Ken's Blog: Here's how they do it
This special Pro Dealer of the Year issue recognizes two high-performance lumberyards. Congratulations to Kuiken Brothers of Fair Lawn, N.J., and Millard Lumber of Omaha, Neb., our respective “Pro Dealer of the Year” and “Independent Pro Dealer of the Year” for 2017.
If you’re lucky enough to attend the ProDealer Industry Summit — Oct. 17 to 19 at the Wigwam in Phoenix — we’ll see you there. You can meet the people behind the awards. If not, you can at least get a look inside these award-winning companies in our coverage of Kuiken Brothers and Millard Lumber.
One thing our editors uncover year-after-year: No matter how different they may appear on the surface — you’re going to find some similarities in their approach. And if you ask 10 high-performance building supply dealers to name their advantage, 10 of them are going to credit the people who go to work early and put in a full day.
Our 2017 honorees are great with customers, and they’re great with employees. Like the entire fraternity of award winners, they experiment and adjust. (Our 2012 Pro Dealer of the Year, Meek’s, is trying something new).
We asked Joel Russell, Millard Lumber chief operating officer, to share whatever special metric Millard Lumber has discovered that helps set it apart from the competition. His answer was revealing.
“I don’t think there is one,” he said. “I mean there’s not a lot of rocket science in our industry. I wish there was. And there are not a whole lot of secrets either. It’s just a matter of finding those things that your customers in your market find important and making sure that you’re doing extremely well on those.”
In a separate interview on the other side of the country, here’s Doug Kuiken, president of Kuiken Brothers: “I think we all fundamentally do the same thing: All independents strive to be the best that they can be,” Kuiken said. “Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t.”
We hear it again and again from great companies. It’s execution. Serve the customer. Identify weaknesses. Improve them. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. But don’t make them twice. And in the case of Kuiken Brothers — the phrase that pays is “get it right.”
“That’s our slogan,” Kuiken said. “And that’s not just about getting the right amount of material on a truck, it’s getting it right with our customers, getting it right with our employees. Getting our design right. It’s being the best we can be.”
Tell us your key to success at [email protected].