How will sustainable practices shape the future building materials?

Check out our conversation where I interview Lainie Sleppin, National Director of Contractor Development. She shares what her team has been shifting in their sales process to grow Moisture Shield. 

Now, I’d love to hear from you! 

🤔 QUESTIONS:

1- What is one thing that’s changes in your sales process in the building materials industry?

2- How do you see the decking industry changing? 

What’s your secret to forging strong professional relationships? 

Share your comments to any of these questions below. 

#DeckingIndustryInsights #ProfessionalGrowth #SalesSuccess #RelationshipBuilding

Schedule a Free Confidential Recruiting Strategy Call https://calendly.com/jmckenna91/building-materials-recruiters-consultation-discovery-call

PLEASE NOTE: There may be some typos and/or grammatical errors captured in the following transcription. 

Video Summary

Definitive Search Partner Founder Jim Mckenna interviews Lainie Sleppin, National Director of Contractor Development of Moisture Shield.

In this fascinating discussion, industry veterans Lainie and Jim dive into their rich experiences in the decking industry, providing an insider’s look at the dynamic changes that have shaped the landscape.

From the evolution of composite decking to the enduring presence of wood in the market, they share invaluable insights to help any National Sales Director steer their company to the forefront of the industry. Join Lainie and Jim for this captivating discussion and gain the edge you need to drive your building materials company to new heights.🚀💼

• Lainie and Jim discussed their locations and backgrounds in the decking industry. Lainie shared her experience and the generational changes she has witnessed in composite decking, while Jim mentioned the continued presence of wood as a competitor in the market.
  
• Lainie and Jim discussed the shifts and changes they have observed in the future building materials industry, including the expansion of services offered by deck builders, the decrease in face-to-face interactions with customers due to COVID-19, and the increased attention given by retailers to decking products.
  
• Jim and Lainie discussed their success in taking initiative and going the extra mile in their roles. They also talked about the challenges they faced post-COVID and how they worked towards finding solutions.
  
• Lainie discussed her goals of expanding her role and building relationships with top industry players. She also highlighted the unique features and product range of her company, emphasizing the importance of remaining humble, teachable, and going above and beyond in the industry.

Jim and Lainie discussed the importance of future building materials strong relationships in sales by listening, asking good questions, and showing personal interest. They also mentioned the value of handwritten notes and the need to create a connection with customers on a personal level.

-TRANSCRIPT

@1:14 – Jim McKenna (DSP Careers)

So you’ve been with moisture shields since 2019.

@1:30 – Lainie (Oldcastle)

Correct.

@1:31 – Jim McKenna (DSP Careers)

Correct. Yep. Okay. And prior to that, you were with fiber on that is correct as a territory manager. All right.

And so, um, So you’ve been a strategy of starting in the decades.

@1:43 – Lainie (Oldcastle)

I said that you owned your own business at one point. I did.

@1:46 – Jim McKenna (DSP Careers)

I did. How did you get in the world?

@1:48 – Lainie (Oldcastle)

The world of the decade. So I actually back in early 2000, I was selling leads to contractors for a company named ImproveNet.

Similar to that of what we would call. Today’s service magic or Angie’s List. And so I was calling on contractors, asking them if they wanted to be in the program for $10 lead fee they could get a lead.

And so that actually was a company out of Redwood City, California. And I was the rep out here in New Jersey.

Obviously a $10 lead fee is hard to keep the business sustainable. And at that time on Monster.com was an advertisement to get into composite decking.

And I felt being in front of the contractors, I already had a bit of a network. So in my mid 20s, I dove head first into learning everything I could about decking.

And at that point I was employed by trucks. I really, I dug footings, carried two by eight, two by tens, spent some time at the plant, learned everything I could up down left, right about composite decking.

Being in the mid 20s and being a woman in building products is noisy to ask, right? So how do you create credibility for your.

I really did that through my experience and being able to talk the language of the contractor and being able to relate to their experiences.

So I’ve been really in the decking world for 23 years as you will.

@3:13 – Jim McKenna (DSP Careers)

Yeah, it sounds like it. Yeah.

