Culture-Building, Service Excellence and SalesSkills Development Intertwine to Create aCompetitive Edge for Capital Lighting & Supply

COMPANY: Capital Lighting & Supply

Industry:Manufacturing/Distribution

Strategy:After a series of acquisitions, create aunited culture and grow profit margins

Implementation:All key stakeholders become involved inan intensive program to develop keyleadership and sales skills

Training Population:Branch managers, salespeople andfront-line delivery personnel

Results:1.5% margin increase in gross margin,attributable directly to the AchieveGlobalprograms

Popular counter-culture comedian George Carlinonce noted that “electricity is really just organizedlightning,” which fittingly describes how electricalproducts distributor Capital Lighting & Supplybecame a more formidable competitor in its price-and service-sensitive business.

Company executives credit its gross margin increas-es and unified, service-focused culture to leadershipdevelopment and sales skills training delivered to itsexecutives, sales and service personnel byAchieveGlobal, an international performanceimprovement company.

“We knew if we could get our people better educat-ed about our products and how to present them assolutions to our customers’ needs then we would bestronger in the marketplace and a more successfulorganization,” noted John Hardy, president ofCapital Lighting & Supply, part of the Sonepargroup, the world’s largest privately-held electricaldistributor.

Creating a common cultureAcquired by Sonepar in 2000 as part of an industry-wide consolidation, Capital Lighting & Supply pro-vides electrical products, lighting, and services tocontractors, builders, and end-users in the Mid-Atlantic States. It services its customers from 21locations throughout Maryland and Virginia andfrom its 220,000 square foot headquarters and cen-tral distribution center in Upper Marlboro, MD. Itsmission is to be the electrical distributor of choice.

By 2003 Capital Lighting had itself acquiredfive competitors, each firm bringing with itinto the fold a unique culture that Hardy andTim McGowan, vice president, CorporateDevelopment, knew had to be unified andthen united.

“We wanted to reinforce and establish a com-mon culture,” McGowan said. “And once wedid that, establish goals that would align theorganization and build a bench of peoplequickly and profitably to meet the challengesof this rapidly changing business.”

To build Capital Lighting’s unified culture,AchieveGlobal introduced the company’sbranch managers to a two-day seminardesigned to help them better understand andsharpen basic communications skills.Reinforcing that seminar were follow-up pro-grams delivered one-on-one, in small groupsand online. Those programs further devel-oped such leadership skills as delegating,developing others, evaluating performanceand handling difficult people.

AchieveGlobal programs included:

• Interpersonal Managing Skills and follow-up programs

• Principles and Qualities of GenuineLeadership

• Clarifying Performance Expectations

• Delegating for Shared Success

• The Hallmarks of Supervisory Success

• Developing Others

Sharpening strategic selling skillsBranch managers and their sales people alsosharpened their selling skills throughAchieveGlobal’s Professional Selling Skillsand Professional Sales Coaching programs.Front-line delivery personnel were developedas well, participating in customer service pro-grams Reaching for Stellar Service andHealing Customer Relationships.

As a result, these front-line people are betterable to deliver a higher level of leadership,sales results and customer service, successful-ly differentiating Capital Lighting & Supplyin this commodity-oriented industry.

“Our managers are great technicians, butthey lacked depth in frontline management,”McGowan said. “They had not been formallytrained on sales processes and selling to sup-port the growth of the organization. Wefound the AchieveGlobal provided the perfectfit for these objectives.”

As with many distributor-type businesses,Capital Lighting’s primary contact with cus-tomers – electrical contractors on a job site –is through its parts delivery personnel.“These guys are more than drivers; they’rereally our customer service agents. A vitallink in achieving our mission, their daily con-tact with our market can make or break theimpression the customer has about our com-pany,” said McGowan.

In addition to sharpening employee’s businessskills, AchieveGlobal training whettedappetites for self-learning as means to careerenrichment, all part of Capital Lighting’s goalof unifying its culture and creating an organi-zation enthusiastic about its business.

“AchieveGlobal has helped us create anincredible culture change, especially as we’vewoven the cultures of the various companieswe’ve acquired into a unified awareness thatwe are no longer a bunch of small businessesbut a big company,” McGowan said.

John Hardy, CEO (left) and Tim McGowan,

VP of Corporate Development (right)

© 2008 AchieveGlobal, Inc. www.achieveglobal.com

Developing the 21st Century Workforce.8875 Hidden River Parkway, Suite 400, Tampa, FL 33637-1034Tel: 1.800.456.9390 | Fax: 813.631.5796

Hardy agreed. “We see this in how our peoplehave changed their interest in continual learning tobe successful, in their use of these new skills on thejob and in their attitudes toward how theyapproach their jobs. Our new culture is making ahuge difference.”

Results drive ‘huge’ margin increaseThe results of Capital Lighting’s culture and salesperformance efforts are paying off nicely,McGowan noted. “We’re enjoying a 1.5 percentincrease in in-stock product gross margin, directlyattributable to the AchieveGlobal programs. Weare a $225 million company with in-stock salesrepresenting 65 percent of our business. That’s a$2 million to $2.25 million gross margin increase.This is huge, huge! And we spent something like$150,000 total for first-year training, so that’spretty good ROI.”

From a holistic perspective, the training has paidoff handsomely as well. “Our people are learningthat they’re truly the engine that drives the busi-ness, and this kind of education investment provesto them we care and that we’re willing to invest inthem,” Hardy noted.

“Reinforcing our common culture has gotten ourpeople marching in the same direction,” McGowanadded, “and it has created momentum. We all nowshare the same vocabulary, behaviors and attitudesreinforced by AchieveGlobal’s programs, and thatenthusiasm has had a huge impact on how we dobusiness. How do you put a price tag on that?”