Offsite construction is on the rise and Bill Sisto predicted to the Specialty Tools & Fasteners Distributors Association that contractors will partner with prefab companies.  

“Increased pressure from supply side challengers and a growing need to jumpstart productivity will continue to drive offsite construction into the mainstream,” Sisto predicted.

“We have worked with a prefab company which produced hospital room modules ad sent them to the job site,” the G-Strut sales manager said in his Associates’ State-of-the-Industry address at the 2018 STAFDA convention. “They are put together like building blocks.”

Prefab is good for his strut industry, Sisto said. He described a strut as formed from a metal sheet, folded over into an open channel shape, with inward curving lips to provide additional stiffness and as a location mount interconnecting components.  

“Strut is often called channel or metal lumber,” Sisto noted. Uses include hanging lights, pipe, in mechanical systems such as ventilation, air conditioning and other mechanical systems.

“Think of strut as a giant erector set on steroids!”

Trapeze hangers are one of the most common uses of strut, Sisto noted.

“Engineers and architects are spec’ing more back-to-back strut, stainless steel and concrete insert strut, Sisto said. “Distributors, go seek this out.”

There are many sales opportunities with all of the giant data centers, large distribution centers being built across the U.S. and Canada, he suggested.

“Recently, I was at a huge job site in California with a distributor,” Sisto commented. “The facility was an 850,000 sq ft footprint and close to three million overall with multiple mezzanines. But there was a problem: A main conveyor went right through a large I-beam which could not be moved.

“While after some quick brainstorming discussions, the versatility of the strut product provided their engineers a relatively simple fix to circumvent the obstructions by using strut brackets and clamps. The problem was solved and we looked like heroes.”

STEEL & FREIGHT COSTS
Commodities such as strut “are always directly vulnerable to the cost of steel,” Sisto pointed out. “At the moment we are on the high swing of the pendulum as all input costs into steelmaking are very high.

The 25% tariffs on raw materials and finished goods “are having their impact.”

“So the bottom line for both organic and political reasons: We’re in the middle of a fairly sustained escalated steel market,” Sisto told STAFDA. “At the end of the day, strut and other commodity manufacturers will continue to have to weigh between raising prices or eating lower margins even more than before.”

Freight is going up too, Sisto pointed out. There is a 77,000 driver shortage now and the average age of current drivers is 55.  New E-logs limit drivers’ hours.

Supply and demand then allows trucking companies to raise prices and choose more desirable routes.

“Distributors will have to re-evaluate their min-max requirements due to longer lead times making sure there is more product on their shelves,” Sisto advised.

SALES MENTORING
Sisto recalled that at age 28, he was the sales manager and had five salesmen reporting to him who “were old enough to be my father or grandfather.”

He had joined B-Line in Dallas as the southwest regional manager at age 25. In the 1970s mechanical contractors were using angle iron and Sisto went to work to convert them to struts. They convinced the largest mechanical contractor to try strut.

The contractor then bought $250,000 of struts.

“With strut, you do not have to punch holes in the steel or weld it in the field, saving time and labor costs,” Sisto explained.

Next Chicago-based strut manufacturer Elcen wanted a Southeastern regional manager and Sisto joined the company.

“I was young, I was from the north and coaching them to change their sales technique,” Sisto recalled. “How could I retrain them from direct sales to distribution sales?”

“We made contractor calls together and convinced them to put their business with a distributor,” Sisto said. “This resulted in a lower margin for the manufacturer yet, we made up for that lower margin through better coverage of the territory through multiple distributors.”

“Problem solved!” Sisto declared. “I finally had happy salesperson. Things were looking up!”

Sisto next became national sales manager for Globe Pipe Hanger in Cleveland to

In 1994 Sisto started a rep agency, SistoProducts LLC, with a hanger line and a strut line.

In the late 90s, Sisto gained a relatively new manufacturer client, G-Strut. In the subsequent two decades, G-Strut has grown into one of the largest producers.

Sisto says he enjoys traveling the country and teaching new reps and customers about Strut.

Mentors got him to where he is today. Jim Strenk of Allied Tube & Conduit used wit and levity – with some risk.  “He taught me to think on my feet,” Sisto recalled. “I remember my first business trip with Jim to the deep south. Here were two guys from Chicago … in Mississippi at a Hootenanny in the height of summer.”

Allied was there selling to major contractors. “You drink, you eat, trying to hear through blaring Cajun music … and we were literally taking orders.”

Streak demonstrated different sales technique. He sought out the largest electrical contractor and introduced Sisto as “Billie Joe.”

“Proper protocol would have been a hearty handshake,” Sisto noted. “Instead, he gave the guy a kiss on the cheek. That was in the 70s where there were obvious divides of culture and customs between the North and the South. Yet, Jim pulled it off.”

Mentor Charlie Todaro, a rep, was known by everyone in his territory.

“We would walk into a distributors office where he would not only know the secretary’s name, but everyone in the warehouse, including the forklift driver,” Sisto recalled. “He taught me the importance of treating people all the same regardless of their position.”

“I learned from Jim and Charlie,” Sisto reflected. “They taught me to remain optimistic regardless of the situation and not forget the people who not only bought our products, but those who were instrumental in getting our product on the shelves.” Web: STAFDA.org