My Important People in the Glass Industry

Memorial Day's original purpose, as spelled out by Congress, was to honor people, both military and civilian, who died in combat. Over the last twenty years the holiday grew to remember all people who have passed on. This year there is a greater emphasis on the war dead, as we are, again, at war.



I started thinking about some people who have helped me in my glass career, people for whom I am grateful that our paths crossed. Most are still living, and it's nice to think about them while they are alive!



The man who took a chance on me was Phil Saitta, the Regional Sales Manager for CR Laurence. He taught me everything, from the glass industry to how to sell. His most important teachings were to always be prepared for a sales call, follow-up on all promises and quotations and no matter what may have happened in business, no one can take away your pride, as long as you hold yourself as a professional.



I talked with Phil a couple of months ago. He and his wife Lillian are now fully retired and living in Florida near grandchildren.



Bernie Harris was the President of CRL. I didn't have daily contact with Mr. Harris, but his presence was everywhere within CRL. Mr. Harris, (he was always called Mr. Harris by everyone) cultivated an image of professionalism 24 hours a day. He was the first one at the plant, and usually the last to leave. He always wore a blue blazer, charcoal dress slacks, and occasionally a sweater vest in the colder areas. One day, in a private moment, I asked him how he prepared for his business day. He told me that he would study the area he was going into, and he kept a file called a travel file. If something passed his desk, it either needed to be acted upon immediately, or put into the travel file for his next visit to that area. When he came into our offices in New Jersey, he would have a hundred questions for us. He was prepared. Mr Harris never looked at a clock. He worked. Period. Running a national company from the West Coast required a long day. Mr. Harris would arrive at his desk by 5:30 AM, western time, so he could work with the Eastern customers and vendors, and stayed at his desk until 6:00 PM, western time. There was no thought of take care of the problem tomorrow. Mr. Harris' mantra was to solve the customer situation now, so all involved could get a good night's sleep.



What a role model---here was a gentleman who had built a local mirror clip manufacturer into the leading supply house to the glass industry. He continued to work hard, because, that was his job. It made it easy for the middle managers to work hard, knowing that the owner and senior managers worked just as hard.



One other man influenced me from CRL, Mr. Don Friese. He developed new products daily, he saw the future...where CRL had to go. He knew selling razor blades wasn't as beneficial as selling sealants. Don then lead us into selling custom hardware for doors. Don Friese taught me that there were only two types of companies in our world. Those that supported CRL, as a customer or vendor, and those that didn't. He had no time for fence-sitters or people who would play one vendor against another. This sounds extreme, but it is what profit making business are about. When I left CRL to join Floral Glass in Hauppauge, New York, the solid lessons I learned from Mr. Harris and Don Friese stayed with me.



Chuck Kaplanek, the owner of Floral Glass, is the next extraordinary person to enter my life. Chuck was thrown into the leadership role at Floral, when his Dad, Charlie Kaplanek had medical setbacks. Chuck didn't have the luxury of learning at his Father's side. He had just graduated college and a very short time later, he was in charge. Chuck, like my other heroes, didn't look at a clock. He would work 16 hours a day for many years. After his children were born, Chuck brought in professional management to help him run the business, so he could be both, a father and a business leader.



Chuck has the most valuable talent in the glass business--he could see two years ahead. Under him, Floral was the first to manufacture architectural insulating glass on a vertical line, we were the first on the East Coast with a 96" tempering oven; we were the first to use silicone as the sealant of an IG unit, we had the largest laminated autoclave in the country. Chuck's vision was was expanded with his frequent European trips looking at equipment. Chuck speaks 7 languages fluently and when negotiating with a German equipment manufacturer, or a Czech glass manufacturer, Chuck always worked the deal to Floral's benefit.



Chuck brought me in to set up his management team, and never second-guessed us. He would ask a lot of questions, but always allowed us to follow our path. Sure, there were mistakes, but Chuck was always there encouraging us to rectify and improve where we had slipped.



