Olivia Glazer: A Day in the Life of a Building Materials Territory Manager

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This week, Tim and Caroline speak with Olivia Glazer, Nichiha insider and top performer in the business, about her experience in the real world building industry career and marketing insights. 

More About the Show

The Build Perspectives podcast shares insider knowledge to build connections and community in the building materials industry. Tim and Carolina are friends, colleagues and former coworkers who love the construction industry and their clients, and want to share their passion and insights to attract future talent to the industry.

In this episode, Olivia Glazer shares her perspectives on the industry today with Tim and Carolina, along with personal experience and some marketing advice.

Olivia’s Current Role

Olivia is a residential Nichiha territory manager. She manages the peninsula of Florida, meaning she manages all the way down to Miami, all the way up in Tallahassee — but she doesn’t have to worry about going to the panhandle, as it is too far from where she lives in Orlando. She is also responsible for a little pocket in Georgia called Saint Simons Island, which is a really cute and quaint area. 

Olivia manages the residential business, so she is responsible for the residential fiber cement, lap panels, siding, trim and soffit. She also handles the moderate homes in the area, which feature the architectural wall panels.

What Olivia Likes to Sell 

Olivia really enjoys selling modern homes. She loves getting involved at the ground level, either with the homeowner or the architect, and working through their project with them and seeing it all the way from the idea to the actual finished product. She loves when the project’s finished and everyone is in love with the outcome, and also enjoys trying to get a builder on-board to try it for the first time.

The Joy of Traveling

Olivia gets to cover some really beautiful areas of the country with her job. When she is selling someone an architectural wall panel project, it’s usually a dream home for the clients and it’s usually in their absolute favorite place. They are choosing the architectural wall panels because they want their house to be a step above everyone else’s. They pick specific materials to last a long time and be low maintenance, while still providing a look they want and being budget-friendly. 

Although Olivia really loves Florida — with all the waterfront properties — there are no mountains or different terrains. She gets to see tons of different beautiful locations in the U.S., and that is one of her favorite parts of the job.

What Is a Territory Manager?

Olivia is managing a state, so she is like the Nichiha governor of Florida. So what does that job entail?

She manages pretty much all the channels that the product is sold through. She also handles relationships with end-users and tries to get the products specified by architects. So, any of their products, from the architectural wall panels to their residential fiber cement, if it can get specified by an architect on the plans, are much more likely to be used on the finished home. 

Olivia also deals with distribution. They have distributors who keep their products on the ground and then sell that to deals who send/sell it to the end-users. She also tries to get dealers to stock the product so they can sell it to their customers.

Then, she tries to convert installers and builders. She is in every single channel trying to get people to either try their products, continue to stock them or to use them. She’s basically a territory manager and a customer service rep as well. 

Olivia has to wear many different hats when she is dealing with different people, as they all have different needs.

Promoting Nichiha’s Products

Nichiha’s fiber cement product is sort of second to market in the U.S. It’s an alternative to a large name brand — kind of like a Kleenex brand if you will — of fiber cement. Olivia’s job is to say, “I have this product from Nichiha, have you tried it? It’s a good product, less expensive and here are the reasons you should try it.” Sometimes, people are really interested in it. Other times, there is no persuading. At times, she just has to see when she’s spent enough time chasing someone to try the products. 

If it is a certain project where there are several people involved and the installer doesn’t want to use it but the homeowner does, that is when Olivia goes to the homeowner and says, “I’m having some difficulties with your installer. I need you to either put some pressure on them, or I’ll let them know that this is what you want.” There are a couple of different ways to go about it.

This is known as “positioning.” If someone isn’t going to play, sometimes you need that pressure to help build the market. Sometimes, you have to convince people earlier in the adoption curve to bring it on and try it. Push it to those people, then others see it and say, “Oh, it’s working for them.” Then, they will get on board. 

Professionalism During COVID

Olivia loves to work and takes a lot of pride in her territory. She never wants it to be perceived as, “I’m going to take this COVID time as a vacation.” She wants people to see that she is still there and still managing her territory.

Some companies were furloughing people. Nichiha made a point to keep valuable hard-working people working, so Olivia still has her job and wants people to know she is ready to work. If people have questions, she is available over Zoom, Facebook, email, phone or whatever the medium may be. She will find a way to answer questions. 

Olivia did AI courses for architects over Zoom and builder meetings over Zoom. There are still ways to contact customers or end-users, and she puts effort into keeping those relationships and conversations going while doing her job efficiently. 

