Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:09] Speaker B: Welcome to the Clear Impact Podcast, brought to you by Mitre Brands University. Thanks for joining us today. My name is Sheri Conner and I am your host.
[00:00:24] Speaker C: All right, so we are on the Clear Impact Podcast and we are at a training event in Orlando today and we just finished our first day. It was glass and PGT Vinyl and also MI Vinyl. And so I've coerced these three men into sitting down with me and also we had lunch. So I bribed them, actually, because I reminded them that we paid for their lunch today. So we're just going to go around the table. You're going to tell me your name, the company that you work for, and what you do there. Yep.
[00:00:55] Speaker A: My name is Matthew Vasquez. I'm with Neighborhood Windows and Doors and I oversee most of the marketing and growth side of the business. Scott over there, I won't make the introduction from him, but he handles the entire sales side.
[00:01:07] Speaker C: Okay, awesome. Thanks for being here.
[00:01:09] Speaker D: My name is Kyle Wurtzel and I am over production and suppliers of Neighborhood Windows and Doors.
[00:01:15] Speaker C: Okay, and where is Neighborhood Windows and Doors?
[00:01:17] Speaker D: Brevard County.
[00:01:18] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:01:19] Speaker D: East coast.
[00:01:19] Speaker C: Okay, so is that south of here or north of here?
[00:01:22] Speaker D: South of here.
[00:01:23] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:01:23] Speaker A: Hi.
[00:01:24] Speaker E: Scott Thomas, Neighborhood Windows and Doors sales manager. Been with the company for. It'll be a year in July.
[00:01:30] Speaker C: So are all of you industry like pros? Have you been in it a long time or like, what's your years of experience in the business?
[00:01:38] Speaker A: Let's see. So Neighborhood Windows and Doors, we started this in 2019, Kyle and I did, and prior to that we had zero window and door experience. So him and I both come from more of a construction background.
[00:01:50] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:01:51] Speaker A: Kyle. More so than probably everyone you know at the table, but he has his contractor's license and my previous experience was a lot of sales and growth and organizational development. And so him and I, we met at a previous company and kind of decided to do this together.
[00:02:04] Speaker C: All right. So how long have you been in.
[00:02:06] Speaker D: The industry, in the construction industry? I've been in it for about 15 years, 16 years altogether, the window and door space, and since 2019.
[00:02:13] Speaker C: All right, and how about you?
[00:02:14] Speaker E: Yeah, I'm only nine months into the industry. I was in corporate sales, sales management for almost 30 years. And due to their fast growing company and the need to fill the role of a sales manager, sales director type of position to help control all of that growth and continue to grow as well, I was brought into the industry for those purposes.
[00:02:33] Speaker C: So, and so what is the primary business that you're in? Are you doing a lot of new construction or R and R or like, what's your focus?
[00:02:41] Speaker A: So we do both. We do retro and new construction. We have two separate divisions. One that works with custom home builders, and then what? Scott oversees our sales department, which focuses on a lot of retro on the East Coast.
[00:02:52] Speaker C: Awesome. And so you guys drove how far?
[00:02:55] Speaker E: An hour.
[00:02:56] Speaker F: Not too bad.
[00:02:57] Speaker C: Okay, so you drove an hour, gave up your whole day letting your emails stack up and letting your voicemails handle the load.
So for a training event, obviously if you're kind of new to the business, that makes sense. But for you, you've been around for a while. So what did you guys pick up from today? Like, give me one thing that you lear that you didn't know before today.
[00:03:15] Speaker E: I think the interest in the Mitre brands and PGT merging together, I know that was a big thing for me to kind of get a better understanding of what all was going to be involved with that and how that was going to play out. So it's exciting to see.
[00:03:26] Speaker C: Yeah, we've been kind of curious, too.
It is coming together, though, and having Alan here to present the MI windows, that's a first for us to have an MI presentation in the middle of a PGT training.
[00:03:38] Speaker G: So.
[00:03:38] Speaker C: Yeah. How about you?
[00:03:39] Speaker D: Myself, I didn't know a whole lot about the Mitre brand, so just a lot of the product knowledge, the Pros and Cons vs. PGT and Mitre and what they offer and what they don't offer.
[00:03:48] Speaker C: Okay. Yeah.
[00:03:49] Speaker A: I feel like I'm falling in line. So kind of the same thing. I don't really know too much about mi. We see it a lot in the marketplace. We didn't really know that PGT and MI were kind of, you know, figuring out a way to consolidate their product lines. And it's probably going to take some time, but I think for us as an organization, that's pretty exciting because we compete against MI for different reasons. They fill a different void in the marketplace. And also I think in general, it's good to have refreshers on certain things. So even though we've got experience in the window and door space, never a bad thing to hear a lot of the same things over and kind of reinforce best practices, things like that. But the biggest thing I think sounds like from all of us at the table is we're pretty excited about MI and PGT coming together and figuring out a way to consolidate those lines so we can start slinging more windows.
[00:04:31] Speaker C: Exactly.
Yeah. PGT Innovations was the parent company over all of us. And at one point, I think there were 14 different aluminum sliding glass doors in our portfolio. And it was like, okay, we need to align some things. And so with Mitre, they've been very proactive around that. And so, like, discontinuing this door, but promoting this one, discontinuing that one to enhance this one. So there's going to be a lot more of that as the year goes through. Our product teams have been very busy in that space. So, anyway, guys, I really appreciate you sitting down. You're so brave. Thank you.
You'll get a copy of this. I told you it wouldn't hurt. But anyway, thank you for your time. Thanks for coming out today and let us know if we can help with any more educational.
