Transcripts
Ian, welcome to the Same Side Selling podcast. I am
Ian Altman:your host. Ian Altman, our guest today is Mike Green of air
Ian Altman:controlled products. That is the name, right? Mike, yep, that is
Ian Altman:correct. Their control products. We've had the good pleasure of
Ian Altman:working with Mike and his team for a number of years, and it's
Ian Altman:always helpful for our listeners to hear about other people's
Ian Altman:successes and what they're doing and kind of their story of
Ian Altman:sameside selling in their business. So Mike, welcome to
Ian Altman:the podcast. Thanks. Ian, thanks for having me. So can you tell
Ian Altman:people, give people a little bit of background on air control
Ian Altman:products, or, as I often have in my system, is ACP. But you know,
Ian Altman:because everyone needs a good abbreviation, but tell me the
Ian Altman:background of the company and the markets you serve and what
Ian Altman:you guys do.
Mike Greene:So my father started air control products
Mike Greene:back in 1975 it's an HVAC manufacturer's rep with an
Mike Greene:architectural arm. So we have architectural, movable walls and
Mike Greene:other specialized equipment. We're in Ohio. We cover three
Mike Greene:quarters of Ohio. So my dad used to work for a wholesaler, and he
Mike Greene:developed a business just like this for that wholesaler, and
Mike Greene:decided to go out on his own. So starting air control products in
Mike Greene:1975 from scratch, there was nothing there. He built the
Mike Greene:company up to about $12 million during his tenure. I took the
Mike Greene:company over about 15 years ago with that 12 million in sales,
Mike Greene:and today we branched it up to nearly 100 so a lot of stuff has
Mike Greene:happened in between there. I'm your typical second generation
Mike Greene:that wanted to blow it up. My dad wanted to keep it somewhat
Mike Greene:small. And I was Dad. There's more here. I can see it, I can
Mike Greene:feel it. Let's go. And he didn't have the appetite for that. So
Mike Greene:once I took over, I started making a few changes. Started
Mike Greene:doing some things. I joined Vistage, which is how I met Ian,
Mike Greene:and they started giving me the tools that I needed to make it
Mike Greene:go. We were blessed to be in the HVAC industry, which, since
Mike Greene:COVID has just exploded, everybody realizes now how
Mike Greene:important fresh air is for a building, and we are in the
Mike Greene:commercial side of things. We're not on residential so that
Mike Greene:that's a little bit different place,
Ian Altman:if you will. And your customers who are as much
Ian Altman:partners as they are customers, who are you typically selling
Ian Altman:to, or working with, or partnering with on your
Ian Altman:projects? We're working with sheet
Mike Greene:metal mechanical contractors. Is who buys the
Mike Greene:material. We also work with mechanical engineers and
Mike Greene:architects. Those are the guys who design the buildings. They
Mike Greene:hopefully use our equipment as their basis to design when the
Mike Greene:job goes out for bid,
Ian Altman:got it and so when we started working together,
Ian Altman:what size was the business? Then we were about 42 million. Okay,
Ian Altman:so 42 million, and that was how long ago? Two years ago, yeah,
Ian Altman:two, so, two, you know, and so, and now, now you're about 100
Ian Altman:million. And so, what was the driving force behind changing
Ian Altman:the sales approach or giving people different tools? I mean,
Ian Altman:you got an amazing team of people. Your reps are fantastic.
Ian Altman:I just find they're always highly engaged, like when I when
Ian Altman:I see them on our Same Side Selling Academy, it's like they
Ian Altman:always have great questions and great insight. And even there's
Ian Altman:times where someone else will ask a question, I'll give an
Ian Altman:answer, we'll roleplay it, and I'll say, Who else has an idea?