@3:15 – Lainie (Oldcastle)

Wow. And I’ve gone through all the generational changes. mean, what the product is today does not look like what it did at all 23 years ago.

@3:24 – Jim McKenna (DSP Careers)

Well, I remember the treks when it first came out. was just this basic board. There’s no definition to it.

was just looked like a composite material. Now it looks like wood. It’s amazing what these panels look like. Yeah.

I mean, today I would consider everything Jim being high performance.

@3:39 – Lainie (Oldcastle)

You know, I mean, the products have become high performing products, right? And there I’m from C. They were med to not brought to under decay.

You know, it’s a big conversion from wood. And, you know, at that point, I can tell you that most contractors, similar to that, pretrial treated wood were laying the boards down tight, thinking it would trick when at that point, the board.

There’s one expand and so there were a lot of complications early on.

@4:04 – Jim McKenna (DSP Careers)

Right, Mark, I can imagine. So you’ve seen it all. I have seen it off.

@4:0 – Lainie (Oldcastle)

know, generational change from composite really into PVC into cap composite and then the high performance and products today. So I’ve lived through those generational changes and I hate to say pains, but there were some obviously difficult times out there.

You know, the expectation of really what the product could do and what it was meant to do. You know, people’s expectations were not marrying up early on.

@4:37 – Jim McKenna (DSP Careers)

Okay. I bet you ran into a lot of that. But now it’s in standard. I don’t think anybody makes wood, but any wood plank down on their deck or something.

I everything is like a composite material. Sorry.

@4:51 – Lainie (Oldcastle)

It is, but there’s a still like, you know, I asked this question jokingly when I do trainings and now I’m letting my secret out, but.

I say, you know, when I’m doing trainings, you know, about our lines of moisture shield decking, I say, you know, who is our number one competitor and most people’s name, other composite decking companies, but it still remains to be wood.

@5:12 – Jim McKenna (DSP Careers)

Okay. You know, that’s still 50% of the market.

@5:17 – Lainie (Oldcastle)

Well, I guess that.

@5:20 – Jim McKenna (DSP Careers)

I wouldn’t guess that.

@5:22 – Lainie (Oldcastle)

Composists continue to grow, but like here in New Jersey in the Northeast, we are very, very mature market.

@5:28 – Jim McKenna (DSP Careers)

Okay.

@5:29 – Lainie (Oldcastle)

Right. We go to other markets. I’m traveling around the country and I’m seeing that, you know, there’s still a lot of treated lumber going down.

@5:8 – Jim McKenna (DSP Careers)

Really? You probably lost a seat or two, I would imagine, too.

@5:41 – Lainie (Oldcastle)

And then there are other types of treated lumber that have come to the market, right? So there’s even been advancements in that platform.

Sure. You know, so, so the decking, you know, decking industry is, is not like, you don’t it hasn’t been out.

Because many other building products have been for a long time, hundreds of years, The product came out of the woodwork, especially during the times of COVID, where you bore like everybody needed a debt, right?

needed that outdoor living space.

@6:14 – Jim McKenna (DSP Careers)

Right. Yes, in fact, I was going to ask you a question, so that’s a good second way to get into it.

So what’s changed in the past one to three years within the decking industry?

@6:24 – Lainie (Oldcastle)

So that’s a great question, Jim. I gave that some thought when you gave me my homework assignment. And I said, what have I seen shift?

What have I seen change? So most recently, my role has changed. I was the Regional Sales Director, and now I’m in charge of national contractor development across the country, which makes sense for my wheelhouse and my experience.

But we continue to see manufacturers shift in changes of roles. And people that used to be regional managers are now national account managers.

And so we see some of that shifting happening. But more importantly, I was giving it some thought and I think there are a couple of really unique changes that I’ve seen over the last couple of years.

number one, contract of the deck builder is really capitalizing on being in that backyard and really expanding upon just the deck.

Right. So now we’re seeing more of the guys that are using decking that are using pavers that are doing the, you know, any type of outdoor kitchen, if you will.

