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Turning a Workforce Into a Sales Force

When Spartanburg-based Clarkson Industries came to Harrison Kohn in late 2009, they recognized the potential of their supervisors in working directly with their customers in helping to identify and develop new business.

A longstanding brand with a 60-year legacy in millwright, over the years Clarkson has added other trades, including electrical, mechanical and general contracting. Often a customer will engage Clarkson for one specialty, and not realize the company’s proficiency in another area.

Project engineers and project managers typically know about future jobs that might be coming up for bid. So it makes sense for Clarkson’s supervisors to “educate” their contacts about the scope of the company’s expertise.

After months of interviewing Clarkson senior managers, project supervisors and employees, as well as PMs

and PEs from a half-dozen customers, we heard a sentence that just clicked in our minds: “Clarkson is MY company.”

Though mentioned by a customer in explaining the unique relationship he has with Clarkson, the line captured the essence of what makes the company so resilient after all these years: There’s a real sense of personal and corporate pride here. A mission to bring value and expertise to every customer, every hour and every day.

It’s such a simple line. But at its core, there is something very profound.

We often tell prospects that Harrison Kohn doesn’t “create” brands. The true brand is already there, for better or worse. Our job is to see it, hear it, shape it, energize it and reveal it. I think we’ve done a good job with Clarkson, and look forward to the next steps with this terrific company.

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