Loaded: The Hahn Ready Mix Podcast
A podcast for the employees of Hahn Ready Mix
Loaded: The Hahn Ready Mix Podcast
45. Collaboration & Teamwork with Brian Jackson
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Griffin is joined by Brian Jackson to discuss his path to the Sales Manager position at Hahn Ready Mix, and the lessons he learned along the way.
Welcome to Loaded, the Han Ready Mix podcast with Griffin Hahn, producer Lex. No Andrea today. She's on vacation, uh, but special guest, Brian Jackson. How are you today? Hey, good morning. Good. How are you? Good, good. Did you guys have a good New Year's?
SPEAKER_00Uh, I did. It wasn't uh stay up late and get crazy. It was uh go to Front Street, get a couple of beers, take them home, cook steaks on the grill. Nice, and uh get tired about 9 30.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Did you s did you make it to midnight?
SPEAKER_00No. Uh no, I made it till a little after 9 30, was ready for bed. Then somebody let off some fireworks. The dog got scared, and then I ended up falling asleep downstairs with a dog because she wouldn't do anything.
SPEAKER_01So uh speaking of dogs, I was dog sitting puppy Kai for producer Lex. And Puppy Kai was very anxious about being in an unknown bedroom, and so my intention was not to stay up till midnight, but definitely you did, huh? Wow, yeah. You're welcome. Yeah, thanks, Lex. Lex, you stay up till like five, right? Yeah, nice.
SPEAKER_00Oh, to be young. Yeah. Anything you want to share about that? How did it get to be five o'clock? I don't know.
SPEAKER_01It happened. Good. You're still recovering. I am yeah, I'm going through bouts throughout the day. Ups and downs. Well, Brian, we appreciate you uh joining us. We normally do some announcements right at the beginning, so we'll jump into that quickly. The only thing that I had this week was that um we instituted a new policy over the last month, and I wanted to make sure that we communicated that. Um we, you know, we sent out emails, but uh I think on the podcast is another good place to reiterate it. So earlier this year we had an issue where a we loaded a truck and the truck broke down, went into the shop, and we didn't have great communication on what was going on with that truck, and took about 50 minutes for the mechanics to fix the truck, and then the truck was sent onto the job site. Um and that caused a pretty big issue that's going to be very expensive for us to fix. And so um we we set up a new policy that uh under no circumstances should a truck be sent from our plant after 45 minutes beyond when the batching started. So the water cement contact time, 45 minutes from there, that's the time that's on the ticket. Um, we no matter what should not send concrete out beyond that time. Um, so normally it takes about 15 minutes, you know, in a on a normal situation to uh to have the concrete be batched, wash down, get the directions, and leave. And um and so 30 minutes beyond that is is when we need to definitely reject the truck. Now, I'd say in most instances, 45 minutes is actually too long. Um, but I'm thinking that this is just a hard stop rule, that even if the conditions are best, that it's a you know 40-degree day and we're doing full bulk fill, that still once we get to 45 minutes, it's just not worth it. So um just want to make sure everybody was aware of that rule. And so if uh if you're a driver or something like that, that you know, if you're past 45 minutes, let's just throw the concrete away and batch a new truck. Um remind everybody that that's our policy. So um just want to throw that out there and uh and then yeah, we can dive into the interview. You ready, Brian? As ready as I can be. I know you're so excited about this. Okay. Well, so you fill the role as our sales manager at this time, and um, I think you're just have the perfect personality for that role. So I want to dive into some of your experiences and and what you do day to day, because I think maybe a lot of our folks might not know what that looks like. So let's start a little bit. Tell us about your background. Where did you come from? What have you done? And you've had a lot of different roles here with us.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, had a few um and been around a good while. Well, to get to the quad cities, if we want to go back that far, I was out in the Ames and the city. I was looking for birth weight and length. Yeah. Uh I don't remember. I'm kidding. But uh out in that area and uh, you know, met a lovely, intelligent young lady, and uh she was, as I remember it, drinking black velvet at like 9 30 in the morning. Oh. And I said, She's the one.
