In any work environment, there will always be room for improvement, especially when collaborating with others in your field.
There are many practical ways for builders, dealers, haulers, and suppliers to enhance communication and treat each other like customers for better results.
A little team effort can go a long way. Just ask Matt Nitzberg, who leads North America for Advantage Group International (AGI), global experts on business-to-business (B2B) engagement.
Each year, the company measures the strength of collaboration and partnership between thousands of suppliers and customers across roughly 30 factors. Among those factors, several rise to the top year-over-year as most critical in shaping the overall strength of these relationships.
“These factors include whether trading partners are easy to do business with, build trust over time, communicate effectively, and have collaborative business planning processes,” Nitzberg says.
“While other factors are also important, those listed above, which focus primarily on how business is done, consistently predict whether the overall relationship is on strong footing.
“Of course, in B2B relationships, stronger engagement leads to better alignment strategically, tactically, and operationally, and better results for the trading partners and the end customer or consumer.”
ALL TOGETHER NOW
Adrien de Maleissye, who handles sales for Innovations Manufacturing Inc. and shedramps.com in Denver, Colorado, knows all about solidarity.
“We work as a team here every single day,” he says about their response to the chaos that comes with the territory. “The only way to get through it is to work together.”
With a fairly lean shipping department, others pitch in when needed.
“We all knock it out and propel our efforts so we are not letting one department drown while another succeeds,” adds de Maleissye. “I’m sure it’s the same in a lot of industries with time constraints. Sometimes you need four or five sets of hands.”
The same concept applies to other collaborators.
“We work with a lot of builders who are really busy, so we will go ahead and knock out some of their orders to send to the customer,” he says. “If something happens that has to get done, every single day, our production manager, customer service rep, and I will help get a whole lot of product out the door.
“It takes more than two hands to knock it out together.”
When de Maleissye was first hired, he got all the calls when products weren’t shipped, so he learned to drive a forklift.
“Next thing I know, I know everything about shipping,” he says. “In this day and age, employees being as hard as they are to get, you have to work as a team. We make sure all of our office personnel are cross-trained when we need extra hands.”
SPECIAL DELIVERY
Missouri-based Simon Yoder, shed mover and owner of Shed Wheels LLC, works with builders and dealers on relocation jobs and new deliveries.
As the face of the company for most customers, haulers get hit from all directions.
“If you are not good with customer service, that sheds a bad light on the company,” shares Yoder. “You just have to be very professional and treat people with respect.
“When there are small quality issues, we’re the guy that gets to make it right when we can touch it up or fix it.”
Yoder inspects every structure as he loads it.
“If I see issues, I will tell the builders right away and take a photo,” he says. ”If it’s my problem, they shouldn’t run off to fix that, either. We just communicate with each other.”
Since his schedule varies throughout the year, being proactive matters.
“If a dealer tells a customer they can have a shed in two or three days during my busy time, it’s just not going to happen,” says Yoder.
Key to his success is that he likes to help others succeed.
“I enjoy working with people,” Yoder shares. “When I get to talk to the dealer, I feel like part of the team. I know what’s going on more than a new salesperson who never sold a shed and has no idea about the process. Taking 15 minutes can make a world of difference for them.
“I’ve heard guys fuss about building quality, but we all need each other: the builder, the hauler, and the dealer. We’ve got a truck to pull the building on a trailer and a mule to deliver it. Which would we rather do without? We need all of them. I’m not the most important part of the process, just part of the team.
“We should show appreciation for the team because it comes back to you. Half my work is relocation and probably 75 percent of those are referrals that came from dealers.”
SUCCESSFUL SEARCH
As COO of software vendor ShedPro, Steven Choi says they take a teamwork approach with the goal to be the best provider of online lead generation solutions in the industry.
“We team up with our clients to make sure they are dominating their online market share and have the most visible customer search on Google for ‘shed builders near me,’” he says. “We help our clients capture those leads on a website that has e-commerce built in, so they can also sell that inventory online and maintain it.”
With 3D configurations, builders and dealers can be more efficient.
“When you’re a dealer working with a customer on a custom order, they can imagine that shed in red or 10 feet wider. A lot of customers are not able to visualize those details in their head, so we bring it to life,” says Choi.
“The reality is that a lot of shed builders and dealers are SMEs (subject matter experts) and people are wearing multiple hats. They know that they need to improve their online presence and their website to offer what customers prefer, but they don’t have the time or know-how or staff to optimize their online sales.”
Working together can help with optimization.