Sometimes even the pool. So they really have been able to take advantage of being in that backyard and really expanding their portfolio with wise.

So that’s been a big shift, right. I don’t know if it’s been really my life of being so one dimensional focused on decking or it’s truly a trend in the market.

But I think that people are envisioning their outdoor living space a lot more extensively than it’s just being than it just being a deck, if you will.

@7:59 – Jim McKenna (DSP Careers)

Sure.

@8:00 – Lainie (Oldcastle)

Sure.

@8:00 – Jim McKenna (DSP Careers)

You know, a lot of outside products out there, lot of paving stones, a lot of things like that. I’m sure people are looking at this.

A lot of stuff out there now. And there was.

@8:08 – Lainie (Oldcastle)

Exactly. And the nice thing about my role is that since I work for old castle, we have, you know, bell guard pavers.

We have the temple text for the pools. We have, you know, the sacriks for the concrete. We have the moisture shield decking.

So we really touch upon all those different products out in the backyard living space.

@8:28 – Jim McKenna (DSP Careers)

So.

@8:29 – Lainie (Oldcastle)

Really, you know, it’s a good opportunity for us. And then. You know, I was thinking about, you know, from, from the, from the retail side of the business and, you know, what I see when I travel to lumber yards.

I used to see a lot more reps out there. I don’t see as many reps as I used to.

I feel like. Yeah, I feel like after COVID, I don’t know if everybody thought that, you know, maybe it’s easier to send emails rather than to have those face to face touches.

But. I’ve always been the kind of person that needs to be in front of the customer.

@9:00 – Jim McKenna (DSP Careers)

Sure, I agree with that. It’s funny. It’s not a day that goes by in my business, the recruiting world that’s a candidate, doesn’t ask me.

It’s a virtual position. It’s work out of your house, but you’re on a road every day. You talk to the customers.

It is a sales position. need to be out. Well, I really hope you will do it from in the house.

@9:18 – Lainie (Oldcastle)

You can’t do it from in your house.

@9:20 – Jim McKenna (DSP Careers)

Right. Right. have to be in front of the customer. It’s amazing to shift since COVID.

@9:28 – Lainie (Oldcastle)

100%. I mean, Jim, I used to see reps on a regular.

@9:31 – Jim McKenna (DSP Careers)

I don’t see really hardly any. I don’t. It’s the strangest thing.

@9:35 – Lainie (Oldcastle)

I mean, I have not. My go-to-market strategy of being out in front of the customer is not shifted. Right.

I mean, this is a face to face business where you need to shake hands. You need to see people.

People buy from people. And if you’re not out there in front of the customer, you know, I, is, this is a very challenging business to do virtually in my opinion.

@9:57 – Jim McKenna (DSP Careers)

Absolutely. And I sold, I don’t know, to my background. sold roofing. I used to work. I’m not there in my competition, sir.

And it’s a relationship industry. And the contractors, like you said, are going to buy who they like and who they trust and who can help them with their business.

If you’re not in front of them, that’s not going to happen.

@10:22 – Lainie (Oldcastle)

Exactly. you bring up an interesting point, Jim, the one step, the ABCs, the Lansing’s of the world.

And I have seen a shift in them expanding their portfolios, getting more involved and decking and understanding the opportunities that exist out there.

@10:38 – Jim McKenna (DSP Careers)

Okay.

@10:39 – Lainie (Oldcastle)

You know, so I definitely have seen a shift in that where they’re saying, hey, you know, we’re not just, we’re more building products than just roofing inside.

@10:47 – Jim McKenna (DSP Careers)

Okay. Do you see them bringing, are they buying direct? they, are they two stepping it through a prime source of whoever might be carrying it?

@10:57 – Lainie (Oldcastle)

Yeah. so anybody that’s a retail Location has to buy through to step through our distributors.

@11:03 – Jim McKenna (DSP Careers)

Yes, okay.

@11:04 – Lainie (Oldcastle)

Yeah, so the leds, the ABCs of the world, you know, they would need to buy through local distribution.

Okay, okay, But I definitely see that they’re being more attentive to looking at the decking needs and not just, you know, saying, hey, you know, we’re focused on roofing and siding.