Ian Altman:And like Kyle and your team will jump in and go, Well, here's
Ian Altman:another way to approach it. So what was the driving force
Ian Altman:behind introducing these concepts? Well,
Mike Greene:the sales team here, the culture here, is
Mike Greene:always trying to learn more. We have a young team, I'd say, when
Mike Greene:they're young, they're in their 30s, and they're always looking
Mike Greene:to be the best they can be. And we were coming up with a lot of
Mike Greene:different theories, and we needed someone to validate what
Mike Greene:we were going through. And I was fortunate enough to meet you at
Mike Greene:a Vistage meeting maybe four years ago, and you kind of
Mike Greene:brought all these theories to light. And when my guys were
Mike Greene:coming in here saying, Mike, help me understand this better,
Mike Greene:your name popped into my head. It's like, I think Ian can help
Mike Greene:us connect the dots. And that's what we were doing. We had a lot
Mike Greene:of theories. We really work on relationships. We really want
Mike Greene:our customers to feel like part of our family. That is key, but
Mike Greene:trying to make sure that they understood we were on the same
Mike Greene:side with them. This is what we can do to help you. A lot of
Mike Greene:guys can see that. They only see the upfront costs. They can't
Mike Greene:see what they actually cost them at the end of the job, and
Mike Greene:that's what we do, really, really well,
Ian Altman:yeah. And so in your industry, I imagine, I don't
Ian Altman:even imagine, because I know, because we work with other
Ian Altman:people in your industry, one of the challenges can be the
Ian Altman:customer slash partner you're working with doesn't understand
Ian Altman:the difference between what you do and what other people do. So
Ian Altman:if someone else. Gives them a low ball bid that has no margin
Ian Altman:in it for that manufacturer's rep, they think, Oh, this a
Ian Altman:great deal, not knowing that those people now don't have the
Ian Altman:resources to properly support them. So how big of an issue is
Ian Altman:that? How do you guys overcome it?
Mike Greene:That's a huge issue. There's so many problems
Mike Greene:that happen in the field if things don't go right, think
Mike Greene:about a construction crew. You got 30 guys show up on a job
Mike Greene:site, and your material doesn't show up on time. Now you have to
Mike Greene:dispatch 30 people to different jobs, put them all over the
Mike Greene:place. It just takes a ton of time and effort. So we work
Mike Greene:really hard here in project management, making sure we have
Mike Greene:the number one manufacturers that can ship your materials on
Mike Greene:time correctly, with no damages, that is huge. So there's about
Mike Greene:10 things that we do, maybe 20 that we can show the customer
Mike Greene:how they're actually saving money by spending a little more
Mike Greene:upfront to buy our services. But we work extremely hard to make
Mike Greene:sure we take it from cradle to grave without any problems.
Ian Altman:Sure, because let's face it, if the material doesn't
Ian Altman:show up, you're paying for that labor is sitting around looking
Ian Altman:at each other, or if all of a sudden there's a problem in the
Ian Altman:field, if you're dealing with someone who's kind of your your
Ian Altman:bottom feeder in the industry, and they got a problem, that
Ian Altman:person's like, well, I don't know. I just sell the product. I
Ian Altman:have no idea. One of the things that impressed me is when I came
Ian Altman:out to to your facility was the extent to which you guys have
Ian Altman:product warehoused ready. So if all of a sudden someone says,
Ian Altman:oh, we need 20 VAVS for this install. And it turns out they
Ian Altman:need 26 in most cases, you have product in inventory, and you're
Ian Altman:like, yeah, we can get someone out there in the next hour to
Ian Altman:bring this to you. And instead of that, instead of that
Ian Altman:contractor burning labor that's doing nothing, they don't miss a
Ian Altman:trick, and all of a sudden they're getting the job done
Ian Altman:faster. They're avoiding delays, and it probably helps them win
Ian Altman:the next job.
Mike Greene:Absolutely, keeping a customer happy is number one.
Mike Greene:But yeah, our manufacturers and us work really hard on making
Mike Greene:sure we have quick ships. So just the other day, one of our
Mike Greene:fans showed up and it had a damaged piece. The box looked
Mike Greene:fine. It was damaged. You know, one of those mystery things that
Mike Greene:happens. We called our manufacturer, we had one next
Mike Greene:day, aired that day, so they could have it put in the
Mike Greene:following day. A lot of our competition can't even do that,
Mike Greene:right? But we can make those kinds of things
Ian Altman:happen. And also part of that has to do with your
Ian Altman:guys philosophy and how you're always partnering with your
Ian Altman:customers. But it also has something to do with because the
Ian Altman:volume you're doing when you call up the manufacturer and
Ian Altman:say, Hey, I need this shipped. It's got to be here overnight.
