About
Twenty-five years in building materials supply. Both sides of the counter. Now I help independent businesses find the sales they're losing, and win them back.
I've been a national account manager for a manufacturer selling into the biggest merchant groups in the country. I've run the online trade channel for a national tool distributor. And I spent more than a decade as sales director of a family-owned manufacturer, turning a quiet, respected brand into one the trades asked for by name.
Along the way I opened a direct channel to the tradespeople who used our products, on a sliver of the range, and did it without a single merchant walking away. I rebuilt pricing, tightened terms so rebates were earned rather than given, and moved a sales team from dropping off catalogues to managing accounts.
The best ideas I've had came from the trade counter, not the boardroom. That's where I spend my time now: in your branch, in your numbers and in the cab with your reps, finding where the sales are leaking and fixing it with your people.
I work with a small number of clients at a time, and one merchant per trading area. That's deliberate. It means the work gets done properly, and it never turns up at your competitor.
What I stand for
Twenty-five years of it, on both sides of the counter. Not a framework borrowed from another industry.
I'll ask why the wall's never been knocked through, and then check whether it's actually structural.
Plain words, no transformation deck. Start with the work that takes too long, then decide whether technology can help.
Every piece of work ends in a number that moved: sales, margin or both.
Field notes
On knowing your customer
For twenty years, one college lecturer in the South West called a particular basin wrench a “giggle stick”. So did every plumber he trained. We only found out because we talked to the people who used the tool, not just the people who stocked it. We added it to the online listings, and plumbers searching for a giggle stick started finding it. That's what a direct relationship with the trades is for.
On questioning the obvious
A forklift was carrying every pallet 120 yards down a factory and 120 yards back, because the wall between the line and the racking “was structural”. Nobody had checked in ten years. I did. It wasn't. We knocked it through. Most businesses have a wall like that.
On availability
In one merchant branch we built a tool store inside the store and gave Stanley knives four full pegs instead of one. Same knives, same price. Sales multiplied within the year, for one reason: they were never out of stock. Availability sells.
What people say
He has the ability to cut through the crap and get straight to the heart of things. If you want it told like it is, then Jamie is who I would recommend.
I was struck by his friendly, straightforward approach and immediately felt we'd be able to trust him. He is as interested in our bottom line as he is in [his employer's], all without pushing anything on anyone.
Jamie is a very professional, knowledgeable, and energetic expert in the field of online sales management. I have worked in partnership with him developing online sales strategies for our businesses and he always delivers beyond expectations and within time frames.
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