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CONNECTION
published by and for the employees of canwel BUILDING MATERIALS ltd.
“Not many companies can do what CanWel can do”
"O
ur strength is that we are able to take advantage of regional nuances, while still acting as one truly national company—using our best practices from coastto-coast,” says CanWel’s recently appointed v-p and general manager, Rob Downs. “It’s a difficult balancing act,” he adds. “Not many companies can do it. CanWel does it well and will continue to do it well. This is thanks to the strength of our people and their expertise in their particular markets.” Rob joined CanWel as regional manager for Langley distribution centre in July 2003. As v-p and gm, he is now responsible for CanWel Distribution Division, a division of CanWel Building Materials Ltd. What lays ahead for CanWel? “With consolidation occurring in all sectors of our industry,” Rob says, “it is imperative that we maintain and strengthen our relationships with customers and vendors at both the regional and the national level. These strong relationships will make us the resource of choice to deliver programs to the retail and industrial value chains. By leveraging our national relationships, we can focus on growing our share of allied and industrial
tion of our national and regional relationships, our professional sales development training program, and delivering operational excellence, will allow us to achieve this goal.
Rob
products with each customer. With the predicted slowdown in housing starts, this increased share will position us to capitalize on the lucrative renovation market. “The basic fundamentals of our business have not changed. Our goal is to be the dominant distributor in our industry. The combina-
“Each member of the CanWel Team needs to: ● continue to be customer and vendor focused; ● continue to control and reduce costs; ● continue building the business the right way—focusing on profitable sales and return on capital; ● take every opportunity to grow the business and gain market share in all three of our product categories: Allied, Industrial and Commodity; and ● continue to operate CanWel as a strong national team. "Finally, we must all keep in mind the fact that we are now a publicly-traded company. We now have many owners, our shareholders, who expect positive results and return on their investment. It is critical that we execute our business plans and deliver the results every day. We must continue to grow profitably, realizing the maximum return on capital employed.” ■
Managing accounts receivable. It’s everyone’s job In today’s business world, the effective use of credit is vital and CanWel excels at it. According to Paul Johnston, chief financial officer, much of the credit for that goes to Tom Kenny, national credit manager. “Tom has built a really successful credit practice,” Paul says. “He is a highly skilled credit professional and his skills give us a competitive edge.” So Tom Kenny, it seems, is the man with the answers. And these are the questions we asked him:
What is the key to CanWel’s successful credit practice? Why is collecting accounts receivable so important? What part does this play in CanWel’s overall business strategy? continued on page 3
Team Tea m effort triu WRL A Pr airie Sho
It’s touted as the number one trade show for buyers, and this Lumber Association (WRLA) Prairie Showcase beat all its ow Held at the Prairieland Park and the Radisson Hotel in Saskatoon on January 19-21, the show saw 214 exhibitors take part, up 36 from last year; with1,053 building supply and hardware retailers attending. The show is crucial for success in the Canadian market west of Thunder Bay, and CanWel racked up record sales for the fourth straight year. Wayne Molengraaf, recently appointed CanWel’s general manager for the Prairies, credits strong CanWel teamwork for the success. “It is really a wonderful story,” he
Kelly is responsible for all the marketing material – copy for magazine ads, posters and signage for the booth. She has to make sure that all the creative material, both CanWel’s and its major national vendors’, is complete, correct and arrives on time. While Kelly is busy with that, Tim works with CanWel’s national vendors to develop pricing specials unique for the show. This is key, he says, because the customers who will be attending are expecting them, and will have been waiting for the show to place major orders. Pricing specials are an important draw for CanWel’s booth. Vendors and customers both expect a lot of “bang for their buck”. Another big attraction is the grand prize draw CanWel has every year. Here too, Tim negotiates with
The WRLA Show CanWel’s prizes this year followed a “Great Outdoors” th
choice of a pair of street-legal dirt bikes, a snow mobile, an ATV, or a Wave R
says. “The show is basically three days of intense selling mayhem, and our western sales people staffing the booth did an excellent job. But there is much more to the story, with people working hard across the region, and across the country for as much as a year ahead to get ready and lay the groundwork for those three hectic days.” Just what goes into preparing for the show? Kevin Woloszyn is CanWel’s purchaser for Edmonton. Since 1999 he has been the sales and promotions coordinator for the WRLA show. Wayne describes Kevin as the “quarterback” for the CanWel team. Kevin starts working on preparations for the show while the dust has barely settled from the previous year’s. On average 30 CanWel people take part in each show, and those available hotel rooms are booked up in a hurry so Kevin has to act fast. Back in Langley, marketing assistant Kelly Hicks and product manager Tim Creech begin doing their advance work several months prior to the show.
