Tying It Together
To facilitate that meeting of the minds, Boone County throws a huge Fourth of July barbeque for suppliers and customers, and for the past five years has been hosting Builders Club Expo, a trade show featuring booths from more than 50 vendors, door prizes, and a catered lunch. Doing business with Boone County is not a prerequisite for buying booths at the show, which Brad says averages about $500 per vendor. Still, more than half the vendor participants are Boone County suppliers, and the pro dealer helps to staff booths with Boone County employees to facilitate introductions to the browsing builder attendees. Vendors, in turn, often have signage declaring that their product “is available at Boone County Lumber/Boone County Millwork” incorporated into their booth design.
“This is not New York City, this is Boone County, Mo., and they had a massive showing,” says Carolyne Planck, a regional sales manager for Toronto-based EON decking, which participated in the 2005 expo for the first time as part of EON’s strategy to gain more Midwest regional market share. “Boone County Lumber had over 100 contractors faithfully come by the booth. That’s recognition that we certainly might not otherwise have had without that event.”
Instead of allowing for spiffs and/or special purchasing deals cut at the show, Boone County maintains a policy of set product pricing, using bonus points for the dealer’s Builders Club loyalty program as a tactic to bring in builders. Vendors at the expo are allowed to present bonus points to builders that reach certain purchasing thresholds, and the points are then cashed in for branded merchandise and travel opportunities administered by the third-party Builders Club program headquartered in St. Paul, Minn.
Boone County also is investing in technology. Developed in conjunction with IDP, the company’s Web-based interactive siding chooser enables customers to mix and match windows, siding, fascia/soffit, and trim options available from Boone County. The chooser also indicates which brands, products, and colors are currently in stock and available for next-day delivery.
When he looks at the total package of print and radio ads, branded balloons, contractor events, trade shows, and vendor buy-in, Boone County sales manager Tim Espy isn’t surprised that Boone County helped to put his previous employer, a local branch of International Paper, out of business. “There are multiple touches and multiple relationships here,” says Espy, who also served as an Andersen Window rep to Boone County before joining the dealer in 1997. “I mean, how often do you have people pull over on the side of the road to take a picture of your billboard? We want to make sure that you’re not just getting a delivery guy in a pickup, you are getting an entire organization not only to serve the account on a day-to-day basis, but to have that discussion about where you are going and where you want to be in three years or five years.”
Clearly, the Columbia market supplier of choice is where Boone County wants to be in both the near and distant future, and Greg Eiffert aims to keep the pressure on the competition, all within an annual marketing budget that ranges between 1% and 2% of sales. Next up for the pro dealer is hiring recent college grads for a door-to-door pilot program to generate leads for the Boone County showroom and the installed sales division.
“I’ve been in the new construction business all my life, and this is something totally different for us,” Greg says. “I don’t want to sell. I just want to educate on our services and gain some trust. We have a 40-year-old company with a reputation in the marketplace. There is a familiar trust with most of the residents that have been here for some time. A lot of times all it takes is a touch to stimulate them.”
Editor’s Note: Want to hear a sampling of Boone County Lumber’s creative radio ads? Just click , , and !
Vital Statistics
- Company: Boone County Lumber/ Boone County Millwork
- Year founded: 1965
- Headquarters: Columbia, Mo.
- Number of locations: 2
- Number of employees: 50
- 2005 gross sales: $15.3 million
- Pro sales percentage: 95%