@11:23 – Jim McKenna (DSP Careers)

They’re saying, hey, there’s more opportunities out. And it sure is. And that’s exactly what they’re saying. This is definitely more of an agenda.

Exactly.

@11:31 – Lainie (Oldcastle)

But I have seen a shift in that as well. You know, and then there’s been a little bit of a shift even in on the retail side.

You know, some of the businesses are are are really limited in the amount of people they have working there because they can’t find additional help.

Right. So you have one guy that’s doing three, three jobs really, right? And he’s maxed out because getting people to show up to work is not as easy as it used to be.

@12:00 – Jim McKenna (DSP Careers)

No, it’s definitely not.

@12:02 – Lainie (Oldcastle)

And I don’t know where all these other people are or what they’re doing to them, but you know, I mean, and I feel bad for some of these retailers, you know, he’s like, you know, I asked them, did you put together a display?

@12:14 – Jim McKenna (DSP Careers)

No, you know, I just can’t get to it, right?

@12:16 – Lainie (Oldcastle)

And he’s maxed out. And, you know, the one thing that I would share with you is, you know, the things that separate me is, okay, so you’re busy and you can’t get to the display.

So, you know, it gave me the display. And I’m Right.

@12:33 – Jim McKenna (DSP Careers)

And that’s what makes you successful. Going that little extra mile.

@12:39 – Lainie (Oldcastle)

Taking the initiative, right?

@12:40 – Jim McKenna (DSP Careers)

Taking the initiative. It’s funny. I put the candidates, what’s my day look like? I say, how do I work?

then I used to, you I did it. I said on Friday afternoon, I said, I’d get off the, I live in Long Island, a couple of long Island territories.

you know what the path is like? you can do it. And so, I’d be off the road by. I’m to pull it, even it’s four o’clock.

That’s the difference. You always need to make that little effort. That’s what makes the relationship smooth.

@13:21 – Lainie (Oldcastle)

Exactly. that’s what separates us from the pack, right? Taking that extra initiative. know, I mean, when people see me, they know I mean, They know, like, this is a person that’s going to get something done.

@13:34 – Jim McKenna (DSP Careers)

Absolutely. I can see that. then that’s why you’re successful doing what you’re doing. So your job has changed, though.

You said so used to be more on the regional manager side.

@13:46 – Lainie (Oldcastle)

now you’re doing it.

@13:48 – Jim McKenna (DSP Careers)

So now you’re working directly just when contacted development.

@13:50 – Lainie (Oldcastle)

You’re doing that nationwide. I am.

@13:52 – Jim McKenna (DSP Careers)

I am.

@13:53 – Lainie (Oldcastle)

week I was out in Tennessee. week I traveled to California. What I’m home base here in New Jersey. Then I’m calling on local contract.

And driving the demand out here. So, you know, wherever I need to be is where I need to be and I will continue to, you know, create awareness and create success around, you know, when looking to accomplish so.

@14:14 – Jim McKenna (DSP Careers)

How do you like that role versus the role you’re in out versus the roles that you had in the past.

@14:19 – Lainie (Oldcastle)

So I’ve had a plethora of roles and the thing that is interesting about my new role is so I’ve had about four roles working for moisture shield.

You when they hired me, they said, Hey, need your, your decking knowledge, but we’re not exactly sure what you’re going to do for us.

And I said, that sounds exciting. like that. But you know, what I’ve learned him over time is the staff history of knowledge that I have across many platforms and moisture shields has made me more valuable as an employee.

And so to say that I do or don’t like what I’m doing now compared to what I would He’s doing prior, again, I like learning all facets of the business, right?

So this was a creation of a position based on my strengths, right? This wasn’t one that existed prior to me taking on this role.

I liked being a regional director, but I also liked this new national role. Because what it allows me to do is it allows me to share experience and success stories across the country, right?

So if one guy is doing a best practice in the Northeast and I can help the guy in the Midwest with that type of practice and maybe not directly share the experience, but carve it out so helping him become more successful.

