t waste my time.”
Bob Roche has been a custom home builder for decades and first did business with Allmond in the early 1980s. When Roche was working on a recent marketing campaign he needed an extra set of hands in his office. Allmond was the man he called. “My printing service sent mailers much before I expected them. They were already dated and put me under pressure to get them out immediately. Jackie eagerly came to my office to stuff and stamp envelopes.”
Choo Choo won’t let us report Allmond’s exact sales figures, but we can say that this year they’re in the upper single-digit millions. But that matters less than two other numbers. First, Allmond not only ranks annually in the top two of the several dozen working at Choo Choo Build-It Mart, his share of total sales is several times bigger than the company’s typical rep. Second, Allmond’s sales totals are down just 15% from their highs in 2004, back when production was several times higher than what it is now and wood prices were stratospheric.
The business environment definitely has changed for Allmond over the years. But you only know the half of it.
Bumpy Road to the Top
Allmond’s drive to success has included a lot of swerving and a few crashes in the 54 years since he was born in Swainsboro, another small south Georgia town. Allmond’s father, Carlton “Jack” William Allmond, ran a barber shop and adored his wife Carrie. Jackie gave them plenty to worry about.
By age 15, he says, he was a regular guitarist in a local rock band and had a charge account at a bar. By 18, he was hustling people at pool with his gang, an unsavory group overly familiar with violence.
Carrie became so distraught by her son’s drinking that, at the suggestion of doctors, she started sipping wine to calm her nerves and get to sleep. The slip into alcoholism came with astounding speed. On a sunny afternoon in 1974, Jack Allmond came home from lunch to find his wife burned across 90% of her body. Son Jackie supposes it was because she left a frying pan unattended to get a drink, returned, saw flames, tried to take the pan outside, and ended up spilling the hot grease on her body. Six days later, Carrie was dead. Jackie says he still bears strong guilt for the distress that led to his mother’s alcoholism.
The troubles didn’t end, though. Also in 1974, Jackie was arrested and charged with attempted murder. Luckily for Allmond, the judge knew his family, Jackie says, so he sentenced Allmond to seven years of probation instead of jail time, provided he got a job and kept it .
Allmond fulfilled his sentence by getting a job at Lowe’s in 1975 as a truck driver. He earned an electronics degree from Swainsboro Technical College and thought of doing something technical, but his employer persuaded him to stay and gave him a job managing the loading docks.
In 1982, Allmond took a job in sales at Savannah Lumber. For most of the next 15 years, he remained in lumber sales. For all of those years, he drank.
His turnaround began about the time Allmond landed a sales job at Choo Choo Build-It Mart in 1996. His drinking problems were now beginning to affect his health and a doctor warned him of severe consequences. So, on Dec. 31, 1997, he simply decided it was time to stop. His last drink was at 11:45 p.m. and he says he hasn’t touched a drop since.
Ask Allmond about his younger days and what he learned from them and you don’t get much of a reply. But in hearing his stories and watching him today, one can see two traits that help explain why he has become such a good salesman. We’ve already noted his powers of concentration and organization. The second is his acceptance that what’s past is past and that it’s the present and future that count.
One day while I visited him and his wife at his home along the Ogeechee River, the water had run up to nearly flood level. But Allmond didn’t fret. After all, he says, he had waterproofed the first eight feet of the house. Besides, he notes, it’s just a house.
“This life isn’t for the faint of heart,” he says.
Cultivating the Fields
Custom builders used to be Allmond’s bread and butter. His territory includes wealthy areas such as Hilton Head, S.C., but for the most part his customers build relatively modest homes: the median price for a house in Savannah these days is around $135,000.
Like everyone in the LBM industry, Allmond was affected by the economic downturn. Unlike many, he had the foresight to prepare. It began by recognizing things were getting out of hand.
“I knew I was in trouble the day I drove by a subdivision without stopping to see what was happening,” he recalls. I would have never done that earlier in my career, and I realized that something was wrong. I was taking business for granted.” He made an effort to stop by subdivisions and get names of builders. He networked with the subcontractors and architects he knew in order to build an arsenal of sales leads that would get him through the tough times, again keeping all of his contact information in that computer database.
His prospecting and networking efforts have paid off by yielding a diverse client base. By day’s end, the trim carpenter with whom he exchanged barbs earlier in the morning will provide orders for six multi-unit dwellings. Bob Roche still caters to the custom home market, and Allmond is working with remodelers as well. This wide base not only keeps him going better than most in hard times but sets him up to do well once the economy recovers.
He also has the memory of his one-time co-worker and mentor, Richard North, to inspire him. He recounts the day he visited North’s home on a day after North had retired.
“I told his wife what he meant to me,” Allmond says. “I told her that he ‘just knew’ when he looked at a blueprint what had to be done. He was dependable. People looked up to him and respected his advice, and I decided then to model my life after him.
“Let me tell you,” he says. “There is a big difference between knowing it and doing it.”
Jackie Allmond is doing it. He provides a powerful reminder that, if you want to overcome big challenges, there are no substitutes for organization, empathy and hard work. He has much to teach any salesperson who wants to succeed.
–Rick Davis is president of Building Leaders Inc., a Chicago-based sales training organization. He writes ProSales’ “Sell Sheet” column.
