Summer Management Conference Sponsorship Information

Are you interested in presenting your business to top building supply owners and managers in Georgia and Alabama? Consider sponsoring an event or showing a table-top exhibit at our annual Summer Management Conference.

The Summer Management Conference attracts CSA’s top business owners and managers for three days of education, networking, and fun! CSA is pleased to offer its associate members the following opportunities to sponsor conference activities.

Table-Top Exhibits
Table-top exhibits will be placed in a prominent viewing area during the length of the conference. There will be plenty of time to chat with CSA members in-between sessions and at receptions, but why not give CSA members the chance to view your business information at any time? Table-top exhibits are $300 per table.

Session Sponsorships
Currently, there are six sessions at the Summer Management Conference that are in need of sponsorships.

· Opening Reception, July 9th $1,500
· Morning Education Session, July 10th $1,500
· Learning Luncheon, July 10th $1,500
· Chairman’s Dinner & Reception, July 10th $1,500
· Morning Education Session, July 11th sponsored by Pennsylvania Lumbermen’s Mutual Insurance Company

Please contact Lisa Golden at 678,213.2164 or lisagolden@gocsa.com for details or to become a sponsor.

Innocent Sellers Fairness Act Reintroduced in Congress

NLBMDA-Promoted Initiative Would Provide Liability Protection for Those that Only Sell Products

[Washington, DC] - The National Lumber and Building Material Dealers Association (NLBMDA) commended Reps. Dan Boren (D-OK) and Jim Jordan (R-OH) for their reintroduction of the NLBMDA-promoted "Innocent Sellers Fairness Act" (H.R. 2518) which would provide product liability protection to those businesses that only sell products but did not manufacture them. The bill has been already cosponsored by eight additional members of Congress. Read the full article here.

Join Us at the Summer Management Conference

Come and join CSA at the 2009 Summer Management Conference! This year’s conference will be held July 9 - 12 at The Ridges Lodge & Resort in Hiawasee, Georgia. If you missed out on last year’s conference, don’t miss your chance to attend this year! The Ridges is located in the north Georgia mountains and is the perfect place for our members and industry associates to mingle and learn about important industry news.

CSA has booked top educators and speakers in the construction supply industry for our educational sessions. These speakers include Chris Hall, Vice President of Haddow & Company and an expert in the Southeast regional housing market, Mike Purcell, a trainer and human resources development specialist whose philosophy is "Not just your people, but your good people are your greatest asset,” and Bob Janet, a sales expert with over 40 years of experience, some of that as an owner / operator of wholesale, retail and service businesses.

Each morning of the conference is filled with educational sessions, but the afternoon before our nightly dinners and programs is yours! Bring the whole family along to enjoy the resort and surrounding areas. We will also be offering an optional golf outing in North Carolina on Saturday afternoon. There is also a vast array of outdoor activities including hiking, birding, and fishing.

The traditional CSA Chairman’s Dinner will be held at the resort on Friday night and will include an interactive performance by Anthony Galie, a hypnotist and engaging speaker as our featured entertainment.

Saturday evening will feature an optional dinner and reception where you’ll have the opportunity to enjoy a last evening of fun with your fellow attendees.



ABOUT THE RIDGES RESORT AND CLUB LAKE CHATUGE
Come and join CSA at the 2009 Summer Management Conference! This year’s conference will be held July 9 - 12 at The Ridges Lodge & Resort in Hiawasee, Georgia. If you missed out on last year’s conference, don’t miss your chance to attend this year!

The Ridges is located in the north Georgia mountains and is the perfect place for our members and industry associates to mingle and learn about important industry news. Each morning of the conference is filled with educational sessions, but the afternoon before our nightly dinners and programs is yours! Bring the whole family along to enjoy the resort and surrounding areas. We will also be offering an optional golf outing in North Carolina on Saturday afternoon. There is also a vast array of outdoor activities including hiking, birding, and fishing.

The traditional CSA Chairman’s Dinner will be held at the resort on Friday night and will include an interactive performance by Anthony Galie, a hypnotist and engaging speaker as our featured entertainment. Saturday evening will feature an optional dinner and reception where you’ll have the opportunity to enjoy a last evening of fun with your fellow attendees.

The Ridges Resort & Club Lake Chatuge encompasses a tranquil lakeside escape in Hiawassee, Georgia. Featuring beautiful accommodations and fun for the whole family, The Ridges offers a relaxed atmosphere, friendly service and memorable cuisine. Spend the day fishing, boating, horseback riding, or just nap on the lakeside lawn. Recreational choices abound at The Ridges including swimming pools, golf, tennis, lake, marina and water sports, and fishing in a private stream.

