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.
So good afternoon. We are here on the Clear Impact Podcast and today we are talking about relationships. And at Miter Brands we believe in strong relationships. And we actually have a program called Excellence Through Partnership and that is ETP is what we refer to it. And that culminates in a big trip at the end of the year or actually in the spring from the year prior.
And this is a way for us to reward our top performing dealers. And so today we are going to be chatting with Casey Lezer from Leser Lumber who recently attended for the first time. So welcome to the podcast, Casey.
[00:01:07] Speaker A: Thank you, Sheri. Looking forward to talking to you today.
[00:01:10] Speaker B: Yeah, thanks for making some time to record with me. So I didn't get to go on the trip, but I've heard great things about your company. But can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your company, like where you're located and what type of focus you have for your business?
[00:01:25] Speaker A: Sure. We are located in Pennsylvania. We have 14 locations throughout Pennsylvania going from Pittsburgh over to the New Jersey BO border. Mostly a contractor focused business selling mostly professional builders with a little bit of retail. We've been in business since 1927. So this is our 98th year in business. My grandfather started it back in 1927. So myself and Mike Leser and Dave Les are third generation and we're starting to get some of our fourth generation in with us now. So still been growing, so looking forward to it.
[00:01:54] Speaker B: Wow, that is an incredible legacy. And I'm sure it's changed and evolved right. Since 1927. My goodness.
[00:02:02] Speaker A: A little bit.
[00:02:03] Speaker B: So how long have you been an MI dealer?
[00:02:06] Speaker A: So we started dealing with MI or back at that time it was called Metal Industries. Metal Industries back in late 1970s with Pete DeSoto, Matt's dad when he was used to make aluminum screens. We were a big Anderson window dealer in the 70s for a long time and they had a screen that we used to buy from that was cheaper than buying what Anderson was able to make. So we bought a lot of aluminum screens from them back in the day and then also used buy screen doors from them back then. So we've been a customer for quite a long time.
[00:02:35] Speaker B: Wow. And so even though this is a family business, how long have you been involved?
[00:02:41] Speaker A: Well, as a family business usually you're kind of born into it. So I've been stocking shelves and sweeping floors since I was about 10 or 11, but now I went to college and after I was done with college, so I came out and I would been here about 34 years now full time with Luz Lumber.
[00:02:56] Speaker B: Wow, that's amazing. And so what is your role in the company?
[00:03:00] Speaker A: So I'm vice president of the company and but my main focus is on sales. We have two sales managers, one for Eastern PA and one for Western PA that report to me. And my job is to drive sales, meeting with customers, build relationships with customers looking for opportunities.
[00:03:16] Speaker B: So this is off script, but. So at family gatherings, do you talk business or do you just leave it at the door when you leave for the day? Or how does that work with family?
[00:03:23] Speaker A: A little bit of both. We talk a little bit of business and then a lot about either sports or other thing going on in life and stuff.
[00:03:29] Speaker B: So, yeah, it's tough. Family businesses can be challenging.
[00:03:33] Speaker A: Yeah, sure can.
[00:03:34] Speaker B: Well, I did get to meet Pete DeSoto in December and he's a firecracker, that guy. And of course had the chance to chat with Matt and Mike and so have a pretty good sense of who's doing what over there, which is fun. So this year. So PGT and PGT Innovations had the ETP trip for many years, but this is the first time, obviously since the acquisition that we've been able to expand that to include MI dealers and also Milgard deal.
And so what did your company do to qualify to go on the trip?
[00:04:07] Speaker A: It was a sales number based on sales, I believe so. Okay, you're probably gonna have to edit this out, but I had no idea of the trip until they told me, hey, you qualified for the trip, you're gonna go on this trip. So I said, all right. Okay, we do almost about $6 million, I think, with MI, so I think that might be a thing. But I never really knew about the trip until I got invited on the trip. Okay, I'm gonna have a hard time selling you on that factor. I can help you out anywhere else.
[00:04:33] Speaker B: Well, I mean, obviously you have how many locations?
[00:04:36] Speaker A: You said 14 locations.
[00:04:37] Speaker B: 14 locations. So you have 14 locations and you're doing 6 million a year. I mean, that's worth a trip.
[00:04:42] Speaker A: No, no.
[00:04:44] Speaker B: And so what do you think is one of the factors that plays into the success of your company that keeps that legacy going and that allows for that kind of volume. What do you think you can attribute that to?
[00:04:56] Speaker A: I think just being a family owned company, we can be really close with our customers, unlike some of the national retailers and stuff where they're Trying to cover such a large area, we can get to be pret close with our customers, build greatly build relationships with them and try to work with them on opportunities for them to be successful and it ends up us being successful.
[00:05:14] Speaker B: So yeah, relationships are a big thing, aren't they?
[00:05:17] Speaker A: Sure are.
[00:05:18] Speaker B: Okay, so here's the fun part. What feedback can you share about the trip?
[00:05:22] Speaker A: Well, we used to do our own contractor Trips before pre 2008, 2009. So I know how much work and effort is to put contractor trips together in customer events like this and I would say by far. And I've been on some other vendor trips. This Mitre trip was. Was first class, one of the best and nicest I've been on. Just from the time that we got the invitation, they ask you for your home address and they started sending you stuff to your house about the trip and what's going on to the communication they had with, hey, here's what the events we have for you and everything else. And just from the time we got there, it was just really first class trip and my wife and I really enjoyed it.
[00:05:59] Speaker B: Nice. And did you do any of the fun excursions? I heard there were a few things that happened out there.
[00:06:04] Speaker A: Yeah, we went on to catamaran. Did the catamaran boat ride one day and it's beautiful day and really enjoyed that. Saw a lot of dolphins and got to see a lot of whales out in the off the coast of Cabo there and really had a good time.
[00:06:18] Speaker B: Nice, good. And everything hummed along smoothly while you were away, so.
[00:06:22] Speaker A: Yeah, sure did.
[00:06:24] Speaker B: So you just ignore the phone and pretend that you're on vacation, right?
[00:06:28] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:06:28] Speaker B: And so what advice would you have for a dealer who's maybe trying to further their business better their business? Any words of wisdom for them?
[00:06:39] Speaker A: Just keep looking at your numbers and see how you can keep hitting that goal to get to the trip. We did a lot of work last year trying to convert builders using other vinyl window lines and convert them over to the Miter brand. So we put a lot of effort into it and we're successful with several conversions last year from vinyl lines that we don't sell to getting them to convert over the Mitre Miter brand. They've been very helpful with us converting those builders over. So that obviously drives the sales for both Mitre brands and for Les.
[00:07:06] Speaker B: Yeah, well, that's the goal, right? If you win, we win and vice versa. So it's all about the partnership. All right, well, Casey, thank you for your time. This was a lovely chat.
[00:07:14] Speaker A: Thank you, Sher.
[00:07:17] Speaker B: The Clear Impact podcast is brought to you by Mitre Brands University. We are a part of Miter Brands, a family of leading window and door brands united by our passion for quality and relentless pursuit of 100%. At Miter Brands, our common purpose is to deliver value and by manufacturing the finest products, services and customer experience every day, everywhere. Our window and door brands deliver regionalized expertise, products and services, all backed by a national company.
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