Phil Becker
Purchasing Manager / Rufus Deering Lumber / Portland, Maine
After spending more than 30 years in outside sales, Phil Becker changed course and become a purchaser at Rufus Deering Lumber about six months ago. He carries with him many of the lessons he learned as a salesman, but he also enjoys the change in hours.
“I can tell you this: 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. is a beautiful thing,” Becker says.
I have tools in place that I use to make decisions on what we should get. One tool is the amount of business we’ve got committed. Second is our position in the market price-wise. Also, I look at what the cash value is for any kind of future buying to cover our needs. I tend to pay more for the product as they pertain to the relationships that I’ve had and developed. We try to maintain those relationships because they are vital to our success.
Honesty works the best in negotiations. These sales reps who have been out doing it for a while, they’re like me when I was doing outside sales. If you’re BS-ing them, they’re going to know. There are things that make sense, and there are things that don’t. With my predecessor, I’ve had salespeople who have come in here and brought up a couple of situations, and right away they knew that my predecessor was not being honest with them. That takes away credibility. I earned that, and I’m going to keep it.
Wanted: Honest Delivery Estimates. Pick up the phone, call your customer and let him know. Be honest, be straightforward. Sometimes the truth hurts, but you will be more respected at the end. [Distributor reps will] say, “Oh wow, yeah, I’ll have it there tomorrow,” and tomorrow comes and you told your customer tomorrow, and it’s [not here] at the end of the day and you get a phone call with the rep saying “Hey man, I’m just telling you exactly what I was told…” I get a hold of that vendor and I set him straight. I’ll say, “Look, I can’t do this, I’m going to get this deal done and I’m moving on.”
We follow trends and add new products. One such product was Huber, which had come out with ZIP Wall and Roof Sheathing systems. We also carry the composite deckings, more of the PVC world. Currently we carry AZEK. We have added primed products, such as primed pine and our finished white cedar shingles for siding, our beveled siding. All of our red cedars are all primed in the bevel. We follow what has been proven to be the best buy in longevity for wood products.
Kevin Stoots
Director of Purchasing / Gordon Lumber / Fremont, Ohio
With more than 30 years of experience in LBM, two-thirds of it with Gordon Lumber, Kevin Stoots brings a wealth of knowledge to his position. He’s cautious about sharing his secrets, though; when dealing with cutthroat competitors (and sales representatives), he believes having an edge in negotiations is paramount.
The volatility of the market now is a lot different than it ever used to be, so my buying habits have changed a little bit. I think you have to take a little bit more risk sometimes. I have to be careful what I say because of Menards [laughs]. They just seem to be so down and dirty on everything.
We added Atlas foam insulation. We brought that in because it’s more price-competitive than what we were stocking. Our competition brought it in also, so we needed to do something to react to that. We brought in a vinyl window from Syron Industries, which [owns] the Alliance brand. We brought that in because they’re not just your everyday run-of-the-mill vinyl window. They have some stuff built into them that you can’t find in a lot of windows.
The sales reps that tend to be most effective with me are the ones where they don’t play a lot of games with hidden costs and everything. They present a very clean program; everything is up front.
I like to negotiate. The part I dislike the most is when [reps] come in with programs and do not bring all the information I requested with them, so I have to wait. [I like] a trustworthy rep who will do what they tell us they will do. If they sell us their product and then we never see them again, that is what we won’t tolerate.
We really haven’t dropped hardly any products at all. I mean, we’re still running pretty much with what we always have. We’ll drop a product because of a lack of turns or a change in customers’ buying habits–they’re not buying it anymore. Or maybe it could be obsolete considering how technology changes building materials and products. We pretty much have everything we feel we need.
One of my favorite products is Milwaukee power tools. They’re a good company, they stand behind what they sell, and it’s a quality product.
What’s the secret to success in this business? That I won’t share.