Single and double rooms are available at a rate of $155 per night. Triple and quad rooms are also available. Triples are $165 per night and Quads are $175 per night.

The Ridges also offers Lake and Golf Villa units at a rate of $155 per night per bedroom. Rates include complimentary wireless internet service and continental breakfast. There are no additional mandated resort fees, however, equipment rental charges may apply. These rates are guaranteed until 6p.m. (eastern) June 11th – it is anticipated that rooms will sell out, and room availability cannot be guaranteed after this date. Call (888) 834-4409 to book your room today!

Tentative Schedule
Thursday, July 9
8:00 a.m. Registration Opens
8:00 a.m. Board of Directors meeting (Open to all CSA members)
11:30 a.m. Leave for rafting trip
6:30 p.m. Picnic

Friday, July 10
Complimentary breakfast available to all guests in hotel lobby
8:30 a.m. Speaker: Mike Purcell
Spouse Tour begins
12:00 p.m. Luncheon with Chris Hall
1:30 p.m. Afternoon free for networking/play
6:30 p.m. Reception
7:00 p.m. Chairman’s Dinner, featuring Anthony Galie

Saturday, July 11
Complimentary breakfast available to all guests in hotel lobby
8:30 a.m. Speaker: Bob Janet
11:30 p.m. Lunch on your own/free afternoon
12:45 p.m. Golf outing
6:30 p.m. Closing Dinner

Speakers
Mike Purcell
In 2004, Mike Purcell founded Compass Performance Group, LLC on the belief that the saying, "Our people are our greatest asset," is not necessarily correct. It should read "Good people are our greatest asset."

Developing good people requires good training. Using an engaging, relaxed style, helping you find ways to get your team to reach a higher level of performance is Mike's ultimate goal.

Chris Hall
As Vice President with Haddow & Company, a real estate consulting firm in Atlanta, Chris has over 10 years of experience as an urban planner and real estate consultant including project work on a wide variety of real estate assignments, ranging from feasibility and highest and best use studies to the marketing and disposition of land and investment properties. Chris will
share his analysis of the Southeast real estate market with us over lunch.

Bob Janet
Bob is one of the rare speakers who can say he has been there and done it, walked many miles in your shoes as owner / operator of wholesale, retail and service businesses. Combining 40 plus years of front-line, face-to-face selling and marketing experiences with his unique presentation style, Bob has helped business owners and sales professionals across the globe gain and retain
their most profitable customers for a lifetime of success.

Anthony Galie
For the past 30 years, Anthony Galie has been teaching audiences around the world how to get and stay motivated. As an author, speaker, and trained psychotherapist, Anthony has studied the secrets of top performers in every field. In his wildly entertaining keynotes, he shows
you how they achieve the unthinkable – and how you can put the same scientific
principles to work in your business and personal life.

Spouses Tour
CSA will offer a Spouse Tour for an additional cost during Friday morning’s educational sessions. The tour will include a visit to an artist’s colony where you will tour the Goldhagen Art Glass studio and watch the creation of art glass using ancient blowing techniques. That visit will be rounded out by a gallery tour.

We've also scheduled a tour of Crane Creek Vineyards, including a wine tasting and light lunch. Transportation will be provided. The fee includes entry fees, tasting fees, luncheon and transportation.

Optional Recreation

Rafting
Join other CSA members for a 3.5 – 4 hour rafting trip on the Middle Ocoee River beginning at 1pm on Thursday, July 9. We will carpool from the hotel to the river at 11:45 a.m. Box
lunches will be provided for the ride.

Cost: $60.00 per person

Golf
We'll go golfing at the Brasstown Valley Resort, a quick shuttle ride from The Ridges Resort & Club Lake Chatuge.

A limited number of golf reservations are available at 12:45 p.m. on Saturday, July 11.

Cost: $130 per person

Registration Form and Procedures

You can use the form pictured below to register for the event. Mail along with payment to the CSA Office, 1850 Lake Park Drive, Smyrna, GA 30080.

Attendees are responsible for making their own hotel reservations. Please call (888) 834-4409 and tell the reservationist that you are with the CSA room block.

Click the picture to enlarge it.

For more information, please call 678.213.2164

Webinar: Strategies for Selling the "Green" Commerical Builder

W E B I N A R

Strategies for Selling the "Green" Commerical Builder
Tuesday, June 23, 2009 = Price: $139 per logged-on computer
Start Time: 3:00 PM Eastern Time; 2:00 PM Central Time


This webinar is an introduction to the skills necessary in contacting and successfully selling the commercial builders. The shift in emphasis within the commercial builder market segment is growing everyday toward being GREEN. How does that impact the relationship with the supplier/vendor?

