Overall Excellence
Leadership in the Professional Market

New Builder On the Block

When Dan Glover started his business in 1999, he knew he’d have some significant hurdles to overcome. Not only would he have to convince builders in the growing area of Lake Havasu City, Ariz., to do business with a new company, he also had to convince them to accept a new way of doing business. When Glover launched River Valley Window Co. nearly a decade ago, most builders were still buying windows from traditional glass shops—retail companies that sold everything from glass shower enclosures to mirrors to wardrobe systems. He had to convince potential customers, one project at a time, that there’s additional value to doing business with window and door specialists. “It was a hard transition, but once they started dealing with someone who really knew the product, it was a value to them,” he says.

Anyone who has started a business in this segment of the industry knows how difficult it can be to get an “in” with local builders. It’s hard enough getting an appointment to meet with busy builders, let alone convince them to take a leap of faith and walk away from their current suppliers. But Glover had a secret weapon—he’s a builder too.

“Being a builder was really my big ‘in’ because I can talk their language,” he explains. “I’m not a salesman. I’m a fellow builder who can talk ‘builder’ with them.”

Glover, and his wife Julie, built a business around his ability to connect with the company’s customers. Today, River Valley is situated in an area of the country poised for significant growth due to its location just over the border from regulation-heavy California. As new businesses roll in, the builders will step up to meet housing demands and Glover and his team will be ready to grow with their now-established clients. “It’s definitely growing,” he says. “Now that we’re in the area, we’re known as the people to come to.”

Griffis Construction has been a River Valley customer for about five years, says owner Teri Griffis. She switched to the dealer once word got around town about what Glover brought to the table, other than quality window and door products. “You might get a lower bid somewhere else,” she says, “but it’s not worth losing Dan.”

MASTER OF ALL TRADES
Glover had experience on both sides of a window and door contract before establishing his current business. He was a contractor in California during the 1980s and when he decided to hang up his tool belt in 1989, he started a business to remedy the biggest headache he had as a builder. “When I was a builder, I found my weakest link was my window supplier,” he explains. “Nobody knew windows. They were all glass shops and great at their specialty, but when the time came and I wanted to do something besides being a builder, I went into the window business. I wanted to bring customers in and really educate them.”

He built up his California window business for 10 years and sold it in 1999. He relocated to Lake Havasu City and started from scratch with a new group of builders that he felt would benefit from a specialty window retailer.

Those who knew him from his business in California were glad he opted to jump back into the business. “He swore he was going to ‘retire’ when he sold his Orange County, California, dealership,” recalls Wayne Penney of Milgard Windows & Doors’ Temecula, Calif., location. “Personally, I’m pleased he didn’t retire. The world could use more people like Dan—people who demand the best you can provide.”

The tri-state area blends California, Nevada and the Arizona cities of Bullhead City and Lake Havasu City. In the last decade or so, the Lake Havasu City region has grown from a population of 30,000 people to about 55,000 people. While still relatively small, the area will likely continue to attract businesses along the industrial Interstate 40 corridor, landing just outside the reach of fussy California regulations and higher taxes. “This is going to be where a lot of manufacturers are moving their businesses and cities are popping up all around it,” Glover says.

With his experiences and having settled into an area primed for growth, Glover set about convincing builders to bring River Valley Window Co. onto their teams. “We were the front end of the job, but they were used to just the glass and mirror shops at the back end of the job,” he says of the builders he had the task of approaching nine years ago. “We were asking them to write a different check and that was a tough sell. They don’t just fall over and say, ‘OK, we’ll do business with you.’”

So rather than making phone calls to set up appointments, Glover hit the streets, visiting job sites all over the region to get his name, and services, in front of builders. “In this area, they have to have approved plans for every job,” he explains.

“So I would show up and do a take-off and then follow-up with a letter. It was just persistence.”

Glover quickly won over his potential customers with his ability to look at building plans and provide on-the-fly feedback about possible problems with the drawings. “I could say, ‘Nope, you can’t put a window there because of a sheer wall,’ but a normal salesman or glass and mirror guy doesn’t know that,” he explains.

Slowly, the building community started seeing the value in doing business with a company that could save them from making costly mistakes. “They realized the price is actually better when they looked at what they were getting for it,” he says.

