Take Every Opportunity To Stand Out

Southern California Builder: West Coast Drywall & Paint is a longtime BIASC member, but for those who don’t know you, please tell us about the company.

John Robinson: First, there are a lot of good drywallers and painters out there, so I don’t want to say we’re a ton more special than the others, but we do focus on one thing, and that’s relationships with our builders. West Coast has been around for about 37 years now, started by Mark Herbert, who was a painter, then in 2002 he added drywall and we became West Coast Drywall and Paint. Last year, we got up to 1,999 employees and I was thinking about hiring my son for a day so we’d get to 2,000. We serve Southern California from Ventura to Lancaster to Coachella all the way down to the border, with about 60% of our work in single family and 40% in multifamily homes.

One thing that’s unique about us is that in 2017 we became employee owned when Mark sold the company to us, and everyone in the company who works at least 1,000 hours a year is a shareholder. That means we are all invested in providing good customer service, and it’s helping us retain our skilled manpower.

SCB: How long have you been involved in BIASC?

JR: I started with West Coast in 2004 and they’d probably been involved in BIA for four or five years before that.

SCB: What do you do to maximize the benefit of your membership?

JR: Mark Herbert was very adamant about relationships, so he wanted us to go to all the BIA events in full force. We would show up with eight or nine people and would decorate our table to whatever the theme was for the event and even show up in costume, so we put on quite a bit into these shows. That’s still how we approach it today.

John Robinson West Coast Drywall & Paint

You have to have relationships to build repeat business and being visible is a way to start those relationships. Sponsorship is also important – we just sponsored Taco Tuesday and a golf tournament.

SCB: Which events give you the most value?

JR: It’s two-fold. I really like how the BIA team puts an emphasis on turn-out at all the events. We try to do the same – I make phone calls to my builders asking, “Are you coming tonight?” I try to get as many people there as possible because at the end of the day that’s why we’re there – to mingle with the builders. Then there’s BIS, which is probably the biggest bang for your buck because they all go. So, if there is only one event you can go to, I recommend BIS.

SCB: You’re getting a lot of value from BIA, so what advice would you give people who are considering joining?

JR: I would tell them to definitely join for one, and then to make take every opportunity to stand out. If it says that costumes are encouraged or says to decorate your table like Mardi Gras, then take the time to do that. It’s a conversationstarter and draws people over because they want to see who those crazy guys are. When you’re there, just talk to as many builders as you can, and build relationships with other subs because they can refer you, or you can learn about new bid opportunities. 