Let me set the scene.  It is 1974, mid December, and while the rest of the country is cold and getting ready for Christmas, I was in sunny Marco Island, Florida enjoying a great get-away and sales meeting with the elite salesmen in my industry.

It was like I was at a TED Conference, but one specifically designed for my industry.  These were the best group of promotional salesmen that I have ever met.  They consistently were able to explain the merits of their products to the point where architects would write proprietary or very controlled specifications, which gave them an edge to overcome about 20% in premium cost compared to their competitors.

This group was confident.  Can you imagine today an independent metal siding and roofing company on the Fortune 500 list?  In 1974 they were number 462.  In 1983 and 1984, they got as high as 393.

In 1906, H. H. Robertson formed a construction products company that featured corrosion-resistant metal wall and roof panels.  A patent for protected sheet metal is received and the company starts an industry.

By the time I joined the company in 1972, the company was the unquestioned leader in the industry.  How did they enjoy such an advantage?

Here is my theory.  There are two major elements:  promotional sales and settling claims.

Promotional Sales

The People

First of all, I really think the hiring process for H. H. Robertson salesmen was brutal and weeded out non-performers.  I was told by the headhunter that recruited me that there were over 200 candidates screened and/or interviewed for my position before I was interviewed by the local H. H. Robertson District office manager.  After that, you had to go to company headquarters in Pittsburgh and be interviewed by the Sales Manager, Don Havlish, and some of the Product Managers.

Now, to say that Don Havlish was intimidating is like saying that Donald Trump is confident.  I can remember like it was yesterday the following question from Don and my answer to the salary that I wanted to go to work for H. H. Robertson. 

Don asked, “Why in the h_ ll should I pay you that much money?”  I answered, “Because I am a great salesman and if I do not get that much, I will be worrying about the money instead of the selling and I can make money for this company.”  I think that answer closed the deal and they asked me to join the team.

The Training

I went to Pittsburgh for a solid six weeks of sales training before I was ever allowed to be in front of a customer.  The training school was eight hours, five days a week of intense classroom training.  The training included product training so that we knew the benefits of each of our products intimately. 

The individual Product Managers conducted this training and they were competitive.  They wanted each new training class to be more excited about the merits of their products than they were about the other products offered by their colleagues.  That desire pushed each of them to be better and better in their presentations and therefore the salesmen and the company benefited from that.

The man who ran the Training School was Hank Hendrickson.  Hank was a classic.  He instilled in you the following:  As a salesperson, you’re the most important person in the world of business!  He made it clear that until someone sells something, nothing happens.  The plant does not operate, no money moves, and the owners of a company just have an expensive hobby.

Hank taught the “Sales” course developed by Xerox:  PSS – Professional Selling Skills.  This course not only taught you specific ways to present and handle objections that you could actually use, but after you learned the skills and practiced them in front of your fellow classmates, you gained another level of confidence that proved extremely valuable when you left the classroom and presented to real customers.

The Literature

Remember, we are talking 1974.  Al Gore had not invented the internet yet.  Printed literature was the norm and extremely important.  Robertson had the absolute best literature in the industry.  The graphic images were extraordinary.  The photos were brilliant.  The text was sparse and commanding.  When you presented a piece to a customer it was like you were handing over a museum piece.  It was that good.

Not only was the literature for the major products great, but there were frequent “one pagers” that featured a product on a project with great photos on the front and great graphics with details and narrative on the back.  The frequency of these pieces was a decided edge for great promotional salesmen because they provided a reason for you to go see the same great customer (the one who has the work) often.

 Settling Claims

I have developed the phrase, “You do not know what kind of company you are dealing with until they screw up.”  I learned what that meant at Robertson.

Robertson had many more, and more innovative, products than any single competitor, but within a single product category their products were not amazingly better quality than others, in my opinion.  However, somewhere along the way a culture had developed in the company to over perform when something went wrong.

I observed Robertson doing extraordinary things to rectify a bad installation.  They would totally replace an entire building when other companies would reluctantly agree to a financial settlement after extended discussion or litigation.  It has been said “that no one was ever fired for hiring IBM” because of their stellar reputation of servicing their customers.  The same thought was prevalent during the glory days of Robertson.

For those of us who labor everyday in the general field of metal enclosure products for the construction industry, we owe a great debt to those who have preceded us.  Companies like Robertson and their loyal opposition, E G Smith, Steelite, and Inryco, prepared the way for us to build an entire industry.

From time to time it is appropriate to pause and take stock of what has happened before.  Let us take the best things that were done and expand upon them and isolate the bad things and diminish them.

From one old Robertson Salesman to all of you others, as our numbers continually shrink, I wish you well and good sales.

That is it for today.  Post your comments on the Blog and let us stimulate the discussion.

Tool of the Week, Day, etc. – I would be negligent not to mention that many of the characteristics of the “Robertson Days” continue at Centria.  Learn more about the heritage of our industry at:  http://www.centria.com/history/pages/default.aspx.

Thanks,

Ted S. Miller