Construction in Florida

With the pandemic and hurricane season, Florida has run into some tough factors this year. They still have two or three more weeks of hurricane season, so construction is touch and go.

However, business and construction have been really busy, which was nerve-racking. Olivia says that they were afraid that it was going to completely crash down in June or July. They thought orders were going to completely stop. 

Luckily, in the state of Florida, construction, residential and commercial construction was still deemed essential. The work and Olivia’s projects were rolling in — it was like homeowners were bored. It was like people were sitting at home saying, “I want to completely remodel the exterior of my house.”

Olivia’s had more homeowner leads over this COVID period than ever before. End-users being involved is a positive, as they really know what they want, but it’s also a struggle because sometimes she gets in between them and their builder/installer and say, “Why are you communicating with my end-user?” She has to bridge the gap between them and try not to step on anyone’s toes. 

Florida’s Advantage

The products Olivia deals with are made pretty close to Florida, meaning the transportation time is pretty short. This gives them an advantage over the competition in Florida. Some of their competitors are experiencing some extended lead times, which has really driven up the demand for the residential materials, especially in the multifamily market in Florida. 

Multifamily is about half of Olivia’s business and requires a lot of lap siding, special trim and panels. So that’s what’s pushing out a lot of these orders from our competitors, and they are actually converting a lot of their projects to Nichiha products because they can get it on-site faster. 

Olivia’s Background

Olivia is an Orlando native and attended the University of Central Florida. She went into college with an undecided major and from undecided, I went to Studio Art and from Studio Art, she decided, “I should probably try something a little more on the practical side.” So, she decided to go for some kind of business degree. 

From her understanding of marketing, she thought it was going to be the most creative option of business, and so she chose marketing. She was super interested in architecture as well. However, getting an architecture degree from UCF at the time meant a six-year program where she’d split her time between two different schools. It wasn’t really the college experience that she was looking to have. 

She started to learn that a marketing degree was kind of a nicer word for a sales degree in some aspects, which she did not know going into it. She never thought she’d be in sales in any way. She had a negative connotation towards people who considered themselves salesmen — she pictured people who would do whatever they needed to do for a sale. 

She came upon sales in a backward way. It was not something she wanted to do, but having a marketing background has been extremely helpful for her because she’s able to dissect the story that a product or a company is using. 

She tries to look at it from a very big perspective. She steps back and says, “Now, why are they positioning themselves that way?” She looks at the piece of marketing price, promotion and all the things that are going on with a product and the way that it’s marketed. The marketing degree helped her in that aspect. 

However, they don’t teach students how to manage a territory or really sell to somebody. Olivia took one professional selling class, but it’s things she’s soaked in from watching other people and trying to learn from every situation where she may have stepped on somebody’s toes — there are a lot of delicate egos in this business. You learn ways you could offend people that you never knew, then you remember that situation moving forward. 

With this business, it is kind of like a chain of commands. There are many dynamics going on, and Olivia needs to make a lot of people happy, the best way that she can. It is no small task.

Tim’s mentor said, “There’s one thing you can never do for the channel and that’s enough.” It isn’t always easy if someone is yelling at you and giving you a hard time, but you try to understand what these people are up against.

Olivia mentions that she is the type of person who absorbs other people’s situations and really feels empathy for other people. It can be a good thing, but it also drives her crazy because she will be stressed out for everyone sometimes. 

She wants to protect her clients and look out for them, but that means she takes on more stress. Sometimes, she has to take a few deep breaths, walk away and regather herself. 

Memorable Moment in Career

When Olivia first graduated from UCF, she accepted a position working as an IT recruiter. She did that for four short weeks and realized she wasn’t an office person. It would be a Friday, the day would be almost over, and she would be sad because she had to come back on Monday. She knew she needed to do something different.   

She left that job without another job lined up, and it was the most reckless thing she’s ever done. She got a couple of interviews set up for a new position, two of which were more recruiting jobs. The third was a call that she got from a recruiter who said, “Hey, we’re looking for somebody to basically sell power tools to big box stores, and you’ll be driving a truck. You’ll do PK classes to the associates at the store.”

Olivia was like, “I don’t know anything about tools. If you guys want me to do this job, I’m going to be completely transparent. I know what a lawnmower is and that’s it, but I’ve never even used one.” She learned that when you’re interviewing for a job, not only are they interviewing you, but you’re kind of interviewing them to make sure that the job is a fit for you as a person.  

She ended up accepting that position, which was a huge career change for Olivia. She was a rep, which she had never been before. She was working in a Home Depot store, with five Home Depots that she managed around the Orlando area. She drove a branded bright red truck and learned everything she could about power tools and sold them to end-users. For two years, she had some really, really busy Home Depots. It was liberating to her and she learned all about an entirely new industry.