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the major vendors for additional marketing funds to help finance it. At the show, when customers place orders for the sponsoring vendors’ product, they will be entered in the draw—the more product they buy, the more entries they get. When it comes to the scale of the prizes, there is a certain amount of one-upmanship between the distributors exhibiting at the show. This year, CanWel ran a “Great Outdoors” theme, with the winner having the choice of: ● a pair of street-legal dirt bikes, ● a Wave Rider, ● an ATV, or ● a snow mobile. With Kelly looking after the booth, Edmonton warehouse supervisor John Kempinski contributed by building custom displays for the show. John describes himself as a jack of all trades and he built the displays in his home shop over several weekends. After consultation with sales and purchasing, John built three, 12 X 8 foot wall units. Saskatoon regional manager Chris Cameron and his team, as host city, kick into high gear in the final days leading up to the show. It’s their job to take care of the onsite preparations. They bring the fax-photo-
umphs at owcase
year the Western Retail wn records. As did CanWel.
Managing accounts continued from page 1
What is the key to CanWel’s successful
Only profitable sales will drive this company
At a certain level, CanWel is a simple com-
forward to our goal of being the dominant
pany. As a rule, our two largest assets are accounts receivable (AR) and inventory. ●
heme, with the winner having the Rider
AR on average are in the low-to-mid
$50-million range. ●
copier, the chairs, tables and displays, the many cases of water that will be needed for the throngs of thirsty customers, and a million other last minute details. Chris has seen 14 or 15 of these shows over his 20 years in the business, and he says they keep getting better and better. “It used to be more of a ‘party’ atmosphere, now it is clearly about business. It is still great to see your customers and competitors, but we are all there to do business.” The show itself is a whirlwind of activity. CanWel’s booth—although to call it a booth doesn’t really do justice to CanWel’s bright, attractive location, which stretches 75 feet on either side of the show’s aisle—is a crowd favorite. Winnipeg regional manager Rick McGregor was
Inventory is typically in the low-to-mid
$40-million range. As AR on average are our biggest asset, managing them is critical to reaching our goals for Return on Capital Employed (ROCE). There are a number of contributing factors in building an effective credit practice. Foremost is that senior management understands the importance of managing AR and makes sure the message filters down to the entire sales team. Next, we measure our results and report them through a number of channels, including the Dupont Model and Monthly AR reports.
on the table, and discuss them as openly and honestly as possible. We must always look at every issue from the other person’s perspective so we can make sound decisions. That is what makes for successful teamwork with sales and credit. Why is collecting accounts receivable so important? CanWel does not truly make a profit unless we collect our receivables promptly. AR losses come straight off profit. Consider this: how much would we have to sell to make up for a $10,000 loss? Answer: $100,000 at a margin of 10 percent. Sales like that are hard to come by! What part does it play in CanWel’s overall
ing back to the credit team anything that may
business strategy?
seem out of the norm—for example, getting
Everyone at CanWel can contribute to the
unusually large orders without any pricing We take a proactive approach to credit management. By getting out into the field with our sales team and meeting the customers face-to-face, we have been able to create a positive image of credit management. It is important that our sales people know they can call me anytime and, when needed, I’ll be on a plane to come and sit by their side in front of a customer. In some companies, credit and sales not happen at CanWel?
This year’s winner of the grand prize was North American Lumber. The company selected the ATV package.
We must do our homework, put the facts
Our sales team helps us enormously by
people are at loggerheads. Why does this
And the winner is!
distributor.
resolving problems quickly and communicat-
resistance. in charge the second day. He reports the sales staff was so good that his job was mostly to usher the customers to them, and to answer the occasional question. There was a certain amount of counterespionage work to do however, he adds with a chuckle. “The sales staff would be working with their customers and consulting their pricing books, and you’d notice that one of our competitors might be standing a little too close for a little too long. So I’d just go over and start chatting with them. It is easy to tell who is who. After all,” he says, “we’re all wearing shirts with our logos on them!” ■
Sales and credit are in this together.
credit practice?
I always put all the facts on the table and discuss them with our sales managers. When we do our homework then present the facts we avoid getting “at loggerheads” over credit decisions.
effective management of accounts receivable. Our sales team assists by resolving any problems in AR quickly and assisting with the collection process. Our warehouse staff can eliminate problems in AR by shipping accurately within the agreed time. They can ensure we ship correct quantities and that our paperwork is 100% accurate. The warehouse staff is the last check to ensure that what we are shipping is not damaged. Obviously our credit team will also play a part by making sure we manage our investment in AR to ensure the greatest return on capital for our shareholders. Credit is a significant piece of the value proposition CanWel offers its customers. Effectively managing AR, our largest asset, is critical to a higher ROCE and ultimately, reaching our goal of being the
What makes for great credit and sales teamwork in a company? Trust is a large component.