- The workshop will begin with elementary language that sales persons need to be able to communicate within their company and the decision maker with the commercial builder.

- Participants will learn the six basic criteria used in determining whether their product or service is “green.” It best be truly eco-friendly. The decision maker will be asking the questions upfront.

- Attendees will learn the five questions that eco-friendly commercial builders ask that conventional builders don’t know to ask. Participants will be exposed to the three basic marketing elements their companies must have in place before trying to sell to this emerging market segment.

This is an incredible amount of material in 60 minutes. Fasten your seatbelts and welcome to the 21st Century as you and your skills grow GREEN!

The presenter, Steve Monroe, AB, CGP, brings nearly thirty years of laughter and tears from working with builders and those who sell to them. He has stayed on the leading edge of trends within the industry including emerging markets such as Green Building. His research and writings in this field allows him to learn and lead workshops for builders and associates as they develop talents and techniques in the field. His newest books, Selling Green In A Black and White World, and Marketing Essentials for Green Builders will be released in January 2010. Steve will speak at the 2010 IBS on green building. He teaches 9 courses to builders as part of the NC Building Institute and is part of the faculty of the University of Housing in conjunction with NAHB.


Click the registration form to enlarge, print and use it to register.

Why ProBuild scares me (and should scare you, too)

By Jim Moody, CAE
CSA President

The May issue of ProSales is a great one. Not only does it contain the ProSales 100, it also features an insightful cover story on ProBuild Holdings.

ProBuild, for those of you who don’t have them in your market (yet), is the largest LBM dealer in the nation. They are an amalgamation of several other dealers such as Hope and HD Supply (which itself had purchased Williams Brothers). Based in Denver, ProBuild is owned by a division of Fidelity Investors.

In my opinion (which I know is shared by many others who are more knowledgeable than me), ProBuild is the large national monster that will be around to compete with independents in the long run. Unlike 84 Lumber, Stock and Builder’s First Source, ProBuild seems to be well managed AND have deep pockets. (Stock has deeper pockets today than it did just a few weeks ago with an investment group taking a majority ownership, but it remains to be seen whether the new owners can manage the company any better than the old ones. At a minimum, Stock is a much smaller entity than it once was.)

One reason that I worry most about the competition ProBuild will bring is that I’ve met the CEO, Paul Hylburt. Paul is the current chair of the National Lumber and Building Material Dealers Association (aka NLBMDA, “the association with too many letters in its acronym”). I’ve had the privilege of seeing how he operates, and I’ve been fortunate to have dinner with him. He’s an impressive fellow. He’s humble, which I think is a key factor in leadership today. He knows the industry (Wicke’s, PrimeSource and Strober are on his resume). He’s surrounded himself with very smart people, though he’s not short in the smarts department himself. And he’s likeable. In fact, he reminds me of many of you.

Paul and ProBuild have been spending much of their time creating a unified corporate culture and system of processes among all their acquisitions. They are close to achieving that goal. (Their technology system is going to be a competitive advantage – more about that next week.) Even while trying to wrangle all those companies into one, they’ve managed to be the top dog in our pound – by almost a billion dollars. What will they be able to do when their focus really becomes selling building materials?

When I talk to dealers about competing with the national groups, I hear a common refrain: They focus on price. Our price may be a little higher, but for our customers, service is as important as price. If we can stay in the same area on price and provide better service, we can handle the national chains’ competition.

ProBuild has the ability to make a market very price-oriented. It’s tough for a small independent (and they are all small compared to ProBuild) to win when the whole conversation with a builder is about price. But what scares me the most is that with strong leadership in place, they may well have the ability to provide service equal to that of the small independent AND do it at a lower price. What happens if ProBuild “gets it right” and they are not satisfied with simply serving production builders?

Time will tell. Many of you have been through this kind of thing before (“Home Depot and Lowe’s will kill the independent dealer”) and it didn’t come to pass. I am certainly not predicting the end of the universe as we know it – I believe that has already happened. Instead, I’m giving you a heads up that if you have a ProBuild yard near you, you should not assume that their level of penetration in your market is going to remain the same. And if you hear that ProBuild is opening a yard near you, you better be ready to play because the game will be on.

Workplace Emergency Tips

Security Products has a great article on their website about how to deal with workplace emergencies.

If a fire or other emergency happened in your workplace, would you know what to do? Planning ahead and staying calm can mean the difference between safety and injury.

"We're calling everyone to action to start thinking about fire safety not just at home, but at your place of work or any building you're in," said John Drengenberg, global consumer affairs manager at UL. "Preparation now could lead to an effective escape in the event of a fire."