Ian Altman:They don't say who they're like, Oh, we got to get this
Ian Altman:overnight, because the guys that air control products, they're in
Ian Altman:a pinch, and we got to make sure we're taking care of them, which
Ian Altman:in turn takes care of your partner, slash customer, as
Ian Altman:well.
Mike Greene:That's a great point. We've elevated ourselves
Mike Greene:through the additional sales to become a very, very shiny object
Mike Greene:for our manufacturers. I've got really good relationships with
Mike Greene:the ownership of all of our manufacturers, and they do go
Mike Greene:out of their way to make sure they help us. And that's that
Mike Greene:the relationship we have with our customers is just as
Mike Greene:important as is our manufacturers, right? So we try
Mike Greene:to be the easiest company to do business with, not only from the
Mike Greene:manufacturing side, but the customer side as well, and the
Mike Greene:employee side, right? We want to be easy to do business with
Mike Greene:everybody we work with, and that's so key. And we preach
Mike Greene:that constantly.
Ian Altman:Yeah, that element of reducing the friction in the
Ian Altman:process is something that I think nowadays, too many
Ian Altman:companies overlook that. And you think about it, it's like if I
Ian Altman:order an Uber to go someplace, I know exactly where that vehicle
Ian Altman:is, what the person's rating is, history is, etc. If I order
Ian Altman:something on Amazon, I know exactly where that is any point
Ian Altman:in time. And then there's companies that are like, Oh,
Ian Altman:well, this didn't happen, and we're not going to communicate
Ian Altman:to the customer. You're like, no, no, you can't do that
Ian Altman:because they've got staff out on this project. I know that when
Ian Altman:we were working with your team, a lot of it came down to, I
Ian Altman:mean, it's cliche, but how do we end up on the same side with our
Ian Altman:customers? Because you guys are trying to solve the same puzzle
Ian Altman:together, and I think that that's just it's a cultural fit
Ian Altman:for your team, because everybody has that same mindset. So what
Ian Altman:is it that you look for when you're hiring when you're
Ian Altman:recruiting people in sales, when you're recruiting people for
Ian Altman:your team, what skills do you look for that other people can
Ian Altman:learn from? Because you got just great people.
Mike Greene:We've done a phenomenal job recruiting a big
Mike Greene:heart drive friendly relationship based typically,
Mike Greene:our sales guys have a lot of friends. You know, they have a
Mike Greene:lot of things going on. They relate to people. Well, I think
Mike Greene:that's about 90% of it. They're all smart kids. They can learn a
Mike Greene:lot of stuff. And we're good at teaching our wares. We can teach
Mike Greene:you CFM, static pressures, fans, air distribution louvers, air
Mike Greene:handling units. We can do all of that. The piece that we can't
Mike Greene:teach is that. Normal human being piece, and we've done a
Mike Greene:really nice job of attracting that crowd. We have a lot of
Mike Greene:friends out there looking for people for us. Our banker sent
Mike Greene:us His Son. We recruit. He's going to the college we recruit
Mike Greene:from University of Akron, and he went over there during a an
Mike Greene:engagement, and he's here as a co op on a sales bench program.
Ian Altman:If you want to get top results for your team, take
Ian Altman:a look at the sameside selling Academy. Just visit
Ian Altman:samesideselling.com to learn more. So
Mike Greene:we have a lot of friends looking out for us.
Mike Greene:We've made it a desirable workplace. We try to have a lot
Mike Greene:of fun. And that's a whole other topic. Ian about having fun at
Mike Greene:work. It's not like we do a lot of extracurricular things. We
Mike Greene:just generally have a culture of having fun that's everyday,
Mike Greene:laughing, working together again, liking each other. It's
Mike Greene:been an awesome culture,
Ian Altman:yeah, and I think it's something that a lot of
Ian Altman:businesses overlook because they get so focused on well, people
Ian Altman:have to do this, they have to do that, that they forget that.
