After 50 years in the fastener industry, Rick Rudolph is still working 60+ hours a week and driving 700 to 1,100 miles per week to make sales calls throughout New England. 

“I still love what I do and I still love this industry!” Rudolph declared.

His first job out of Northeastern University in 1971 was running the Tech Fastener division for Rhode Island Bolt & Screw in Needham Heights, MA.

Four years later he became national sales manager for Precision Socket Screw Inc.

A decade later Gene Hendrickson and Rudolph formed a rep agency, Hendrickson & Rudolph Associates, representing fastener manufacturers in New England.

Next the owner of a Boston distributorship and Rudolph acquired the oldest hot forged bolt manufacturer in the area, New England Bolt Co., in Everett, MA. “Unfortunately, the bank that held our mortgage was a victim of the national savings and loan debacle, as we, in turn, also became victims,” Rudolph explained.

John Phalen and I then formed a rep agency Phalen & Rudolph Associates, covering the New England fastener and industrial distribution industry.

In the mid 1990’s, Rudolph became president of Würth Eastern Fastener in Berlin, CT.  Next Rudolph joined Lehigh-Armstrong Inc. as director of sales in 2004.

In 2013 he formed Rick Rudolph Associates LLC and began making face-to-face sales calls.

“Sales is a people-to-people business,” Rudolph said. “I have customers and principals that I have known for 40 and more years.”  He has made sales calls on the fathers and grandfathers of current customers.

Among the fastener leaders he has dealt with over the decades: FIN founder and first editor Dick Callahan, who Rudolph described as “a true student / scholar of the fastener and wire industries.”

Rudolph’s advice to manufacturers: Do proper “due diligence” before hiring a rep. Does the rep make in-person sales calls, follow up on inquiries, participate in trade associations and make joint sales calls with manufacturer salespeople?

In his sales roles, Rudolph “saw poor reps come and go and great reps soar.”

The business requires successful manufacturers. “If the principal is not successful in the territory, the rep should not be expecting a long term relationship with that principal,” Rudolph observed.

There are advantages to a manufacturer having a rep instead of a staff salesperson. Reps pay their own expenses and don’t cost the manufacturer for benefit packages,” Rudolph said. Reps also tend to have less turnover than company sales.

When he brought on his son, Morgan Rudolph as a business partner, he instructed him to “go out and make sales calls. If you want a raise, sell more. The harder you work, the luckier you will get.”  He also emphasizes education and advises reps to learn fasteners and their territory.  He sent Morgan to Fastener Training Institute classes to earn the Certified Fastener Specialist designation.

Rudolph recalls pay phones, 30-pound “bag phones,”  Telex and TWX.  The early fax machines had thermographic paper that turned black if left near heat.

Most technology advances have helped reps, Rudolph said. He likes the efficiency of receiving a request for quote from a customer with an attached print, forwarding that to the manufacturer and having the principal’s quote “on my cell phone, while waiting for my sandwich to be made. That use to take weeks.”

Rudolph has been president and chaired the New England Fastener Distributors Association plus was inducted into its Hall of Fame in 1996.  He also is active in the North Coast, Metropolitan and Mid-West fastener associations and the Manufacturer’s Agents National Association.

Outside of fasteners, Rudolph traveled internationally playing for the Boston Rugby Football Club and founded the Mystic River Rugby Club.  “I retired from actively playing the sport at the tender age of 47, when I fractured two vertebrae in my neck, leaving me paralyzed for a few hours.”

Rudolph may be retired from rugby, but not fasteners. “I don’t want to ever retire. I have the best job imaginable. I travel to visit with my friends. How good is that!”

Rudolph can be contacted at: Tel: 617 240-5326  Email: Rick@RickRudolphAssociates.com  Web: RickRudolphAssociates.com