With customer service fulfillment at the front of most contractors’ minds, the simplicity of the short-line business model makes specialty distributors an integral part of the value-added equation. And despite the limited line focus, these suppliers also are embracing one-stop shopping, national contracts, and aggressive sales goals. “We’ll enter national deals from a labor standpoint,” says Faden. “We can use anyone’s siding, but if they don’t talk about the soffit, the fascia, the gutters, the shutters, or the housewrap, we source those through our vendors. So yeah, they get the siding, but we get everything else, plus the labor. That’s how we’re going to market.”
Ultimately, short-liners say that general contractor service expectations—from quality product to fair price to timely delivery—are the same as they are on the pro dealer side. “We’re not in the brain surgery business here, we’re in the buying materials in bulk and selling them in job lots, and we don’t try to overcomplicate [it],”says Kelly. “As simple as it sounds, we don’t block driveways, we neatly stack and cover the product at the jobsites, and we don’t bump schedules. We protect our customers’ business and try to make them look good.”