[00:05:10] Speaker A: Thanks for having.
[00:05:11] Speaker E: Fantastic. Thank you.
[00:05:11] Speaker C: All right, thanks.
[00:05:15] Speaker B: We are sharing our expertise around all topics relating to the window and door industry. Whether you are a customer selling our products or a homeowner doing research, the Clear Impact Podcast provides helpful content that makes an impact. Subscribe today wherever you listen to podcasts.
[00:05:33] Speaker G: We are here on the Clear Impact Podcast and we are at a training event in Orlando this week, and I have the three of our own sitting at the table. So I'm just going to have you go around, introduce yourself and tell us what your role is in the company.
[00:05:47] Speaker F: Hello, my name is Francisco Feliz. I'm member of the Myriad Brands University.
We are here in Orlando. It's always a great honor to have the opportunity to have that interaction with the customer hosting this training event. We have the chance to interact with them and teach them about service, installation, basic concept of our product, and help them to be more successful in what they do.
[00:06:11] Speaker G: Nice.
[00:06:12] Speaker C: All right.
[00:06:13] Speaker H: Hi, Sherry. I'm Patrick Jamison. I am the senior specialist dealer training.
[00:06:17] Speaker G: Okay.
[00:06:17] Speaker I: Yeah. Alan Fortenberry. So Patrick asked me to be involved on the MI side. So, yeah, it was a real interesting day and really cool to see the products start to be discussed together in the same room.
[00:06:29] Speaker G: Yeah, this was the first time we kind of talked about that a little bit earlier today, that this is the first training camp event where we've had multiple dealers coming into the same room together, where we presented PGT and MI together.
And I think that cleared up a lot of questions for a lot of our customers.
[00:06:49] Speaker H: Oh, absolutely. And it was fun because we were able to ask Alan questions and he was able to ask us questions because we're still learning each other's products. Well, I'm learning more about mi. He's probably more comfortable with PGT products.
[00:07:02] Speaker I: It's Trial by Fire. I mean, you guys have a lot of really cool stuff, but yeah, I mean, being in the market for 21 years like I have, and I guess you would say competing side by side with pgt. A lot of my dealers had both brands on the shelf, so I knew enough to admire from afar.
Yeah. Now getting down into the weeds and learning the product a little bit better, it's been really interesting and it's neat to see the brands up there together and how they fit together and how, you know, we always talked about you can't be everything to everybody, but darn, we're getting close. We got a lot to offer between PGT and MI for all the dealers.
[00:07:37] Speaker F: Now we get to be under the same umbrella.
[00:07:39] Speaker I: That's right.
[00:07:40] Speaker F: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:07:41] Speaker H: There's not going to be too many chances of you saying no to somebody when they need a certain configuration or, hey, I'm looking for this, but my customer wants that. And how do we meet in the middle? It's like, ah, you know what? I think I've got something for you.
[00:07:54] Speaker I: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:07:55] Speaker G: Well, and I loved that one of the things that you shared was like, this was the window that we used to compete against pgt. Like, that was kind of a nice shout out to the legacy of the PGT name and brand. But I know there's definitely market space for both. You can like, oh, you want this, you want that, you want the other thing. So it really helps our customers capture that market share.
[00:08:20] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:08:20] Speaker H: Agreed.
[00:08:21] Speaker G: Agreed.
[00:08:21] Speaker C: Nice.
[00:08:22] Speaker G: And so was this what you were expecting today? Alan, I know this is kind of the first time you've been to a training camp. What did you think?
[00:08:27] Speaker I: Yeah, I didn't really know what to expect, but yeah, I was very pleased. I thought Patrick did a great job. You guys are so knowledgeable on your stuff and, you know, I just hope that I covered enough. I'm used to doing PK classes for customers, but sometimes you don't get that much time to go over it. So it's nice to dig into your product and really talk about the things that separate it. And yeah, it's interesting because as I mentioned in my presentation, there's some products that we were using to try our best to get after some of the PGT opportunities that we just didn't have products for. And here we find ourselves being in the same camp and it's neat to some of those products, you know, turned out to be really valuable and I think there's still space for that. I always joked about being a window sales guy on A panhandle and not being able to sell on the coast. Don't have those excuses anymore. Right, right. So we got it covered top to bottom. So it was neat. I enjoyed it.
[00:09:18] Speaker H: Some of the, like, testimonies that we hear, first time somebody comes to like a training camp is I didn't realize there was that much information to talk about. Like when Francisco kicked it off with the impact glass, you know, just great information. And then we got to Turtle Code and that's when you jumped in and was able to talk about Turtle Code. And I know, I seen the look on some of the folks faces, like, I didn't know that or I didn't know that was really that important. And I understand that now. And it's just great that we can feed off of each other. Hit on a lot of top. They're able to chime in, talk about different things. I mean, they were showing pictures earlier today when we were talking about different configurations just to help each other out. Like, this is what it looks like because I told them, I don't have a picture of this, but somebody brought their iPad up and says, I got a picture of that. And they were able to show it. And that's why I told everybody is we're here to learn from each other. So it's just always a good training camp when we have these things.
[00:10:09] Speaker B: Right.
[00:10:09] Speaker G: But we did have some good interaction with customers today and tomorrow's day too, talking about building code and installation and services. So different batch of people, different focus for their roles within the companies. And so thank you for your time, thank you for a great day, enjoy your evenings and we'll see you tomorrow.
[00:10:27] Speaker H: Thank you.
[00:10:28] Speaker I: Thank you.
[00:10:28] Speaker C: All right, bye.
[00:10:31] Speaker B: The Clear Impact podcast is brought to you by Mitre Brands University.
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