Ian Altman:Look, people do well, when they're enjoying what they're
Ian Altman:doing and your team, they always have that curiosity. Also, like,
Ian Altman:hey, what's the client really trying to solve? Here you were
Ian Altman:telling me a story about a scenario with a client where
Ian Altman:it's like, look, the key to the conversation was, how do we
Ian Altman:figure out what the client's actually trying to solve? Like,
Ian Altman:instead of the client's upset about something, but what are
Ian Altman:they actually trying to solve? How do we get to that? I don't
Ian Altman:know if you can share that story or a piece of it. I'll leave it
Ian Altman:to you as to how much of that you can share.
Mike Greene:Well, we had a problem out in the field, and
Mike Greene:the architect was upset, and he called a meeting together to
Mike Greene:find out what the issue was, and we all kind of knew what it was.
Mike Greene:It wasn't a product issue. It was a timing issue. So it turns
Mike Greene:out that his customer was upset with he went to six meetings in
Mike Greene:a row for six weeks. Everybody showed up in the meeting and
Mike Greene:didn't have answers. Right? That was we all thought other things
Mike Greene:were wrong, but we just asked him, politely and kindly from
Mike Greene:curiosity, what do we need to do here again? We all had an idea
Mike Greene:of what we thought it was, but it wasn't as easy as when he
Mike Greene:spit it out. He just said, Hey, I got an upset client. I got to
Mike Greene:figure out how to solve this. Well, it turns out one of the
Mike Greene:guys in the meeting knows him personally. Nobody knew that,
Mike Greene:right? And the other issue was pretty simple, but we all
Mike Greene:thought it was a bigger problem than it was. I think when we all
Mike Greene:go to meetings, we we don't really understand the landscape
Mike Greene:that's around us. We all just assume that George is just going
Mike Greene:to be a hard ass in the meeting and make demands. Well, rarely,
Mike Greene:when you put 10 people in a room and we're all looking at each
Mike Greene:other, rarely does that ever happen.
Ian Altman:Yeah, yeah. And I think solve the issue, yeah. I
Ian Altman:mean, when you and I talked about it was all about, hey,
Ian Altman:look, we just want to show them that we're being reasonable, and
Ian Altman:then ask them, hey, you know, here's the way we're approaching
Ian Altman:it. Here's our perspective on it. Help us understand how
Ian Altman:that's different from your perspective. And it sounded like
Ian Altman:you had everyone on the same side, and it was like, Oh, well,
Ian Altman:now all of a sudden, what the resolution they came to was just
Ian Altman:a reasonable resolution. It wasn't like you were trying to
Ian Altman:get something more out of them, or they were trying to get
Ian Altman:something more out of you. You were just trying to find a good
Ian Altman:outcome for everybody.
Mike Greene:Yep, absolutely. And that's what came out. And
Mike Greene:they couldn't argue with that. When we set our case, we pleaded
Mike Greene:it out there. They were like, yeah, yeah, we agree with you.
Mike Greene:Okay, if you agree with me, and we're on the same on this, we're
Mike Greene:on the same side of this, then how do we solve it?
Ian Altman:Go ahead. My favorite part about the story,
Ian Altman:though, was how you were facing this in advance of the meeting,
Ian Altman:and then what led you to reach out to me so tell us about that
Ian Altman:was great.
Mike Greene:The one thing that I truly learned from Ian was the
Mike Greene:role playing. I think that's so important. I do that with every
Mike Greene:big decision coming up, or every meeting that has some meat to it
Mike Greene:that I don't think that, or I think I can use a little bit of
Mike Greene:help. So I called my lead sales guy, Kyle, and I said, Kyle, I
Mike Greene:need some help role playing today. We're yet, and he was at
Mike Greene:a golf outing. He's like, dude, I'm out of pocket all day long.