That’s what I really like about this.

@15:55 – Jim McKenna (DSP Careers)

And so you make him become successful, in turn, you’re making yourself become successful.

@16:00 – Lainie (Oldcastle)

Correct.

@16:00 – Jim McKenna (DSP Careers)

Correct.

@16:01 – Lainie (Oldcastle)

sharing those experiences that I have because every market is the same and yet different, right? It’s kind of a confusing statement, but it really…

@16:12 – Jim McKenna (DSP Careers)

Oh, but it’s 100% accurate. It’s 100% accurate. Every… It is different. My world’s… Again, the roofing world. But I know roofing, know, different contractors buy different roofing manufacturers in different parts of country.

@16:28 – Lainie (Oldcastle)

Right.

@16:29 – Jim McKenna (DSP Careers)

And that’s exactly it.

@16:31 – Lainie (Oldcastle)

But you know, their go-to-market strategy is somewhat… You can share what that go-to-market strategy is without letting the cat out of the bag by saying, hey, have you looked at this aspect of the business?

@16:44 – Jim McKenna (DSP Careers)

Right. it’s a very… The whole build of materials industry is very, very interesting in the way it’s broken out and how people have different buy-and-have in certain places.

It’s pretty… pretty… pretty… It’s… don’t work in it. You don’t realize, but it really…

@16:59 – Lainie (Oldcastle)

It truly, truly is. It is. It is.

@17:02 – Jim McKenna (DSP Careers)

So, what’s any challenges post COVID that you’ve had that you’ve had to work on deal with or I mean, it’s I mean obviously you’re not having people in your with but any challenges you dealing with through your distribution that you post COVID or anything.

I mean, material as far as you get a material you got shortages.

@17:25 – Lainie (Oldcastle)

Yeah, I mean, I wouldn’t say that anything has been a challenge because I like to work in the solution, right?

Give me a challenge and I’m going to try harder. So, so I’m one of those those people that you know I’m not going to focus on the challenge itself.

I’m just going to work in the solution. you know, we continue to mature as a business, right? More sure she’ll be bought by old cast of back in 2017 really gave us the life that we needed to move forward.

So, even though we’ve been around for 32 years. Here we really came to the table with a much broader based message.

I think after the acquisition from old castle, giving us what we needed to get our name out there and promote some of our products.

But any challenges, would just say, some people might know Moisture Shield being the older company out of and we’ve done a lot to create more bandwidth within our lines.

The Barret acquisition. So there’s a lot more to talk about with our product lines. And so the biggest challenge is really getting people to give us a few minutes.

And usually if they can open the door, we can give them some great content that will be exciting enough for them to say, yeah, this is something I wanted to look at.

@18:51 – Jim McKenna (DSP Careers)

Great. Excellent. Any goals within the next few years coming up for yourself within the industry within fiber within. Mr.

Felder, where do you see you and anything that you want to accomplish?

@19:04 – Lainie (Oldcastle)

Well, interesting question, Jim, because I was just talking to my BPS sales this morning, and I said, know, eventually I would like to have more integration with all of our Ocassal brands, you know, and maybe having some integration with an overarching program involving all that outdoor living space.

So I would say in the next one to three years, I would like to see myself more of a national level incorporating a lot more brands than what I have today.

That being said, know, really for me, you know, to wrap my arms around what a goal looks like, you know, I’m out there fishing after the big deck that Felder’s, you know, making sure they’re on my radar, making sure I build relationships with them.

That’s probably my most immediate goal is, and it’s not always about selling products, Jim, it’s about cultivating a relationship, know, you do the right thing and the rest will come.

In my opinion, right? So, you know, I had a meeting last week with somebody in Tennessee, and I said, Hey, look, I’m coming out there.

I want to get to know you and your business. It’s not about me being just off the cuff selling products, right?

This is about me cultivating relationships with the big, big guys out there.

@20:19 – Jim McKenna (DSP Careers)

Right.

@20:20 – Lainie (Oldcastle)

You know, so that’s really my goal for the next year is what I would say is, you know, going after these top 10 guys in the country and cultivating that relationship and to know them.