SPEAKER_03There you go.
SPEAKER_00And don't check with her, but that's the way I remember it. Uh so you know, head over heels, and eventually she caved in and we started a relationship. And then shortly after that, she was gonna move to the quad cities. Okay. And things were getting serious with us, and I decided to follow. Nice. And she had a job. I did not fell into working at Scott County ReadyMix, yeah, which was in Eldridge, and that had been in the mid-90s, '95. It was a small enough ReadyMix that, well, for one, I didn't know anything about ReadyMix. Sure. But it was small enough that there was one person basically in the office doing everything that needed to be done, and another person kind of doing the management side of things and in the field and QC and whatever, and that was it. So when I started there, it was answer the phone, and it was, again, small enough that it led itself to learn how to batch, learn about concrete mixes and proportions, learn about pricing and the accounts receivable a little bit, and go get the mail and go whatever to a job site once in a while and help me uh kind of see how all those parts fit together, which uh ended up being a great thing. Good. So uh was there with Scott County Ready Mix. Um back then, I think it was still secret that it was a part of WG Block owned by the same people.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So as a few years went by, uh they decided to roll kind of a central dispatch thing for them and combine Scott County with WG Block and have me in dispatch at that time. So did that for a number of years. The roles changed and modified as they always do. Was operations manager? No, production manager is what I was for a while. And did so good at that that they fired me after a few years. Stayed in touch, though, with uh people that were in dispatch that I'd worked with and so on, and yeah, eventually heard from them, heard from Chris Jergens that you know Han could use a little more help in dispatch, and he knew that I could knew how to still answer a phone. Yeah. And uh thankfully I did and still remembered most of the F2s with uh command catching and figuring stuff out, and uh had a brief meeting with Wayne and nobody must have said no. Yeah. Because uh in a roundabout way you hired me.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, we I hope we gave Chris a good like finders fee for what you'll have to check with him. I don't know. Well, that that's worked out great. So you started uh with us in dispatch, and then um wasn't too long before you were our dispatch manager, right? After that, uh yeah, I guess so.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, pretty much. I mean, it was, I don't know, a few years type of thing. And uh yeah, part of that gets blurry as the years go by, but I know it was uh a lot of the same folks that I had worked with at Block and a lot of the people that we knew by talking on the phone with uh, you know, John and Darren and folks like that that had been in the business for a number of years. So it was uh always a pretty comfortable transition and situation to be in. So great. Did that. Then some other folks moved on to greener pastures or retired and got into the sales function.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. You know, I think from the moment I met you, I was like, oh, Brian would be excellent in the sales role. You just have the perfect personality for it. So um I'm I'm glad that we eventually got there. Not that uh, you know, did a great job in dispatch with with the way that you communicate with customers, but I really think you're you're awesome for the sales, so the sales role. So it in many radio mixed companies, sales and dispatch are kind of opposites, right? They're um there's a lot of times friction between those. And since you've spent so much time on the operational side and have that dispatch experience, you know, how do you bridge that gap? How do you bring that knowledge and that experience to how you operate in the sales role?