Mike Greene:Sorry. He's like, just call Ian. I'm like, Oh, I don't know why.
Mike Greene:I didn't think of that. So yeah, I called Ian. We went through it
Mike Greene:right before the meeting. I was fresh in my mind. I sat down, I
Mike Greene:laid it out, and the guys looked at me like, yeah, yeah, we agree
Mike Greene:with you. Mike, okay, then how do we solve the problem? Let's
Mike Greene:go from there so we hit kind of a level ground with each other,
Mike Greene:sure, and we were all on the same page,
Ian Altman:yep. And solved it. So you're but your meeting went
Ian Altman:well. The other day,
Mike Greene:the meeting went, great, yeah, I took your advice
Mike Greene:and I gave them the different scenarios and put it on a menu
Mike Greene:and put it in front of them, and it totally disarmed them to what
Mike Greene:they were going to argue. I think they had. An agenda may be
Mike Greene:in their mind, but when I put that in front of them, they
Mike Greene:looked a little pondered, and it took him a minute, yeah. And so
Mike Greene:he kind of went back to, well, we still have a problem, and
Mike Greene:this is my problem. So we flushed the problem out that he
Mike Greene:had early in the meeting, yeah, so I wasn't trying to struggle
Mike Greene:to figure out what the real issue was. What was the real
Mike Greene:issue? The issue was the owner was upset with him, and he was
Mike Greene:upset with some other things that we really weren't part of,
Mike Greene:and that was his problem, and his problem turned into our
Mike Greene:problem inadvertently, and that's why we were in that
Mike Greene:meeting. Yeah, so we helped him dissolve that with his partner,
Ian Altman:which is kind of what we suspected anyhow, which
Ian Altman:is the owners pissed off because the architect and designer
Ian Altman:didn't catch stuff, or that the the other contractor didn't
Ian Altman:catch stuff. And it's like, you know, basically someone was
Ian Altman:like, Well, I'm in trouble. Let me see if I can extract
Ian Altman:something out of Mike,
Mike Greene:yeah. So, you know, and we try to be good partners
Mike Greene:in this community that we live in, and try to help everybody,
Mike Greene:right? So we're all there to help solve the solution, yeah,
Mike Greene:one of the partners felt that if we offered to help, it would be
Mike Greene:an admission of guilt, which is always an issue, but I think you
Mike Greene:have to position yourself clearly on that front as well.
Mike Greene:Like, hey, of course, we don't really know exactly what
Mike Greene:happened, but however, we're here to help. So what does that
Mike Greene:look like? So the next job comes along, and everybody helps
Mike Greene:everybody again on the next project, but you form
Mike Greene:relationships that help you get the next thing done quicker,
Mike Greene:sure, sure. And hopefully, before it gets to a problem like
Mike Greene:that, we can get to the fire quicker, if you will. Yeah, and
Mike Greene:it was forming better relationships too, Ian and
Mike Greene:making sure they know they can talk to us,
Ian Altman:sure. Yeah. And I think by sharing it the way you
Ian Altman:did, it gets puts them in a position where they're like,
Ian Altman:well, Mike's being totally reasonable. Yes, makes perfect
Ian Altman:sense. Like, it's tough for someone to go, well, you're
Ian Altman:being totally reasonable, but I still don't like it, like, it's
Ian Altman:like, okay, you're being totally reasonable. Maybe we need to own
Ian Altman:some of this too. Okay, cool. Like, that's, that's fine. Like,
Ian Altman:I'm not looking for you to do this alone, guys. I just want to
Ian Altman:make sure we're being fair.
Mike Greene:Yep, that's exactly right. And we role played that
Mike Greene:quite a bit going in as well to make sure that it sounded fluid.
Mike Greene:We knew what we were talking about. We had the passion in our
Mike Greene:voices, yeah, so we had the right tone, you know, like, Hey,
Mike Greene:this is how it looks to us. How does it look to you guys?
Ian Altman:Yeah, but it's like curiosity. It's right, exactly.