@20:31 – Jim McKenna (DSP Careers)

That’s great. And what do you, I mean, so just like any other part of the industry, you get a lot of competition.

So you’ve got tracks and you got AZAC and everybody else. know, what makes you different? What makes you different?

makes moisture feel different? makes a difference?

@20:48 – Lainie (Oldcastle)

You can see the difference out there. Well, that’s another great question, Jim. so number one, we have the solid core difference, which is we’re encapsulating all our wood particles.

So we can go in the ground on the ground. Not many other manufacturers can do that. So that’s the one thing from the moisture shield side that really separates us.

But the thing, again, that excites me the most is that whole envelope of products under old Castle ATG, right?

We are touching upon all those different products in the outdoor living space, whereas, you know, some of the other manufacturers you mentioned, they don’t have fire pits, maybe they don’t have outdoor kitchens, they don’t have papers, they don’t have a pool surround, right?

We have all those products that intertwine with each other. And we are the only one that really has that, touching upon all those different touch points in the backyard.

So that’s really what makes us different when I’m out there talking to these contractors. I’m not just, yes, my focus is primarily moisture shield, but, you know, I’m saying, hey, know, who’s papers are you using?

Are you using Bellgart? You know, if you’re doing polls, are you using pebble tech, right? So the conversation is a broader bandwidth than if I were just working for a sole manufacturer of decking.

@22:07 – Jim McKenna (DSP Careers)

Okay. Do they offer any special incentives to buy parts of the package? buy other parts of it? Any warranties or anything like that?

@22:17 – Lainie (Oldcastle)

So we all have our individual warranties, but I think as I progress in this role, those things are on the table for us to take a work gap.

@22:25 – Jim McKenna (DSP Careers)

That makes that that nice system makes makes nice package, that’s for sure.

@22:29 – Lainie (Oldcastle)

Exactly. And that’s I think my role into this new role will bring a lot of visibility to those opportunities that will need to explore as we roll into next year.

So I know it’s on everybody’s radar for us to take a look at it.

@22:44 – Jim McKenna (DSP Careers)

Yeah, listen, you’ve got the materials and you got the way to do what you must take advantage of it.

Exactly.

@22:51 – Lainie (Oldcastle)

Exactly.

@22:51 – Jim McKenna (DSP Careers)

Well, finally, if there is any one piece of advice you could give to somebody new coming into this industry or somebody in this industry.

He was, you know, is newer. would it be?

@23:05 – Lainie (Oldcastle)

Remain humble, remain teachable and remain open. And I’ll give you an example of that. Being a regional sales director, you would think that I’m not going to get my hands dirty.

I’m not going to go out. I’m not going to build a display. not going to. So the lumberyard that I was I was thinking about before with a lot of help and so forth.

So the distributor sent in the boards and the guy said, I’m just too busy to get these puttings hung up on the wall.

And I said, and I was traveling with the territory manager at that point. I said, you know what, we’re going to go have the boards brought to the stop.

We’re going to cut them all and we’re going to hang them ourselves. And you know what, like for me, Jim, I’m not better than anybody else.

I’m humble enough to say, look, because I’m a And I think people feel the need to say, hey, that’s somebody else’s job.

That’s not how I roll. That is not somebody else’s job. You want it done? You take the initiative and you go do it yourself.

And those are the things that have created success for me that I would suggest, you know, going above and beyond.

Like you were talking about leaving Long Island four o’clock, making that last stop, making that little bit extra effort.

And so nobody’s ever said to me, hey, know, Lainie’s not going to do what she says she’s going to do, right?

Because I do when I go above and beyond, right? And so even if that means building a display and getting my hands dirty, right, that I remain humble and teachable even at whatever level.

And that makes me more efficient as a leader because I can lead by example, right? Being a regional sales director was great because I have

And Ben in the field is a territory manager for many years myself. And said, hey, you know, this is what it takes to be successful.

You know, so anybody new coming into the business, I would just say, you know, go above and beyond, you know, and don’t wait for somebody else to take the reins, take them yourself, be a leader.