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dominant distributor in Canada. ■
Ralph Kison (far right), and the eastern Train the Trainer session
and plan for conducting a session, which they presented to the group for input. “Everybody who participated was strongly committed to the training,” notes Ralph. “Based on the participants’ feedback, they all felt the revised program and training really brought it all together and they could now go and re-energize their colleagues to sell and service CanWel customers in a more effective and consistent manner across the country. “They’re confident the program will be used nationally to strengthen CanWel’s competitive edge.” ■
Training the trainers
C
anWel is an industry leader in training and employee development. Ralph Kison designed and delivers the company’s professional sales development training program. For the last year and half, he’s been developing an updated version of his patented “Sales Diamond” process. “We’ve been working with the concept and program for quite a while now,” he says. “After assessing the process with an eye to improving it, we’ve been able to make enhancements, streamline it, and make it simpler to understand, yet at the same time more relevant and effective.” CanWel decided to update the Kison mate-
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rial covered in Modules I and II of the training program. To accomplish this, it decided to hold small “Train the Trainer” sessions, one in the east and one in the west. Ralph trained a local champion from each location, who will now in turn roll out that material. Covered during the two days were: ● The improved Sales Diamond concept ● New skills specific to CanWel’s business ● How to prepare and execute in-house training ● Implementation and strategy issues. By the end of the session each participant had to prepare an implementation strategy
The Trainers Western Session Calgary Doug Barber, Steve LeJeune Kelowna Kevin Churcher, Paul Rossiter Langley Rick Sidhu Saskatoon Dennis Semeniuk Winnipeg Barry Mandryk Eastern Session Blainville Roger Lamarre, Yvon Boulet Brampton Navi Hansraj, Brian Roger Dartmouth John Bauld, Ross Gilmore Deer Lake Jeremy Loveman
Six tips for the polite and productive use of email Email has become an indispensable part of today’s business world. It allows the near instantaneous sharing of ideas and information. But, as it’s a blessing, so too it can be a curse; the improper or excessive use of email can cause lost productivity and misunderstandings. Here are a few things you should keep in mind when using email on the job.
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The Subject Field is your friend. This is your chance to summarize the content of your email. Try to make the subject capture the content as concisely and explicitly as possible. Should you change the content and topic of an email when replying to it, make sure to bring the subject field up-to-date too.
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Unwanted messages are SPAM. That includes your messages as well, not just the ones from professional spammers. If an email asks you to forward an “inspirational message”, “friends4ever questionnaire”, or a promise of money for nothing, do not forward it. No former CEO from the bank of Nigeria has any money for you or anyone else. It is
also important that you never send or forward inappropriate material at the workplace.
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Punctuation Counts. Email is a written medium and it is important that you take the time to use the correct punctuation and spelling; not only does it convey a professional tone, but it helps to avoid confusion. Similarly, using “u” for “you” or “4ever” when you mean “forever” makes you look unprofessional. Address your audience as though they were people you don’t know. Treat them with respect, use proper capitalization, punctuation and sentence structure.
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Respect the privacy of others. Just use common sense when it comes to yours and others’ privacy. In reality, an email is about as private as a postcard, and as a general rule it’s not a good idea to send by non-secure email anything more private than you would put on a postcard.
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Don’t harass or flame people by email. Over-responding to a colleague’s email with anger, name-calling or rude comments is called “flaming”. The fires can spread rapidly until
things get out of control. Respond to your colleague’s emails, even if you feel provoked, with a kind, brief and reasoned exposition of your point of view. If they, in turn, flame you, don’t respond. Nothing hurts a flamer more than silence.
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WHEN YOU TYPE IN ALL CAPITALS, YOU ARE YELLING AT PEOPLE, and no one likes to be yelled at. It’s alright to emphasize A FEW key words in a sentence by capitalizing them, but it is not alright to compose an email entirely in capitals. ■
CanWel CONNECTION is published for the people of CanWel. If you have any comments, please call
Susan Allen at (604) 436-6615.
CanWel Building Materials Ltd. 601 - 700 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, BC V7Y 1A1 website: http://www.canwel.com Si vous préférez recevoir La Connexion CanWel en français, prière de nous en aviser.