Ian Altman:It's the curiosity, and it's not the self righteous and
Ian Altman:indignation of like, we're right, you're wrong. It's like,
Ian Altman:Hey, here's the way we're seeing it. But maybe that's maybe we're
Ian Altman:wrong in this and, like, no, it's probably right. Okay, well,
Ian Altman:now that we know that's right, what do we do to solve it? Okay?
Ian Altman:And it's like, just makes life a little bit easier that way. So,
Ian Altman:and I feel if you
Mike Greene:come with positive intent and common sense a lot of
Mike Greene:times and you're right, self righteousness is out the window.
Mike Greene:It's like, hey, just help us understand what we got to deal
Mike Greene:with here. Because I think there's so many meetings, people
Mike Greene:ping pong and everybody. It takes people a half hour to try
Mike Greene:to figure out what the real problem is. But if you could
Mike Greene:just get them to tell you, yeah, it's so much easier, right?
Mike Greene:Because you can assume
Ian Altman:Yeah, and that's you got it. Man, that's that's the
Ian Altman:lion's share of it. It's just fascinating. How many people
Ian Altman:overlook that kind of stuff. And you're like, look, this is
Ian Altman:pretty straightforward, guys. It's just like, you know, and
Ian Altman:and usually people are afraid to hear the truth. And you're like,
Ian Altman:look, you know, getting the truth is a really good thing.
Ian Altman:It's just like, it's not a bad thing. Like, if someone's pissed
Ian Altman:off about something, that's fine. And Mike, I know that you
Ian Altman:talked about how your dad started this business, and you
Ian Altman:know, when you took it over, was about 15 million, and now you're
Ian Altman:up to about 100 million. I know you've got your son in the
Ian Altman:business also. So what's that like? That's
Mike Greene:been an awesome experience for me. My son went
Mike Greene:to the University of Cincinnati. He took business and he worked
Mike Greene:down there for about five years before he came to work for me.
Mike Greene:And you know, during that time, I'm in my upper 50s, so I'm
Mike Greene:looking at what I'm going to do. And in our industry, there's
Mike Greene:been a lot of consolidation going on right now, so a lot of
Mike Greene:big multiples, a lot of money flowing around out there. So a
Mike Greene:lot of my buddies are selling out. Yeah, well, when you have a
Mike Greene:son in the business, or a family member in the business, it re
Mike Greene:energizes you. I've now have the rejuvenation of building this
Mike Greene:with him, and he's a pretty smart kid, which really helped.
Mike Greene:He's smarter than me, so I've got the wisdom and experience,
Mike Greene:and he has the brains for business. So the two of us make
Mike Greene:a power couple right now, which has really been awesome.
Mike Greene:Because, you know, when I've been doing this my whole life, I
Mike Greene:started out with sales with my dad when I was in my early 20s,
Mike Greene:you know, got into management and then took over the company,
Mike Greene:so I probably don't have the energy that I did. So helping
Mike Greene:Michael grow the company now has been a. Phenomenal experience.
Mike Greene:For me. Our vendors love it because they don't really want a
Mike Greene:lot of big conglomerates owning up the industry. They like the
Mike Greene:mom and pop sure, because we're on the road every day, we're
Mike Greene:hugging customers. We're friends with our customers, and that's a
Mike Greene:lot more appealing. But yeah, it's been a phenomenal
Mike Greene:experience. Thanks for asking. He started buying the company
Mike Greene:for me in January of this year. That's great. We're looking
Mike Greene:forward to that transition. That's a tough negotiation. It's
Mike Greene:going to be a long 10 year adventure. So,
Ian Altman:but, you know, that's awesome. So what's next
Ian Altman:for air control products? What are the things that one of the
Ian Altman:things that you notice you were also sharing how you've
Ian Altman:incorporated some of the Same Side Selling principles into the
Ian Altman:materials that you share with your partners and customers.
