The market floor in Indy buzzed, but the real energy came from a simple idea: winning sales teams keep score and remove friction. Sitting with Eric Knox, Director of LBM Sales, we pull back the curtain on how a regional structure, clear metrics, and a new mindset around “no” transformed a team from scattered effort to compounding momentum. Eric’s story, from hauling bag goods to leading a hungry, data-driven crew, shows how clarity turns competition into culture, and how early stumbles can become the foundation for hockey-stick growth when you keep iterating.
We dig into the nuts and bolts of selling in the built world when big-box and mega-pro dealers loom large. The advantage for independents isn’t pretending to be bigger; it’s becoming easier. That means deploying tools like TOOLBX to streamline quotes and payments, giving dealers more time with contractors, and aligning field roles to support entire businesses, not just isolated categories. It also means modern outreach: we unpack how LinkedIn stops being a resume graveyard and starts working like a warm-intro engine.
Topics covered:
• Eric’s path from hardware retail to LBM leadership
• Drive, resilience, and the hockey-stick model of growth
• Publishing metrics and keeping score to focus the team
• Rolling out a regional structure for accountability and speed
• Using LinkedIn to replace cold starts with warm intros
• Training and tools that remove friction for contractors
• Merchandising small-footprint, high-ROI products
• Developing next-gen talent and gamifying performance
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