SPEAKER_00I agree. Uh, they can be seen as opposites. I think it's a credit to Han and the people that are here that it's really not. I don't know that it's any particular thing that I do differently than anybody else would in my position, but I do have the benefit of having been here long enough that I know the people in dispatch. Yeah, and they know me. I had worked hand in hand for years. Yeah. Um, having said that, it's the same with uh thankfully a lot of the customers that we have worked with uh for years. Yeah. Uh in some cases, working with the people that are calling in now, they're mom and dad. And in a couple of cases, they're grandma and grandpa, I think, even.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So, you know, it gets to be where things are uh you know the customer, they know you, and you can sometimes skip over some of the difficult parts because you both know each other well enough to know you're working towards the same goal and you're working on the yeah, built those relationships to be of a depth that yeah. So as it would relate to dispatch, there isn't uh an adversary feeling there because I I know well enough what they're doing and going through, and kind of the adage that I've taken from it is unless you're in dispatch, you really don't know what's going on right then in dispatch because it'll change with the next phone call. And things might look easy then, or they might look easy at 11 o'clock. Yeah. But at 1058, things were totally different.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So I always try to bear that in mind that I I know they're trying to fit as many things in at the right time and the right place as they can. And sure, there's times where I'm under pressure and and so are you and Lex to figure out a way to do more and fit more in that time slot or whatever. But it's it that we have finite resources, and I'd much rather be honest and be accurate than, you know, wish we would have.
SPEAKER_01Right. Well, I think it's it goes back to something we've talked about a lot about assuming positive intent. And and I think it's clear that there's understanding both ways from dispatch and the sales side that everybody's trying to do the best by our customers. And so when you look at it through that lens, that we know that dispatch is doing everything they can to get people concrete when they want, that it makes it a lot easier to have those conversations, you know, yeah, um uh in a productive manner. It's like, oh, you're they're not out trying to get you yelled at and vice versa, right? So um yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And I again to say it differently, if I didn't have that much time spent in dispatch and didn't have that takeaway that they're trying. Yeah. Um, you know, I've got every confidence that they are. Uh, if I didn't have any of that, then then maybe there would be some unknown and there would be some chance of, you know, me versus them kind of thing. But yeah, there is not.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. What about um when a customer calls and they want something unrealistic, right? Like no notice, they need concrete now, and we told them we couldn't get it at this time or or or something like that. Uh how do you how do you navigate that with the customer and with dispatch? I mean, what what are your strategies in your head when when because it's you know, we we try and endeavor to do everything our customers ask for us, but we get asked a lot of crazy stuff sometimes.
SPEAKER_00I yeah, we do. Uh I think you'd be pleasantly surprised at how often maybe something unrealistic is becoming ultimately realistic and doable. Um just, you know, giving up on something isn't something anybody here does. So uh asking questions, finding out more, doing the things that John Allen does and dispatch does, yeah. Uh, and Sean and and Zach uh and Sam of uh checking in with customers and trying to plan ahead solves a great many of those things that would have been maybe unrealistic or at least really darn hard.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Uh, because they've communicated both ways. Uh they've asked for what the customer has in mind. Customer knows, hey, Wednesday looks really busy. Yeah. So let's start planning ahead. And and when you can do that, you know, it it avoids the problem before it explains.
SPEAKER_01The pieces seem to fall into line. They do. Yeah. They do.
SPEAKER_00Sure.
SPEAKER_01What about when a customer calls upset? I think you your superpower is you um handle difficult conversations with with a a ton of humility, um, but but you can be, you know, you can you can defend our operation or or or handle that from a place that people, you know, it doesn't become um uh you know contrarian between um you and a customer or whatever. So how did how do you what mindset do you bring into a uh a complaint call from a customer? Because I think, you know, I we don't get a ton of those, to be honest, but I think you get the majority of them that happen right, they come to you first. Sometimes they seem to.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Uh and no, we don't get a lot. I think what I try to start with always is some of what we touched on before of assuming positive intent, assuming that they are darn busy doing the best they can, and something has happened that has upset the schedule, and most all the time rightfully so. So with that mindset, listen, most of the time a few things happen. I learned something, for one, and for two, thankfully, sometimes people will bring up some things that they realize maybe they could have done a little different as well, or kind of talk it out.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Uh matching their anger isn't gonna help. Right. So that isn't really an option. Um asking questions when it seems appropriate is always good. Um between listening and asking questions, that's my main defense. Yeah. And I think gains us quite a bit of information at the time.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, I that's that's wonderful because I think that also shows uh an interest and desire for us to do better in the future, right? So if we're listening to their complaints, we're asking questions to understand it better, they know we're not just you know, disregarding or trying to get off the phone as soon as possible or anything. You know, that that's they know we're taking that that complaint seriously.