Mike Greene:Yes, so I created a in a engagement strategy manual,
Mike Greene:you know, kind of copied a little bit of what you've been
Mike Greene:doing. Ian, and in here, it's all the different things that we
Mike Greene:can do differently than our competitors that a lot of people
Mike Greene:don't realize. You know that project management piece dealing
Mike Greene:with the number one manufacturers in understanding
Mike Greene:where our clients are in the client vision pyramid. So in it,
Mike Greene:it's got a little bit of of that, but it's based a lot
Mike Greene:around what you preach Ian or teach, I should say, but it's a
Mike Greene:lot of common sense too. It just takes what you do and understand
Mike Greene:it better and relay that to your customers. Your customers don't
Mike Greene:know all the things you do. You have to tell them. We assume
Mike Greene:they know how great we are. Hey, we're awesome. We're air control
Mike Greene:products. No, they don't care. They don't know, but they need
Mike Greene:to understand, and we have to prove it to them, so we can keep
Mike Greene:them all day long, but if we don't prove it to them, doesn't
Mike Greene:mean anything.
Ian Altman:Yeah, and that notion of them understanding
Ian Altman:that, oh, here's what we do to make sure that your employees
Ian Altman:aren't sitting idle on a job site waiting for stuff. Here's
Ian Altman:what we do. Like you mentioned a couple times that, well, we
Ian Altman:found this thing, and it was defective. It was faulty. Guess
Ian Altman:what? There's a lot of people in your industry or just drop
Ian Altman:shipping, they're not inspecting stuff when it comes in, so
Ian Altman:you're catching stuff two or three steps before it would ever
Ian Altman:become a problem. And that's something that, if we don't tell
Ian Altman:them, the HVAC contractor has no idea that that's a real risk,
Ian Altman:until they work with someone like that and they go, What do
Ian Altman:you mean? It showed up defective, and you didn't know.
Ian Altman:You guys have a whole process of how you receive stuff, how you
Ian Altman:inspect it before it goes out. Other people are just like, oh
Ian Altman:yeah, just, you know, slap it, you know, throw it into a truck
Ian Altman:and drop it off. Oh, it's defective. Okay, now we'll deal
Ian Altman:with it like it's too late at that point,
Mike Greene:right, right? We opened up a Service Division
Mike Greene:about two years ago, and we head out to the job site and do the
Mike Greene:startup on the materials. We know our equipment. They're
Mike Greene:factory authorized, so these guys can get it fixed before
Mike Greene:they actually have to use it. Hopefully we're a few months
Mike Greene:ahead of time so we can work on those problems. A lot of
Mike Greene:problems that happen in the field aren't ours either, but we
Mike Greene:can identify them. There's a lot of control issues. They got to
Mike Greene:tell the unit to start, and they just don't have things hooked up
Mike Greene:correctly, yeah, a lot of pieces, and we have to work
Mike Greene:together as a team to get it all working. Everybody's got to be
Mike Greene:there,
Ian Altman:sure. So Mike, for people who are looking they go,
Ian Altman:Wow. So Mike took this thing over at like, 12 to 15 million,
Ian Altman:grew it to 40 now, grew it to 100 million. What are some of
Ian Altman:the key lessons that you would share with them that says, hey,
Ian Altman:you know, if you're looking to grow at this type of pace, here
Ian Altman:are some of the key steps. Here are two or three things you
Ian Altman:really got to focus on to achieve that level of
Mike Greene:success. So one of my mentors told me, always work
Mike Greene:on your foundation. So whatever that looks like for your
Mike Greene:company, always build and continue building the foundation
Mike Greene:of what you're doing, also working with great people,
Mike Greene:hiring good people, and making sure that everybody in your
Mike Greene:company is working in the same direction, keeping open
Mike Greene:communications, making it a desirable workplace if nobody
Mike Greene:wants to come work for you, that's bad, right? People have
Mike Greene:got to want to come to work for you. And this is something I
Mike Greene:learned 15 years ago, because air control products hasn't been
Mike Greene:the ideal place to work for its entire 50 years of existence.