“Our goal is to become an extension of our client’s teams and build a relationship like an offsite member of the team,” Choi shares.
“One of the advantages of a partnership with us is that maybe they have a few hours each week to work on Google ads, but we have dedicated professionals to optimize Google web ads and convert the website visit to the online customer and translate it to lead generation performance.
“The relational approach to serving our clients is not transactional and not a one-and-done. Anytime they need an update or need to add pages or a new product, we’re there to help them.
“They’re not just getting a static software product. We’re constantly reviewing and updating based on feedback from our clients, so the customer gets a great experience with an integrated beautiful build.”
JOINT EFFORT
For builders, Tyler Allen, sales manager for Better Built Barns in Salem, Oregon, says there are a lot of moving pieces.
“That definitely requires a team working in unity so the final product gets done,” he says. “We put the customer at the top and we’re a step below.”
After that, come materials like special order doors, windows, and siding.
And good relationships make a difference.
“We have in-house delivery, but there is a wealth of people who all need to be on the same page, like the dealers who sell the shed,”
says Allen. “With our lumber company, we are their customer, and they provide excellent customer service.
“In the same breath, we’re dependent on them. They bring the crew donuts, which are greatly appreciated, and we communicate with each other, so we know when the inventory gets low.
“It’s about creating a more personable relationship. We see others as valuable and irreplaceable. We could not do this by ourselves. We want to take care of our dealers and our customers.”
Allen often collaborates with Kathryn Cobine, sales rep and designer for Pro Wood Sheds in Beaverton, Oregon, who shares the distributor perspective that comes from working with builders.
“Clarity of product is something that can personally become a struggle,” she says. “Knowing exactly what the products are and the warranties on them makes it easier for me if they are shared more clearly.”
She has found that the smaller the company, the better the information and the more personable the experience. Also, simple communication counts.
“It’s very important to have clarity, information and consistency. The lack of consistency is an extreme frustration,” says Cobine.
For instance, with customization, she says you can learn a lesson when a customer expects an intricate detail like a door that doesn’t turn out as expected. That can affect the next person who requests a special feature.
Professional courtesy counts, too.
“We have tried to get in touch with some of the largest companies in the business to be a distributor and they are unresponsive,” she says.
“Answering a phone or listing a number or just having the information available would be helpful.”
BEST PRACTICES
As a dealer for Mid-America Structures, Jerald Rhodes, who owns Creative Backyards in Plattsmouth, Nebraska, works with haulers and manufacturers.
“We already have a good relationship with Mid-America and with their haulers. They build the sheds and deliver them,” he says.
“That does really make things way better for us as dealers dealing with the same people. From a dealer’s perspective, our manufacturer utilizes The Shed App so you can have 3D shed building and production.”
Streamlined practices can make the process run smoother.
“You can design in 3D how the customer wants it and that gets submitted to the manufacturer, so there’s no passing around papers,” Rhodes says. “It’s all right there in the system and they can give it to the framers and the painters. Since they implemented that two years ago, it cut down on miscommunication and the margin for error went way down.”
In the plant, the sheds go through different stages that can be entered into the system.
“When the customer calls, you can log into the app and give the customer that information,” he adds.
Taking a proactive approach helps as well.
“If a customer wants something very customized, we don’t sell it unless we talk to the manufacturer to see if it’s something they can do,” says Rhodes. “We like to know for sure.”
When working with haulers, communication goes both ways.
“They will notify us the day before the delivery. That allows me to follow up with customers the next day to say, ‘How did it go’ and ‘How do you like the shed?’ Just that one text from the hauler sets me up for success,” he says.
“With Google reviews, chances are higher within the first 12 hours of the experience and that prepares me to communicate with the customer and ask for that review. It helps with customer care.
“The flip side for us as dealers is if someone comes to the lot and needs a shed in two days. We never make a commitment because we don’t know what their schedule is, but we can give them a call to see if they can make it happen. The key thing is communication and not selling something and setting up a delivery that they can’t do.”
Preparing the customer for delivery can be another smart move.
“We take an extra 10 minutes to explain the delivery process with questions like: Do they have a clear path to the backyard? Will they have a nice gravel or concrete pad ready that bigger portable garages or cabins require? And we offer free site checks to try to make the driver’s job as easy as we can and make it easy for the customer too,” says Rhodes.
“It’s easy for us as dealers to just sell the shed and move on to the next customer, but just taking 10 minutes time … ultimately it all comes down to making the process easier for the customer. We don’t always get it right, but we try really hard.
“At the end of the day, it’s about setting everyone up for success.”