SPEAKER_00We do, and it doesn't mean there shouldn't be a lack of urgency. Right. That it needs to be uh concrete's perishable. You've said that many times on this uh podcast, and and it's true. So that makes people excited right off the bat in general, us included. Yeah. So just making sure that we're treating them with urgency and and respect and listening to what's going on.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Can you think of a time where that approach to handling a customer complaint is actually turned into kind of the foundation for a stronger relationship?
SPEAKER_00I I'll start on one and then you get me on or off the rails as this turns out. Because maybe I don't know the answer, and maybe Lex can throw in his uh two cents as well. Uh we had a situation that happens once in a while where we had a load of concrete on a job. That job had plenty of specs, had plenty of mix submittals, everything had to be approved, you know, the whole this is an important project kind of thing.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And we got a load on the job that was out of spec on air. And that's what I heard at first. Out of spec on air. My first thought was, you know, how does this happen? Um, I know there are variables, I get all that. Um, I know we have QC folks that are doing uh air tests, I know we have prior history to go off of, I know we have uh knew where the job was, it wasn't that far away, it wasn't a travel thing that caused any problems. So how does this happen? Well, I get a little uh wound up about it, but then I learned this is an interior mix. This doesn't have air in the mix. So how are we out of spec on air?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Well, so then I think, well, maybe it is something that has happened. Um I I don't know what the results exactly are. Um the truck is still on site, so I'm still hopeful. But we're all right, did we accidentally use the wrong mix?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Did we have something mechanical at the plant where admix didn't discharge fully? Did we have whatever, you know, a series of human mistakes or mechanical mistakes that could have gone down this route to leave us in this position? And at that, for that instance, the answer was no. So I felt great that we did have QC checking on things. We did have something to go on, we did have dispatch, the the project was set up right. Dispatch had the right thing in. The batch guy and the driver did exactly what they were supposed to do. Um, you know, slump was good, everything was good, just just the air, which led us to um talking to the customer several times about that, and doing uh what I thought was above and beyond, um ended up losing that load, but did another one and tested, used Air Minus because it was needed, um, talked to the contractor, talked to the guys on site, talked to the city inspector, and we were still just out of spec, but allowed to use it. And the reasoning was the city was fine with it. Yeah, the manager was fine with it, but he was concerned that the guys that were going to finish it, you know, would have problems or tear the surface, pull up the surface as they were as they were finishing. And the inspector or the finisher said, no, that it'll be just fine. We probably are in this range regularly, and we just don't know because we usually don't test the interior concrete.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So my takeaway from that is again, we had plant people production perfect. We had several conversations with the customer and the city that ended up being no, it's it's bad that it happened to begin with, but it ended up being positive because they knew we were doing absolutely everything right. We were doing extra testing, extra uh admix effort. Yeah. Yeah. That we didn't just let it go. We didn't say, oh, well, we didn't give up and not get to pour. We did, and uh everything ended up ultimately turning out fine with that pour is how it finished and the happiness of the customer and ultimately their customer.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So that I thought was great. Good in the end. It just was a little painful getting there. And again, I didn't ask questions right off the bat. Right. And uh, once I knew more, then yeah, then it all made sense to that degree. Now, I think we kind of all ended up thinking it was regarding the cement or some changes to that. And I don't know if we want this in the podcast or not. But if that is the case, uh I don't know that we can do anything.
