Sales and Leadership
Leadership experience and employment history.
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Sales is about core strengths and capabilities, as well as new products. This asbestos image reminds me that growth can be found by focusing the team on quality and strengths taken for granted. Example - asbestos is assumed to be mostly gone, but despite billions of dollars annually in abatement, probably <10% has been addressed.
When starting to teach my sales team about fire/smoke restoration, one asked why fire when mold is so much larger. Assumptions and comfort zones are the enemy of sales leadership. A tight sales team will respond to confident direction, but leadership is doing the work, developing the substance, so they hit the bricks strong.
Sales leadership is about keeping it real - everyone has to achieve something, and nobody has time or resources to spare. Your company has goals, and the field team has to bring it home personally. That happens when the client gets the result they demand, and we make it easy as possible for all other parties to bring home their bacon too. That means strength in sales is investing in understanding the big picture, and applying that in the trenches. I’m not good at selling widgets, and it isn’t always about price.
SALES AND LEADERSHIP :
I have enjoyed most of my career in sales. It was twenty-five years with the Fiberlock brand as it evolved through private and ESOP (California Products Corp), and then during multiple private equity ownerships (Apollo, Delos, Audax). During the first era, I served as the Technical point, and then became the sales leader, as well as served on the Fiberlock Board of Directors. During the second era, I participated in leadership and sales as the transformation into ICP took place, and numerous acquisitions were rapidly folded in. In 2018, I was asked by the highest levels of ICP leadership to step away from sales, in order to build the MasterWorks community, specification initiatives, and education/training programs.
While my employment history is detailed below, here are some of the highlights I am proud to share:
Growth in sales from approximately 300K to over 15M during 1993-2017. An average growth of $800K per year for a small division that never exceeded 10 employees.
Led the sales team through expansion of the product offering (see the charts below) - a diversification that changed from 95% asbestos and 5% lead-related business, to 6 distinct sources of business across environmental abatement and restoration.
Additions to the product offering involved transforming from a marketing shelf that sold 6 products with one salesperson; into over 120 SKUs that were brought to market in ten sales regions manned by a mixture of full-time field staff and manufacturer’s reps.
Full responsibility to hire, manage, discipline and when necessary terminate field sales personnel.
Distribution expansion: Growth was from 4 main customers when I joined the company, to approximately 25 core distribution accounts, and hundreds of points of distribution. This included retail and mass market/home centers, buying groups, fledgling online sales, and GSA.
All new line and product introductions were planned with my full participation to identify advantages, understand competitors better than they knew themselves, and delineate each of the substrategies for channel partners (distributors), specifiers, and endusers.
Primary responsibility for national-level relationships with top distributor accounts, as well as multinational specifiers and contractors.
Created and sustained a multi-year specifier initiative that motivated sales to pursue and succeed gaining time, trust and attention from specifiers. This resulted in ongoing, loyal and margin protected business even up to present day.
Using my academic training, I connected laws and regulations at the state and federal level to anticipate demand and demonstrate our products met and surpassed all requirements. Then, traveling to meet regulators and gain their trust, I drafted language regarding abatement products and methods that was incorporated several times into code, statute or regulation. Understanding how regulators and regulations was a central tenet of the Fiberlock go-to-market strategy during my sales leadership.
Pioneered storm sales strategy for the company. Recognized that “CAT” sales followed a broad formula, and that disinfectant and mold/water damage sales in the aftermath of hurricane could be taught to our own people as well as distributor partners.
Forged the relationship between Fiberlock and the volunteer groups that serve in the aftermath of disaster: VOADs - Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster. The largest, Southern Baptist Disaster Relief, was regularly among the top 10 purchasers of Fiberlock ShockWave disinfectant YOY for about a decade. I assisted in writing their operations manual, and I was the first outsider/manufacturer in memory trusted enough to be invited to teach 2 years running at their national convention.
From 2012 onward, I was champion for development of the structural fire and wildfire damage emerging market opportunities. The early missionary work on who are the customers, and what they needed and wanted to improve their business was a singleminded project until 2015 when fire sales gained initial traction.
Coordinated and led annual National Sales Meetings for 20 years.
Managed several key “house” accounts personally, such as the W.R. Grace private-label business.
Made my industry involvement actionable by sales. My participation in standards and regulatory development, or leadership in organizations like the Indoor Air Quality Association or the Property Insurance Restoration Council were always delivered to sales as active and convertible opportunities.
EMPLOYMENT HISTORY:
ICP Building Solutions Group:
Full-time · 9 yrs 6 mos
Greater Boston Area
DIRECTOR - EDUCATION & AED SPECIFICATION:
Jan 2018 - Jun 2022 · 4 yrs 6 mos
Develop and direct educational & training content, achieve institutional acceptance, and drive architectural & engineering specifications for 20+ brands and more than 10,000 products for structural construction.
Vice President - Environmental Products Group:
Jan 2013 - Jan 2018 · 5 yrs 1 m
Fiberlock Technologies, Inc.
20 yrs
Cambridge, MA 1993-2000; Andover, MA 2000-2013
Executive Vice President:
Jan 2009 - Dec 2016 · 8 yrs
Sales Management and Industry Development
Vice President - National Accounts:
Jan 2005 - Jan 2009 · 4 yrs 1 mo
Continued duties of National Sales Manager while adding a broad portfolio of industry development involvement including the creation of industry standards and organizations.
National Sales Manager:
Jan 2000 - Jan 2004 · 4 yrs 1 mo
Development of national sales team. Elevation and growth of relationships with national partners in distribution, specification and utilization of environmental control and containment products for asbestos, lead paint, mold, infection control, indoor air quality.
Compliance and Technical Sales Manager:
May 1993 - Apr 2000 · 7 yrs
Product Management and Development; Technical Sales Resource for sales force as well as Distribution customers and Product Specifiers & Users. Trade show exhibition. Monitor and participate in public policy development that had direct and indirect impacts on Fiberlock's business
Merchandising & Catalog Development:
Mass Army Navy
Jul 1992 - Sep 1994 · 2 yrs 3 mos
Allston, MA
Catalog Development Specialist. Military Insignia Specialist. Copywriter. Product Research.
Environmental Science Program:
Director
City of Newton
Jun 1989 - Jul 1994 · 5 yrs 2 mos
Run all aspects of a non-profit program to take students from 6th grade into high school to take them into the natural environment and teach ecology, social responsibility, and earth science. Also, teaching group interaction and support is a primary mission.