Direct Tv Dealers

An automated recording on Hayward Lumber's voicemail system informs waiting callers that this Monterey, Calif.--based dealer has one of the largest fleets of delivery vehicles in the state. Those 119 trucks and vans aren't just the most visible evidence of Hayward's presence in the regions its eight yards serve, however. They are also potent mobile marketing tools.

Dealers across the country say the marketing that works best to bolster their reputations with subcontractors and home builders is that which promotes services (like delivery, installation, or product knowledge) that help pros manage their businesses. There is also no substitute, say dealers, for the "marketing" their outside salespeople do every day by lending support to pros and spreading the word about their companies' products and services.

Hayward Lumber recently began implementing a system that tracks housing permits so that its 44 outside salespeople "can call on anyone who's pulled a permit in our market," says Paul Rodriguez, who manages Hayward's yard in San Luis Obispo, Calif. "We don't do any conventional advertising because we are always going to their doorsteps," agrees Steve Haynes, general manager for Overland Park, Kan.--based McCray Lumber, which employs 60 salespeople for its eight yards.

Contractors and builders favor dealers with which they can establish personal relationships, and are receptive to marketing that reinforces this bond. "We're not doing anything magical; we have good road sales and the best delivery system," says Robert Plummet, president of Edwardsville, Ill.-based R.P. Lumber, whose 31 locations are supported by 60 salespeople and 297 vehicles, including 60 boom trucks and 100-plus flat-beds. Eight-yard Burton Lumber has 27 salespeople spanning its Salt Lake City market, looking for new business and probing current and potential customers about their needs. "You can't just sell on price anymore," says president Jeff Burton.

Direct Hit

While delivery vehicles and salespeople are the centerpieces of many dealers' marketing efforts, they can't be everywhere. Conventional advertising helps, but varies in its usefulness: Dealers mostly eschew radio, TV, and newspapers because the audiences these media target are too broad, too narrow, or too generic. On the other hand, R.P. Lumber sends monthly eight-page circulars to between 450,000 and 500,000 households. Several dealers say their companies regularly take ads in trade magazines such as Builder/Architect, a B2B for architects, custom home builders, developers, and other residential trades; others sell through their own catalogs. One of the big attractions of trade magazines is that they profile builders. "Builders like reading about other builders," says Tricia Simon, marketing manager for Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Causeway Lumber. And companies want to be in front of that readership, regardless of how large or small it may be. "We don't want to be conspicuous by our absence," Simon says.

Wichita, Kan.--based Star Lumber recently joined forces with a local developer to buy billboard space that not only promoted the developer's communities (at which many of Star's builder-customers are active) but also the opening of Star's new showroom. Some of the cost of the billboard ad was defrayed by vendors like Andersen Windows, whose products are displayed in the showroom and are being used in the construction of the homes at the jobsites. The logic of this billboard campaign, explains Star's director of sales David Gatz, has been that "If the builder does more business, we'll do more business with that customer."

For the first time this spring, Waltham, Mass.--based millwork distributor Harvey Industries also leased billboards, which were in six New England towns for two months.

Some dealers are turning to the Internet to reach customers, too. Causeway has been rebuilding its customer database in order to e-mail product alerts to contractors, and this spring plans to launch a separate Web site for its Design Gallery showroom. That site, says Simon, might include interactive features, a listing of preferred contractors, and information such as building-code updates.

A Web site is drawing more business to Harvey's 27 millwork branches, according to business development manager Bill Cottle. He also points to his company's toll-free number and its contractor referral program as efficient means to attract customers. Contractors on the referral list have to have purchased at least $20,000 in materials from the company in the previous 12 months. The list could become the foundation for future direct-mail marketing, which Cottle says Harvey Industries is exploring.

"Direct mail works pretty well when it's product specific and when you're offering specials" advises Paul Barsa, marketing director for Avenel, N.J.--based distributor Bradco Supply, which mails around 20,000 postcards I each month to pro customers in its 12 regions. "The key is repetition; you need to do this more than once before [customers] will come in."

Hayward Lumber's San Luis Obispo yard has been mailing fliers to customers to promote its 1,000-square-foot design center, as well as the fact that the yard is an authorized dealer for Marvin Windows, with which Hayward is partnering on this marketing campaign.

Last fall, St. Paul, Minn.-based Lampert Yards began including promotions for a new turnkey installation service for kitchen cabinets, closets, and insulation in the invoices it mails to customers. Lampert, with 38 yards, is also among the dealers that aggressively stimulate business through incentives. Under Lampert's LamPerks program, for every $25,000 in materials purchased a customer earns 0.5 percent toward the purchase of any product he or she can buy anywhere. "We've had people use those points to buy grave plots," says Pam Leier, Lampert's vice president of marketing. She thinks that Lampert's newly installed POS system will make it easier to tie LamPerks into manufacturers' rebate programs.

Live and Learn

Beyond advertising, one of the more cost-effective ways that dealers market to pros is through educational seminars. Haynes says that McCray Lumber's local home builders association conducts about 15 seminars per year on various topics, and that McCray Lumber is often a "gold" sponsor, "which gives us top billing at those events." On April 19, Causeway Lumber held a luncheon in Stuart, Fla., and a dinner in Fort Lauderdale, for pros who wanted to hear Dr. Joseph Lstiburek speak on the topic of water intrusion, which has become a very big deal there after last year's hurricanes. (Lstiburek wrote a 65-page paper on that subject for the Florida HBA.)

Hayward holds monthly breakfast meetings at local hotels where pros can hear vendor reps discuss new products and installation techniques. Hayward's three yards in central California recently conducted a seminar on sealing homes and installing windows to prevent mold. Mark LaLiberte, the consultant who spoke at that seminar, which drew 250 people, is associated with Tyvek, which sponsored the event.

"We're careful [to bring] in people who offer information and not just a commercial," says Rodriguez. "We are trying to create a presence in the market, and it's important to define who you are. We want to be the best supplier to contractors."--John Caulfield is a contributing editor for PRoSALES.

COPYRIGHT 2005 Hanley-Wood, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group

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