SPEAKER_01That specific issue seems to come and go without warning sometimes with the the kind of entrapped air building when there's no entrained air in the in the mix, that all of a sudden we have a lot more entrapped air. So we still haven't nailed down it's it's hard to keep testing for it because it'll happen for a week or two and then it'll disappear for months and then it'll come back. So it's really hard to get to even have the materials on hand that's causing the problems um long enough to to pin it down. So that that's still a work in progress, unfortunately, uh to some level. Yeah. All right, let's uh change kind of course a little bit. So on your day-to-day, talk us through like the process from a takeoff to a to a quote and a job being set up. What what are your what are you looking for? What's important to you as you go through that and and what are the steps? Sure.
SPEAKER_00Um I a lot of times we'll get information from uh customers, contractors that know of a job and want a quote, plain and simple.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, it's also common uh to use uh some websites, some services that we're members of to find out about the projects because that is what I always worry about is are we identifying everything that's out there as much as we can and getting those quotes to the people that need them? Um so we've got a great relationship with contractors who are not afraid to reach out asking for quotes and are great in what they do and that they They have some plans and specs before some of those places that we pay to have the information have them. So we can get information that way. And then it's a matter of piecing all that together. And you know, this part of it too. There's 572 pages of specs, and three paragraphs are what we need to find that talk about what's really going to happen for the concrete. Trevor Burrus, Jr.: 172-page spec sometimes that is just 50 pages of plans that mention one spot about a certain mix or a certain water cement ratio. So I'd worry next about finding those kind of details that help us more intelligently and accurately quote to the customers. Just saying you need a 4,000 mix is fine. Part of the time that 4,000 mix is not really a 4,000 mix. It's a 4,500 or or whatever, or needs some admixture to it that should be accounted for if you're uh gonna bid on things you really need to know.
SPEAKER_01I think that makes a difference to our customers too. That we are what what I seem to hear is that we are more in tune with what individual projects need than our competitors. And so that's uh That's good. Um I hope so. Yeah. And so I think with that thoroughness on the upfront side, I think, you know, is it gonna make the the difference on whether somebody we don't know chooses us or not? You know, I guess it does. It has. I like to think it has.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. If if we know our quote is a little more complete, maybe than the other guys. Uh we've definitely heard things, comments of, you know, you guys noticed this and the other guys didn't. Now I will say sometimes I don't catch everything, and then I'm more than thankful to having somebody reach back out and ask for more information. Yeah. But yeah, that's that's what we go through regarding that, making sure we're as accurate as we can on the quotes and what's needed. Um, then it's really relying on the customers to let us know before the project starts so that we can get things set up in our our uh system and have things ready to go for dispatch so everything's priced right right off the bat.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And I think since you've moved into the sales role and and from since I got out of the sales role, I think our project setup has gotten so much better. So you're doing an excellent job with that. So yeah, that's great. Okay, what about um you've seen this industry from a ton of angles, you know, dispatch, operations, sales. What do you think's changed the most over the years?
SPEAKER_00Oh, definitely technology. Uh when I started, and again, that was a long time ago, uh, I have terrible penmanship, but they made me the fill out the piece of paper ticket guy and uh do that and get all the information right so it's legible. Go over to the wall map and talk about the route to take with the driver so they knew where to go and they knew which way to take. And that way everybody took the same route.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And um, you know, get get everybody out the door that way. Also keep track of the loads on the paper tickets at the time, you know, record one after the other and keep a watch handy and uh and a clock on the wall so you knew that it takes 20 minutes to get to the job, we better load them at whatever time to get there on time. And then it was trust to the spirits and the Lord above that they would actually get there and and be uh at the right slump and have everything needed and and be unloading so that it was time to load the next truck and keep rolling. Yeah. But uh it, you know, worked out great. We had folks that uh held each other accountable and understood what needed to be done and had a lot of experience, and that sure made everything roll pretty good.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's the hard part. We're in weird spot where uh our our reliance on technology is you know exponentially increasing every year. And so some of those individual accountability and skills, you know, it it it becomes easier to not have that skill and get the job done because you can use the technologies to get things um to to replicate that. So it's it's maintaining those individual knowledge about how long things should take or what you know, you when you talk about drivers, you know, what um some of them you you always used to have to know how to get everywhere, right? Now there's GPS that can take it. You don't need to know the streets by heart. And so um you know, you think you lose something a little bit when um when that changes.