You know, that’s, that’s what has helped me over time, create this, you know, credibility of mine. I mean, and I think everybody knows like I’m genuine, right?

What you see is what you get.

@25:34 – Jim McKenna (DSP Careers)

Maybe I’m not everybody’s cup of tea.

@25:36 – Lainie (Oldcastle)

But they sure know that like I’m not going to pull any punches, right?

@25:43 – Jim McKenna (DSP Careers)

Right. You’re going to, they’re going to, you’re going they’re going to get out of you. know, what they say, you know, it, you, it sounds like you’re like, you and I cut from the same cloth when it comes to that kind of stuff.

I’d never mind getting my hands dirty. And, and they knew that the minus strip is new. They can rely on me all the time.

I still talk to them even in this role. They know that they can still rely on you. those relationships go a long, long way.

@26:07 – Lainie (Oldcastle)

Exactly.

@26:08 – Jim McKenna (DSP Careers)

by cutting those boards, it goes a little… They remember that. But I can figure that out.

@26:13 – Lainie (Oldcastle)

They know that, okay, if I need something, this person’s going to go the extra step. And another piece of advice is, don’t be afraid to write handwritten notes.

I was with a big Doc Builder last week. And I know he enjoys boating. He enjoys water. So I got him a little chocchi, which, if you don’t know what that is, that’s a little something from the store on the lake.

And I sent that with a thank you note. And those are the things that I think people don’t traditionally do in sales roles.

@26:51 – Jim McKenna (DSP Careers)

Sure. I agree 100%. 100%.

@26:56 – Lainie (Oldcastle)

But that gives me more credibility. hey, this person listened. They cared enough to understand a little bit about me, to say, you know, they sent me something related to what I like and then a nice handwritten thank you note.

And, and those things. Everybody wants to. And I don’t mean to use a gross word but vomit their product information without really listening.

Right. And so I always ask good questions. Pause hit the pause button. Listen, don’t try to over talk to customer.

@27:35 – Jim McKenna (DSP Careers)

Bring out the pain is what I use up people. find to find the pain and you heal the pain.

So listen to you ask questions. They can tell you exactly what road you need to go down.

@27:45 – Lainie (Oldcastle)

And it’s important to hit the pause button and remember that, you know, sometimes silent a moment to process is okay.

People get very uncomfortable with uncomfortable silence sometimes. Sure. Right. Out of nervousness. And just talking.

@28:03 – Jim McKenna (DSP Careers)

Yeah, I 100% absolutely. Yes. And like you said, I had a boss once even before I got into the bill materials world, but he would ask questions and he would just fit in.

shut his mouth and by the end of the day, he’d tell you how many ceiling tiles were in the office because he would wait until they answered your towels while they doing it.

And that’s so funny that you say that because it’s so true.

@28:27 – Lainie (Oldcastle)

Yeah. And these are just best practices across the board, right? I mean, people want to do business with people, but they need to be heard, right?

They need to be acknowledged for who they are. And I think taking a step back and doing that on a personal level creates a better relationship.

@28:45 – Jim McKenna (DSP Careers)

Sure. Great. Great. Anything else you like that?

@28:50 – Lainie (Oldcastle)

No, no. I mean, I think people know that, you know, I’m very passionate about about decking, about railing, you know, I enjoy the relationships that I’ve cultivated over time over the last two decades really.

@29:08 – Jim McKenna (DSP Careers)

You know, I’ve seen these guys and their children grow up, which is scary because that means I’m getting older.

@29:15 – Lainie (Oldcastle)

Some of them have gone off to college when they were toddlers. When we first met, and so it’s just, it’s really, it’s been scary how the time has gone so fast.

But, you know, no matter where I’ve worked, I think I’ve always been a study. know, I mean, people know that I am who I am and try not to be defined by my position, right?

But really want to do business with me as a person. And I’ll continue to cultivate those relationships. you know, I like, I enjoy working for old castle APG and I like the message that moisture shield sounds out there.

As far as, you know, some different factors. I think we have a lot of room to. I look forward to growing with us as a company.