River Valley customer Griffis says she feels confident turning to Glover and his team when she needs window- and door-related decisions made for her projects. “When we’ve had questions on something, like what’s the best skylight or should we change this door from a slider to a French, he’s been great about helping us make the decision with our homeowners because he comes with a background and his ideas are relevant,” she says. “He knows what he’s talking about and his knowledge is very helpful.”

WOOING CUSTOMERS
River Valley now serves about 100 builders in the region, all of whom produce custom homes for single-lot owners, ranging in size from 1,500 square feet to 7,000 square feet. Doing business in an area of the country not dominated by tract builders, most lots are owned by individual owners who want a say in their fenestration purchases. Many of the builders that work with River Valley send clients to the dealer’s showroom, trusting Glover and his team to act as partners in the process. “The builder will call us and let us know their homeowners are coming in,” he says. “We have a really nice showroom and they have confidence that we really do know the product.”

Glover has been selling Milgard products since his California dealership days, building a vendor relationship that now spans 15 years. “We probably know more about their window than they do,” he jokes.

Milgard agrees. Penney recalls the manufacturer’s early days of involvement in the retrofit market and Glover’s drive to take Milgard products into that arena. In 1993, he says, “Milgard was fairly new to the retrofit window business and Dan was an experienced contractor who saw the potential for success with the retrofit method. He brought his passion for dazzling customers with quality and service in the remodeling business to a specific area of opportunity—retrofit windows. The fact that he held Milgard to a higher standard is evidence of his own innate standards. He wanted to deal with a supplier who was as passionate as he was.”

His experience and knowledge comes in handy since Lake Havasu is so far removed from the nearest Milgard factory site—about 150 miles away in Las Vegas. “We work with the manufacturer to be the service department for them,” he explains. “Since we’re so far away, we’re the before-, during- and after-sale service provider for their company.”

Not having to wait for a manufacturer to help with problems that arise means River Valley can service homeowners quickly and efficiently—a benefit on which builders have come to rely. “Dan’s customer service before and after the sale has been phenomenal,” says Griffis. “When you work with high-end customers, they expect you to hold their hand. It might be two or three years later that you hear from them, but that’s the kind of service that makes us look good. It’s really solidified our relationship with River Valley.”

The dealer also takes time to notice the details of the process—another attribute it garners over its glass shop competitors. For example, River Valley’s technician visits homes after the project is complete to do what Glover calls the “lube and tune” at the end of the job. The tech makes sure everything is working correctly, answers homeowner questions and installs screens. The company also coats the windows in the warehouse before they get loaded on a truck for delivery, ensuring clean windows and scratch-free glass. “If a homeowner ever has issues, we come out immediately,” says Glover. “There’s no wait.”

Being a framer in the past, Glover also saw the importance of being able to serve as a builder’s specialty installer for tricky items like patio doors and high-end wood windows. So he and his team, some of which formerly worked directly for Milgard at its Las Vegas site, are certified installers.

Keeping with his plan of controlled growth, the dealer relies on computer technology to keep his skeleton crew of six full-time employees running efficiently. “Everything’s computerized,” he says. “We’re very small but we’re so organized that we don’t need a bunch of people.”

River Valley found this lean operating approach particularly helpful with the new construction slowdown in recent months. “Even in the tough times, we may not make a whole lot of profit, but that’s okay because we want to keep our employees,” he says. “This [market dip] is going to weed out the weaker companies and we want to be ready when we get out of it.”

As the market rebounds and the region’s growth rate pops up on the national radar, River Valley considers itself well positioned to uphold its reputation for service and attention to details to its current clients, as well as new builders that come into town. “We’re always planning on growing,” Glover says. “It’s managed. Once the other cities around us really start popping up, we might have a satellite distribution point. It’s all a slow and continual growth.”

The type of service Glover provides to his customers is also the level of expectation he sets for his supplier, which is a good dynamic, concludes Penney. “Dan can be tough to please, but the challenge wasn’t one of being ‘good enough,’ it was being ‘better.’ If we as a supplier have satisfied his expectations the majority of the time, I can only call that a huge accomplishment,” he says.