UL safety professionals offer these common sense steps that should be taken now to prevent serious injury or even death in the event of a workplace emergency. Read
the full article.

Coverage with Pennsylvania Lumbermens

Are you insured by Pennsylvania Lumbermens? If so, you’ll want to make sure you’ve notified PLM that you want to be part of CSA’s safety group. By being a part of that group, you become eligible for a dividend of up to 10% of your premium. There is no risk to you – either you earn a dividend, or you don’t, but in no case would you owe more premium or fees to PLM. The dividend is based on the ratio of losses in the group to premium paid by the group.

If you are not insured by PLM, you might want to consider asking them for a quote the next time your Property and Casualty insurance is up for review. They are CSA’s endorsed carrier, and we encourage members to take advantage of this dividend program. PLM is marketed through local independent agents. You can learn more about the dividend program here. To find an agent near you who can write PLM coverage, click here.

Pennsylvania Lumbermens Mutual Insurance Company

One Commerce Square

2005 Market Street, Suite 1200

Philadelphia, PA 19103-7008

Main: 800.752.1895

Fax: 215.625.9097

The 3 Easiest Ways to Make More Money

By Bob JanetSales Growth Expert
Copyright Bob Janet 2009

1. Increase your customer base. Gain new customers.
You may not think that is so easy, but it is. The easiest way to gain new customers is to sell to those already in the market, those already buying the products and services you sell. If they are not buying them from you they are buying them from your competition. All you have to do is take customers away from your competition.


Go to http://www.bobjanet/, to purchase book - "How to take customers away from your competition" - 35 aggressive actions and 23 Sales Closing Techniques.


2. Increase your selling price. I have never seen a business in any industry, that is providing superior service, that can not raise their selling price 1% - 3%, or more. You do the math for your business. Take last years profits and add 1%-3% to them. I am sure you will be presently surprised.


3. Lower your marketing and selling costs.
Stop supporting media advertisers. Stop wasting your money. A good rule is,
'NEVER ADVERTISE UNLESS YOU CAN MEASURE THE RESULTS'

Use word of mouth advertising. But not your fathers word of mouth advertising. You know when you hope a satisfied customer will tell someone about you and your business. Your fathers word of mouth advertising is not working anymore. Your satisfied customers have too many things to think about and do to ever make you a priority.

You must create your own word of mouth advertising. You already have the tools paid for. You already have the best and most effective means to make word of mouth advertising work. Your sales and sales support staff.

Train everyone in your business to use the 3 ft. rule. "Anyone within 3 feet of you knows who you are and how you can solve their problems, needs and wants."

Pay your people to bring in new customers and increase sales to present customers through commissions, bonuses and rewards.

I used to send my people to bars and pay for a few drinks each night. What do people do in bars besides drink? They talk about their problems, needs and wants. My people would listen for a problem, need or want we could solve by selling them one of our products and services. We gained many, many sales by aggressively creating our word of mouth advertising. When you want more information on how to use 'The 3 Easiest Ways To Make More Money' ...

1. Increasing your customer base.
2. Increasing your selling price,
3. Lower your marketing and selling costs..... contact me.


Join The Profit Club at http://www.bobjanet.com/ for FREE sales tips like this on.

Tim Shaver's Sales Meeting Minute

Who You Call On is a Conceptual Thing

When you make calls, whether it’s a brand new sales call or a service call to a customer, the level you call on within the organization is a reflection of how you see yourself conceptually. If you make sure to meet the president, then you believe you belong there.

Amateur salespeople will only go as high as their “inner parent” will let them go; they’ll keep calling on purchasing agents and other non-decision makers time and again even if they get nowhere. Professional salespeople know how to get invited in to see the president, and they also understand conceptually why they belong there.

Where do your salespeople wind up: the president’s office, or the janitor’s closet? Who you call on is a conceptual thing, not a technical thing.

This sales tip is from Sandler Training – The Global Leader in Sales and Management Development. For more information, please contact Sandler Training – Nashville TN. Tim Shaver can be contacted at 615-399-8700 or tim@nashvillesalestraining.com . ©2009 Sandler Systems Inc. All rights reserved

NLBMDA News - LP Recalls Composite Decking

Louisiana-Pacific Corp. (LP) and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) announced a voluntary recall last week of approximately 48 million linear feet of composite decking which can prematurely deteriorate and unexpectedly break. There have been 14 reports of injuries.

The recall includes outdoor deck board and railings sold under the brand names LP WeatherBest, ABTCo. and Veranda and were sold between January 2005 and August 2008. For more information on the recall, visit the CPSC website by clicking here.