She had no idea that the building industry could be so interesting, complex and fun. Now, she does all the handiwork around the house and has every power tool imaginable. It completely derailed anything she thought she had planned for her future career and totally turned her in a new direction that she was in love with. 

Mentors That Shaped Olivia

For mentors, Olivia says that it usually depends on the boss that she has at the time. She tries to only take her career places where she really respects who she works for. With every new job she’s taken, she’s kind of leaned on previous or current managers for their opinions on the ways that she takes her career. 

However, she likes to take chances. She left one job for a power tool job, so she likes to try new things and likes to be different. 

Signs That Your Career Is Right for You

The moment Olivia knew that her career was right for her was after she went on those other two interviews for the office positions. She kept thinking about the freedom of having that red truck. She kept going back to the thought of something completely new and something she liked. She likes going into things with a blank slate and learning on the job

She liked the appeal of a whole new industry and then learning about the whole world of big box stores. Olivia appreciates being thrown into something that she knows nothing about and has really no business even doing it. 

She was a gymnast and a cheerleader her whole life, and sophomore year in high school, her friend said, “Hey, I’m going to try out for the water polo team. Would you like to try for the water polo team with me?” And Olivia was like, “I’ve never been a swimmer. I don’t know anything about water polo.” She ended up played water polo for two years and loved it.

Learning new things is her favorite. She advises people not to be afraid of trying new things and putting yourself in situations where you have to learn on your feet. When you run into something you don’t like, like working in an office, recognize it and then move on. Follow your gut. 

Unpopular Topics That Need Attention

Made in the USA definitely helps if you can really say that honestly. There are a lot of people with egos in this industry. It’s also behind the times, as it’s still kind of a “good old boys club.” The dealers and the distributors lack a lot of diversity and lack forward-thinking in a lot of ways. 

Olivia goes to lumber yards that sometimes don’t have a phone or a computer — the orders are handwritten. Sometimes it’s like walking into a time machine. The industry needs to be pushed into the century that we’re in. 

One of her favorite tools that she’s been utilizing a lot is Instagram. Having an online presence definitely helps. It’s actually bringing homeowners to her and they’re asking her questions about their house and projects. 

Another thing that needs to be talked about is the shortage of skilled labor. A really great way for somebody to change their life is to think about the fact that, “ I’m not sure if a college career or working in an office is the right thing for me. I really like to be outside. I like working with my hands. Maybe I could be a woodworker or a framer and start my own business.”  

There’s tons of demand for skilled labor that can build a business over time and do quality work. The industry needs that really, really badly. The whole country needs to talk about that. You don’t have to go to college to have a great career. You can start your own business or come on as an apprentice and do electrical work plumbing framing and have an awesome career for yourself.  

Advice for People With Unsure Career Path

Just because you have a college degree doesn’t mean that you’re going to take on a role and flourish. It’s more about who you are as a person and how you go to market with your territory. Things you learn in college don’t always apply to your job. You can still have a job without a college degree. 

Confidence can help people in the workforce and having discipline can excel you in a job. 

With her gymnastics, Olivia grew up having hundreds of people watching her perform, but she had to work hard to make her routines great. She would practice five days a week while doing school and having a social life. It took discipline, and she learned it at an early age.

Tools to Stay Organized

Olivia has a notebook and takes notes all day long with pen and paper. If she has a phone conversation, she’s taking notes. She takes notes from emails. Her own mental shorthand is more useful to her than an email. Some people like to use their phones, but she loves pen and paper notes. It is good for memory retention and recall. 

That was the first thing she started in her first sales role was always having sticky notes with her or her notebook. When you have a job like hers, it might be 7 p.m. and somebody will call, and you might be on your way to dinner but need to write it down.

She also pretty much always answered the phone because of sales. It’s hard for her to lose a project because she missed a phone call or an email. 

She also has a planner that she handwrites her schedule in. She grew up using a planner in school instead of a computer or phone, so that’s the way her brain works. 

Tim mentions a podcast that he listens to called Side Hustle School, and the host was saying that if you want to get started with a book, create a notebook that people will write in instead of writing your own. That business is blowing up like crazy because people want to get grounded. 

Getting in Touch With Olivia 

You can reach Olivia through: 

• Instagram: olivia_at_nichiha
• Linkedin

Join the Conversation

We’d love to hear your thoughts on this week’s episode! Shoot us an email at buildperspectives@gmail.com.