After about 10 years with Floral something changed. I became a member of Chuck's family. Nothing formal happened, but we became brothers running a family business. Before working with Chuck, I was a professional business man in the glass industry. After working with Chuck for 22 years, we had a bond that will never be broken.



There are hundreds of great people in our glass industry; these heroes are the ones that have impacted my life.



Do you have a hero? Drop a note on the US Glass News Forum and share a wonderful person with us.

How To Gain Customers in a New Market Area

Last week we talked about gaining customers in your current business area. Let's talk about gaining customers in an area that you currently don't do any significant business.

First step is to identify the area you want to grow in to. Decide which areas have potential for the type of business that you do best and is profitable for you. If you are a storefront specialist pick an area with a lot of retail and office space. If you do a lot of mirror and residential work, pick the area with a lot of homes. This sounds so easy, but I have seen many glass shops trying to grow by taking on new product lines in new areas, and that is very tough to do. If you want a new product type to be added to your mix, do it close to home where problems can be quickly fixed. Going in to a new geographic area requires you to be an expert in the product lines you cover.

After you have identified a couple of areas that fit your current product lines, look at ease of getting to an area. The best area will have good roads from your shop and be within an hour's driving time from your shop.

Time your market entry with the release of the area's yellow pages. Call your local phone company to get the release dates. Most areas have two or maybe three phone books. A large ad is great, but expensive. Go with a medium size ad and small ads in various alternate headings. Some are:

• Windows
• Doors
• Mirrors
• Shower Doors (or Shower Enclosures)
• Storm Windows
• Closets
• Store Fronts
• Showcases (or Displays)
• Auto Repairs (maybe Auto Glass)
• Energy Saving Products
• Board-ups (sometimes Emergency Board-ups)
• Acoustical contracting or Sound Reduction
• Screens
• Furniture (New or Repairs)
• Sand Blasting
• Sun Rooms
• Fireplace Doors

Remember, more smaller ads are better than one big ad.

For your new area, see if you can get a local phone number. In your new ads, don't list your address, just your phone number. If your phone system can be programmed, have this number ring differently and answer this line with "Paul's Glass Company, proudly serving the ______region, this is _____, can I help you". If you do after hours work list your cell number. People will leave a message on a company cell phone more readily than an answering service.

Send a short press release to any newspapers covering your new area mentioning just one or two of your primary skills. Most Editors won't publish a list of all the products you sell and install.

If you are going to hire, whether office or shop, try to hire someone from your new area. Go to the local school system and see if they need any glass repairs. Do it at No Charge, and send a press release. This will get published by every local Editor.

You might want to put an ad in the local paper. Repetition is more important than one splashy ad.

A directed mailing is good advertising in a new area. Contact a mail list company, (from the yellow pages) and get prices on a mailing to selected Zip Codes. By the time you are done with ad preparation, envelopes and our new postage rates, expect to pay about $0.75 per piece sent. If the zip codes are larger than the area you want, the mail house should be able to give you smaller areas, usually based on the carrier route sort, the last 4 digits in a zip code. A new customer flyer should include a coupon for your specialty. Don't give away a three dollar calculator with every estimate. If you want to give something away, make it relevant to your business. A can of glass cleaner, or lint free cleaning clothes, or a pocket mirror.

Join the local merchants association or chamber of commerce. Ask if you can be the speaker at one of their meetings. Showing bullet-resistant glazing, or the new colors of laminated glass is always a show-stopper. Have your fabricator join you and give a short seminar on energy-savings with low-e glass. Talking about green glazing is a very important and current topic.

One thing you don't want to do is cut your prices to gain entry to the market area. It's always hard to raise them later.

The next time you repaint your trucks, show the areas you service. Keep your truck clean and it is your best advertising bet. You may want to consider a billboard in your new area. Keep this simple--your company name, phone number and the tag line "now serving the_____ region."

