Engineers rely on N.H. Yates & Co. for training, solutions and a long list of products. “We’re calling engineers every day. We have an account executive for each engineering firm. He can get an update on what’s going on by asking what projects the engineer is working on.”

James Yates Jr. tells the story of an outside salesman who had just joined his manufacturers rep firm, N.H. Yates & Co., based in Cockeysville, Md.

“He sounded surprised when he said to me: ‘You have a plan; you’re proactive! You get up in the morning and make the phone ring,’” Yates recalls. “He’s right. We don’t wait for the phone to ring.”

Engineers who specify product play a vital role in N.H. Yates’ plan. Yates estimates his agency makes an astonishing 10,000 engineering calls and contacts per year.

“We’re calling engineers every day,” he says. “We handle engineers a little differently. We have an account executive for each engineering firm. He can get an update on what’s going on by asking what projects the engineer is working on.”

All rep agencies struggle with finding enough time to call on contractors, wholesalers and engineers, says Dan Kelbaugh, vice president of sales and marketing at N.H. Yates.

“Going to see the engineer is the last thing that gets done at most rep agencies,” he says. “But we have 2½ people who make sure engineers know where to call first. We hope to increase that number to four or five.”

Steve Hudson, president of engineering firm James Posey and Associates in Baltimore, agrees that many rep agencies care mostly about the sale and, as a result, call on the contractor first.

“Yates is among those who understand that getting their vendors’ names in the spec is important,” Hudson says. “Yates has salesmen who deal with engineers and others who deal with counter sales, and they do not really mix those up the way some other reps do. Yates always has been at the size where the engineer is very important.”

Pictured here: N.H. Yates & Co.’s management team, from left (front row): IT Manager Ken Mamaril; VP Operations Chuck Yates; Executive VP Jon Thomas; President Jim Yates Jr.; VP of Finance Gene Winemiller; Managing Director Tom Yates. (Back row): VP of Business Development Steve Collins; VP of Sales and Marketing Dan Kelbaugh.