SPEAKER_00Um you sure do, but at the same time, the technology has um with a little bit of knowledge and and thought it has led us to the right spot virtually every time. And uh drivers still do uh communicate with each other, and that helps greatly. Um folks in dispatch have technology now where they can see, you know, GPS-wise where the trucks are and things like that. And that helps uh them be able to reach out to the the driver if they need to as well. So it's now a much more two-way street uh than it was back then, because then it was okay, this is where I think you ought to go. And yeah, godspeed. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01What about uh how do you define success in your role? Is there numbers or or do you just go by the strength of relationships or what to you, what's success?
SPEAKER_00For sure, both. We all wish this year number wise would have been better.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Uh on the flip side, cookie delivery was tremendous this year. Right. Um, we certainly had customers that were busy, and uh, we certainly had days where we were busy, but could have been more.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Uh, but we heard virtually 100% how great it was to work with dispatch and how they helped by reaching out to get more information or to say, hey, can you firm up this? Are you ready to go? And yeah, driver-wise, how we continue to do better at training with the new folks, yeah, and uh how great they are to work with, and how you know they are the front focus of customers every day, uh, much more than than I am because they're there with them uh several times a day or several times a week. And uh we were virtually 100% positive feedback on everything.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And part of that might be cookies, but I know part of it was it's true. We're we're doing more of the background work and the legwork to ensure better communication and it it paid off. Yeah, I agree for sure.
SPEAKER_01Okay, last question. It's your this is you got a platform here, an opportunity to speak directly to drivers, dispatchers, everyone else that has kind of an impact on customers. Who would you like them to know or what advice do you have for them just to make sure that we are doing our best by our customers that you talk to all the time?
SPEAKER_00I guess I let know already that this year was great as far as customer service goes.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Now the challenge is twofold to make sure we have that kind of 100% or next to it uh positive feedback in the future and be busier and have that kind of feedback in the future. Right. That's really what everybody wants to have happen. Uh customer side of things, they want to be busier and we want to help them more.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So being able to do what we're already doing and and do it a little bit better, a little bit faster, a little more accurate, a little more clarity and honesty. Um, those things really pay off and and we're sitting in a great spot with the people that are here. That I think is my superpower, surrounding surrounding myself with the people that are here that I get to work with.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. We do have a great team.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01But you're included in that.
SPEAKER_00That's great. And I'm I'm happy that I am, but uh I see it all day, every day, and so do you when you when you talk to customers. It's yeah really it's not a a certain part of the company that is bad or falling down or lacking. It's drivers are great. The concrete has to be top-notch and as high a quality as we can produce, and it is, and that takes a whole team of people to get to that point.
SPEAKER_01We we succeed or fail as a team, right? Yeah. So all the parts working together. Well, um that was great. And you know, I don't know if you had any comments you wanted to give on the last place you got in the Hon Redy Mix Fantasy Football League, if that if you wanted to defend your uh no, I don't really have any way to I didn't throw that out there. For for everybody's uh edification, I got ninth and just squeaked by Brian on technicalities not getting last.
SPEAKER_00So And now I get to have the trophy sitting on my next year.
SPEAKER_01You do, you do. So uh congratulations to Andrew, by the way, McLean, who who won the big big setover. Barely beat out dubs. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Well, excellent, Brian. This has been great and appreciate you coming on here. And gosh, for not wanting to do it, you're really a natural.
SPEAKER_00So thanks for having me. It would have been even better if Andrea would have been. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01But yeah, she'll be she'll be upset that she missed out on on. We'll have you back another time for her. All right. Well, thank you so much for listening to Loaded, the Hon ReadyMix podcast, and we'll catch you next time.
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