Ron Maciejowski is the Vice President of Sales for Worthington Industries.  He sits on the board of all Worthington Industrial Joint Ventures and Recreation Unlimited.

Kathy Hoyt, a senior consultant with S4 Consulting, sat down with Ron recently.  The interview is transcribed below.

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Kathy Hoyt: How has your approach to handling business relationships evolved throughout your professional career?

Ron Maciejowski: In the early days (1970's) there was more of the attitude that there was enough in a sale for everyone to be profitable.  The pie was always growing and all parties could profit (our company, our supplier, our customer). 

Today , many people think the pie is a set size which means you have to take the profitability out of someone else's pocket.  To some extent that is true if we don't get back to growing our economy in the right way and making the pie bigger.  This has put much stress on the customer/supplier relationship.

Kathy:  Who helped you develop business relationship skills and how?

Ron:  Mentors, the guys who brought me into the business.  They showed me here's how we do it.   You have to build the relationship to get close to the customer.  You do that by:

1. developing trust
2. making sure they learn something from you that will be helpful to their business
3. doing what you say you will do

Kathy:  How has your attitude and/or skills contributed to personal or company's success?

Ron:  I learned by example.  If I made a mistake, I wasn't called on it openly in public.  I learned to do the same things with my people.  People are much more productive if not publicly reprimanded.

I also learned to listen to "the other side" of what was being said - try to understand both sides before jumping in.

Kathy:  Can you recall a time when someone handled a relationship in such a way that it saved the sale?

Ron:  Yes, there's been times when we walked out better than when we walked in.  When there was a problem with a customer and it was our fault we would go in, accept responsibility, offer no excuses and get the problem fixed as soon as possible. 

Other opportunities can evolve if you just admit it and fix it because if you can't fix it in a timely manner it will kill the relationship.  As part of supply chain, we don't have total control over a situation but the main thing is don't make excuses - just fix it.

Kathy:  Can you recall a time when the absence of a relationship has lost a sale or a customer?

Ron:  We had a customer recently who didn't feel we thought he was important.  A quote got to this customer which was completely inaccurate - way too high. 

He assumed we didn't care about his business and we were just sending a quote to get it off our desk.  We had been doing about 40% to 100% of his business and he pulled it all because we didn't appear to care enough about him.  It certainly was not the case (many internal discussions about what went wrong) because it in fact was very important business to us. 

We are working very hard to recapture our customers trust and confidence.

Kathy:  What does Worthington Industries do make relationship management a core competency?

Ron:  Everyone does it differently but our philosophy of treat the customer they way you want to be treated has always applied. 

The philosophy is presented during orientation and reinforced.  If someone doesn't buy into the philosophy, they usually don't last very long around here.

Kathy: How do you measure to see if business relationship management is working?

Ron:  Amount of business from that customer, they tell us about opportunities for new business and if they come to us for solutions to help their business we know our relationship is solid.

Kathy:  What advice do you have to give to people who want to develop skills in business relationship?

Ron:  Listen to what the customer is saying.  Everyone wants something from you.  You just have to learn what the gap is (the difference between what they have and what they want) and then figure out what I can do to fill the gap.

Kathy:  What one piece of advice would you give the people who are managing customer relationships?

Ron:  Put yourself in the customer's shoes and treat him the way you would want to be treated. 

Give the customer timely information, correct information and do what you say you are going to do.

Kathy:  How do you think the economy has affected business relationships?

Ron:  Everyone is fearful right now about their companies staying in business and their keeping a job. 

People are more stressed and just want more time at home.  The relationships today are on a more professional level than in the past.  However, it is a mistake to assume that people don't buy on personal relationships. 

That gets back to building trust, gaining confidence by doing what you say you will do and making the customer look good by providing excellent service and providing a high level of perceived value.

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 Thanks, Ron! 

Business Relationships Members, do you have any other questions for Ron or Kathy?

Ron Maciejowski began his career with Worthington Steel in 1972 and held various sales posiions until going into management in 1981.  He has served as Vice President of Sales at Worthington Industries since 2008.