Don't ask your customer how to find their house or business. Get local maps or use the Internet for truck routing.

My favorite advertising is sponsoring a Little League team. Or maybe youth football, or a basketball team. Do things that show community spirit. This doesn't have the same impact as a yellow pages ad, but word-of-mouth starts with this type of advertising.

Is there a radio station that covers your new area? Call their news Editor and get on their contact list of experts to call. If they have a call-in news show ask if you can help them with an energy savings segment.

Follow up every job the same as you would in your core area, asking for referrals.

Do you have any tips you would like to share? Go the Forum page at the US Glass News and tell the glass industry what you have done. Thanks.

How To Grow A Business

It's easy...you plant a seed, water it, and as my wife says, "Call Paul, as he is the best fertilizer spreader around."

Or, read the rest of this blog and you'll learn how to grow your business yourself.

It is more important for long-term growth of any business to increase profits, not just sales. Increasing sales and controlling the increase in expenses will lead you down the profit path.

There are two ways to grow sales. One, increase your customer base, and two, sell more to your current customers. Today we will discuss increasing your customer base within your current geographic service area.

The single best source of new customers is a positive referral from current customers. With every job you do, leave a simple questionnaire for the customer asking:

1. Was our work finished correctly?
2. Was our staff polite?
3. Did our staff clean the work area to your satisfaction?
4. If you answered yes to the above questions, can we give you an estimate on other work?
5. May we list you among our references?
6. Is there someone you would like us to contact to prepare an estimate?

That's it. If questions 1, 2 and 3 are yes, you will get good answers on 4, 5, and 6. If they are not yes, you should personally get on the phone and discuss what the customer sees as shortcomings. Listen and don't try to defend your company. Even if your are right, if the customer doesn't see it, you are wrong. Learn from this. Teach your staff what they have to do to get a 'yes' from each customer.

A glass shop customer doesn't care if the setting block is the wrong size. That is up to your professional quality standards to handle. They only know if the job looks right, if they were treated respectfully, and if the work area is clean.

Follow up in three months and again in six months, asking if you can give an estimate on any other work. You will pick up additional business.

Some people believe in new customer specials. Banks and car dealers love this type of sales incentive. Personally, I feel this type of special upsets current customers who hear or see your promotion.

Another way to increase market penetration is a public relations campaign. Have you done a newsworthy job? Do you have good pictures? Send them to your local paper. An editorial picture is worth a hundred times more than a paid ad. Go to a local school, look around for any glass work needed, and then offer to do it for free. Do the same thing with a girls or boys club, a church or synagogue or a local museum. Most organizations have a newsletter, just ask them to include a mention about your work. Send your news about your working to the paper. When you've done work at a church, send this to the religion editor and the business editor. Plan a spring clean-up of the glass work at your town hall. Fixing a few windows or replacing a bathroom mirror is worth its weight in gold when it is posted on a town website.

Sponsor a local high school shop class to visit your store and have each student cut and seam a small mirror. Have the local community college bring their car repair or body shop classes to watch you put in a windshield.

Give that wrong size piece of tempered in the back of your shop to the physics class and explain about the break pattern. The teacher can talk about potential energy, and then break the glass. Do the same thing with a piece of lami, and you are now a professor of glass. Be sure to have someone take a picture, and send this one to the PTA for their newsletter.

Donate a case of glass cleaner, worth about $25, to the Boy Scouts for a clean up they're doing. They are always doing one some place or another. Again, the picture of you handing the case over is worth a thousand words.

When an organization comes in your store asking for a donation, and you feel it is a good cause, donate a gift certificate to your store rather than cash. Give a couple of your tee shirts with your name on it. Cash is easily forgotten and only the person with the largest donation gets the round of applause.

