2020- ABSi Recognized “Westcoast Dealers Lean on Financial Strength to Gain Markets”
Publication date: Feb 27, 2020 DWM Magazine
According to year-end housing data, on a regional and year-to-date basis, combined single-family and multifamily housing starts were lower in the Midwest and West regions. While the West was hit the hardest, at -4.7%, data collected by [DWM] shows that some door and window dealers have landed strategies that more than make up for those losses. Top dealers in California, for instance, saw anywhere from $1 to $3 million increases in revenues for 2019—averaging an 8% increase. “Much of our growth in 2019 was attributed to a maturing salesforce choosing to sell more ultra-high-end products, complimented by some unique corporate strategies,” says Scott Thurber, president of Associated Building Supply Inc. (ABSI) in Auburn, Calif.
That strategy led to $3 million worth of growth—a figure that Thurber says his company plans to stretch even further this year, aiming for $50 million in revenue. It’s also a strategy that he says doesn’t come easy.“Selling ultra-high-end products is not for every company,” he says. “Due to the extensive sales cycle and lead times, selling high-end window and door products requires ample cash-flow and reserves.” As a result, many competitors rely heavily on products that present shorter lead times for the sake of snappier payment and cash flow, he says. Those same commodity-oriented products are less complicated also easier to sell with a shorter sales cycle, he suggests. By adapting to higher skill sets, ABSI’s veteran sales consultants have learned to work through what he says are the more technical issues accompanying high-end luxury home projects. Challenges include, “an onslaught of business tasks and working with a multitude of decision influencers and personalities; exchange rates; international shipping and logistics; and metric to imperial conversions,” he says, as well as installation challenges, product application, on-site project management and proactive architectural specification assistance.
