Lynchpin
noun
- a person or thing vital to an enterprise
When Jason Phillips, President and CEO of Allen, Texas-based Phillips Home Improvements, talks about Rudy Chacon, his Sherwin-Williams sales representative, he starts with a one-word answer: “Lynchpin.”
“Rudy has been our rep since 2012,” Phillips says. “He flat out knows our business, how to best service our account, and which products will best fit our business needs. That makes him our Sherwin-Williams lynchpin.”
Rudy Chacon has been working with Phillips for the past 12 years and with Sherwin-Williams for 23 years total. This combination of experience and loyalty has added a high degree of continuity to the business relationship.
“Here’s a good example,” Phillips says. “When necessary, Rudy secures products for us. Let’s say we need 20 gallons of a certain product for a project. He will reach out to fill the order—and then either have it delivered to the job site or drop it off himself. Of course, it helps that here in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, it seems like there’s a Sherwin-Williams store on every corner.”
Chacon introduced Phillips and his team to the Sherwin-Williams PRO+ App several years ago, and they have been actively utilizing its features and benefits ever since—particularly among their team of project managers.
“Our product managers use the PRO+ app on a daily basis,” Phillips says. “We have what we call the ‘Phillips Standard Materials List’ which includes preferred products for roofing, gutter and paint projects. Product managers use the app to monitor our paint purchases on every project to confirm that everything we’re buying is on the standard list. If they see a product purchase that’s not on the list, they know there’s a potential problem. Usually though, it’s a case of a customer wanting a specific product, or a product availability issue. Either way, it’s a great auditing tool.”
In addition, Phillips notes, “the PRO+ app provides real-time cost accounting. Our project managers are accountable for the profitability of each job, so having access to up-to-the-minute job costing means that they don’t have to wait a week for accounting to generate a report.”
Yet another way that Chacon has earned the “lynchpin” title is his commitment to being a training facilitator for the Phillips enterprise by lining up subject matter experts to visit the facility and conduct on-site training.
“Rudy will find out when the 3M or Purdy rep, or a primer/staining expert are in town, and ask them to come in for product demos, hands-on training, presentations, Q&As, and more,” Phillips says. “This, in addition to the Paint Pro Training modules, is an excellent resource for our product and sales teams.”
Phillips insists that there must be three outcomes on every painting project: on time, on budget and a 5-star customer review on social media. His teams virtually always deliver on those objectives, and it’s why, according to Phillips, they don’t compete on price.
“We provide a premium service, use premium products that last, and will never be the low bid,” he says. “This in turn has enabled us to establish a high level of trust with existing and prospective customers. In my opinion, the combination of personalized service and support we receive from Sherwin-Williams is a winning combination. They are truly an extension of our team.”