The Craft of LBM Sales

Tag: Leadership

How Smart Sales Managers Replace Gossip With Growth Using the GOST Framework

January 8, 2026

Focus, Forecasting, GOST Framework, LBM Sales, Leadership, Productivity, Sales Accountability, Sales Execution, Sales Management

Sales Manager Question: We sent part of our sales team to a regional LBM show in December, expecting the usual shot of energy and ideas. Instead, they came back with a bunch of pessimism, negativity, and gossip from the event floor. Add in the recent Venezuela headlines and uncertainty, and this negativity seems to be sticking.…
The $37 Insult I Still Think About Every December

December 11, 2025

Builder-Supplier Relationship, Communication in Construction, Customer Expectations, How to Appreciate Employees, Improving Operations, LBM Sales, Leadership, Sales Mistakes, Sales Operations

In 2002, I was a 24-year-old construction superintendent in Algonquin, Illinois. The market was hot. Our “new home consultants” were two salesmen my age. Good smiles.Spiky hair.Brooks Brothers suits.$350 Allen Edmonds shoes. They weren’t selling so much as taking orders. It was a fish-in-a-barrel situation, and they showed up at 10 a.m. every day and…