If you want to go the paid advertising route, spend the money required to create a sharp ad. A poorly designed ad sends the message that you don't care about details. Repetition is more important than size. A smaller ad every week will gain better results than a large ad done just once. (By the way, the same is true in US Glass Magazine--repetition trumps the big ad)

Think of your trucks as your best advertisement. Go to a truck painting firm and have them create your trucks as mobile billboards. Show your name, phone number and a list of the types of work you do. People are great billboards too! Give your employees a good tee-shirt or golf-type shirt to wear at the job as part of their job requirements. A good quality, printed tee shirt will run under ten dollars. Give them to your customers when you complete a job and they will become your human billboards.

Make sure all of your communications look professional...business cards, estimate forms, invoices, statements, advertising, trucks...all need to carry a color and wording theme that is consistent. This is more important than advertising in the TV section of the paper.

You can't compete with the large chains on advertising budget. I've found the best advertising for a glass shop is the Yellow Pages. Don't be the biggest ad, but be the one that shows professionalism. Be in every book that covers your target market. Be in the glass heading, the window one; there is usually one on shower doors, and storm windows. See if there is a separate one for mirrors and one for showcases. A great looking one-color ad is more valuable than a poorly designed multi-color ad. Spend with a good graphic designer or ad agency and save by sticking to the one color ad.

We'll have more on gaining new customers next week.

By the way, my two teams, the Mets and the Red Sox are in first place in their divisions. It doesn't get much better than this.

More On Problem Solving

Last week we defined a problem as an event that interrupts your planned day which will cost you money or time (really the same thing) to fix, beyond what you had planned.

Customers, vendors, your boss or your employees will throw you one curve ball every day. Guaranteed. I usually try to leave an hour free each day, planned, to problem solve. The best time is mid-to-late morning. Your problems of no-shows, bounced checks, late deliveries and delayed job sites will all be in by then. Leaving this hour for problem solving lets you regroup and salvage the afternoon for productivity. In the unlikely chance that no problem occurred, then use this suddenly found hour of time to attack the to-do list you have taped to your computer monitor.

If you still don't have something to do, do the best thing possible...follow-up on quotes, call customers, and generate more revenue, which will give you more chances of having problems. Yes, it is one heck of a treadmill we are on.

Back to problems...Some days you'll have more problems than you can solve in the allotted hour. The most important problems then get solved first. Easy for me to say sitting here. The most important problem is one that will upset a good customer. Forget about solving your vendor's problem, and Aunt Margie. Good customers come first, next employees and then the loudest.

Then you have to have your own definition of a good customer. Mine is: Someone who lets you make a fair profit on your dealings. Solve this person's problem first.

The best advice I was ever given is this: "Sometimes you can't solve every problem".

When a customer says come over and change something now, you have to decide if this indeed was part of the original job or is it really an add. Sometimes the answer to the customer is NO because you didn't have that in your original time schedule and if you spend extra time, which would be billable, then you are throwing every job on the calendar back. Yes, it is a problem for the customer, but you have to be firm in that it is not a problem for your company, right at this moment.

The other very tough answer is when you say that you hear what the customer says, and yes indeed it is a problem, like the wrong color glass is being installed, but that you can't solve the problem this minute because it takes a week to get the corrected order. Customers would rather hear that their problem will be solved in one hour, but you are better off telling them it will be a week. They'll be unhappy, OK, but you will a have that week to make sure the second go will be perfect.

At the other end of the line, don't go out of your way for the person that stops a check, or threatens you with lawyers and penalties. If you can't work out something with reasonableness on both sides, you will never please that customer, no matter what. Once the customer has threatened you, to save face, they will have to be all bull and bluster until the job is finished, and they'll show you with a silly punch list. When you get a feeling that a customer is more in love with the charge back than they are with job, accept the fact you are going to get beaten for money anyway, and let it be for your slow response to their problem. Either way, you are eating a certain amount on jobs like this.

So the real trick in problem solving is which problems to solve. If you pick the right ones, you will have many satisfied customers, which is why we are in this business.