Mike Greene:There was a time there where it wasn't very bright so and that I
Mike Greene:grew up here during that time frame, so understanding that I
Mike Greene:wanted to make it a desirable workplace, and working on your
Mike Greene:reputation, taking care of your people, always doing the right
Mike Greene:thing, building trust. I know a lot of these things are cliche,
Mike Greene:but they are so true. Hard work and dedication to your people,
Mike Greene:your employees, and building that foundation is probably our
Mike Greene:biggest reason for success.
Ian Altman:Yeah, and you guys live it. So I think the
Ian Altman:challenge is that other people talk about, well, we want to
Ian Altman:look out for our employees and our customers, but for them, it
Ian Altman:is a cliche. For you guys, it's part of your culture. So part of
Ian Altman:your DNA is, are we taking care of people? I remember you
Ian Altman:mentioned Kyle when. And Kyle's wife gave birth. It wasn't like,
Ian Altman:oh, when are you coming into work? It was like, Hey, Kyle,
Ian Altman:what are you doing to make sure you're there for your family and
Ian Altman:this and that that's more important than anything going on
Ian Altman:at work? It wasn't like, you know, there's a lot of companies
Ian Altman:were like, Oh, you had a baby. That's great. You're gonna be in
Ian Altman:tomorrow. Like, it's at that point. It's like, we care about
Ian Altman:our employees, but only extent that you're going to be here
Ian Altman:tomorrow.
Mike Greene:Right now, we work really hard on making sure that
Mike Greene:when people take vacations or maternity leave, whatever, we
Mike Greene:have their back covered. That's why we so many things here.
Mike Greene:We're talking right now about vacation season coming. So part
Mike Greene:of my soapbox speech for our Tuesday morning meetings is make
Mike Greene:sure you guys have all your ducks in a row. We know when
Mike Greene:you're leaving. You know who your backup is, so we don't have
Mike Greene:to call you. We do not want to call you on vacation. We want
Mike Greene:you to go and get re energized and come back and feel better
Mike Greene:than
Ian Altman:ever. That's great. So what's next as we wrap this
Ian Altman:up, or any final words that you want to share with people,
Ian Altman:continuing
Mike Greene:to build a great company you know that can
Mike Greene:forever last, making sure that we put my son in a position for
Mike Greene:success, surrounding him with the right people. It's about
Mike Greene:building that foundation. I don't care how big you get, you
Mike Greene:always need to work on your foundation. So that's next. We
Mike Greene:have a lot of opportunities coming our way as we continue to
Mike Greene:grow. So I don't know exactly where we're going. I'm the
Mike Greene:visionary. So that's probably not a good statement, but I know
Mike Greene:about how we're going to get there. We have a lot of great
Mike Greene:people, and for the first time in my career, I feel that we
Mike Greene:have enough people on the bench to do whatever we whatever comes
Mike Greene:our way, and we're getting pretty good at it. But again, it
Mike Greene:comes down to the people, and having them happy and giving
Mike Greene:them the right tools to be successful, you have to pour
Mike Greene:into them and they will give it right back to you. Absolutely,
Ian Altman:that's awesome. Well, Mike, congratulations.
Ian Altman:Amazing success. It's always fun to see, because I can share
Ian Altman:these concepts with anybody. It's the companies that actually
Ian Altman:internalize it, implement it. Seeing you have the client
Ian Altman:vision pyramid in the document you're sharing with your
Ian Altman:partners and customers is kind of the epitome of that, that
Ian Altman:you're you're not just, you know, giving it lip service, you
Ian Altman:guys are actually living it, which I think has a lot to do
Ian Altman:with the success you guys have had, and just that culture of
Ian Altman:caring for your customers, your employees. You can't fake that
Ian Altman:stuff, and the authenticity you guys have is really inspiring.
Ian Altman:And I'm sure it's given a lot of other people ideas too. So
Ian Altman:thanks for taking the time to share your story.
Mike Greene:It has absolutely when we can help our customers
Mike Greene:grow their business through our theories. It actually works, so
Mike Greene:we're helping them become better business people as well. So it's
Mike Greene:significant. Keeps on giving.
Ian Altman:Yeah, gotta love it. All right. Thanks again, Mike,
Mike Greene:all right. Ian, take care. You.