Aaron Bailey: Reputation Matters

 

Intro:
Today, we are joined by Aaron Bailey, Sales Director at Star Elevator, based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Aaron holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering and began his career with TK Elevator immediately after graduating. With over a decade of experience in sales and sales management, Aaron takes pride in sharing his expertise with customers, helping them make informed decisions about their elevator systems. Summary: Aaron Bailey, Sales Director at Star Elevator, discussed his career trajectory, starting with a mechanical engineering degree and roles at TK Elevator and Otis. He highlighted the importance of reputation in generating new business, noting that 80% of their leads come from referrals. Bailey emphasized the unique challenges and rewards of working with old buildings in the Bay Area, such as modernizing 100-year-old basement drum elevators. He also contrasted the flexibility and customer-focused approach of independent companies with larger, more bureaucratic ones. Bailey advised newcomers to learn the craft thoroughly and build strong internal relationships.

 

Summary:
Aaron Bailey, Sales Director at Star Elevator, discussed his career trajectory, starting with a mechanical engineering degree and roles at TK Elevator and Otis. He highlighted the importance of reputation in generating new business, noting that 80% of their leads come from referrals. Bailey emphasized the unique challenges and rewards of working with old buildings in the Bay Area, such as modernizing 100-year-old basement drum elevators. He also contrasted the flexibility and customer-focused approach of independent companies with larger, more bureaucratic ones. Bailey advised newcomers to learn the craft thoroughly and build strong internal relationships.

 

Transcript:
Aaron Bailey 0:00
Yeah, yeah. I mean, that’s, that’s our number one source of new leads, is people reaching out. It’s really just reputation, right? We don’t have some giant marketing budget. You’re probably not seeing us pop up on on Google, anywhere, you know, type in elevator, you’re going to see four big companies before you get to our name. But a lot of it’s just reputation. People talking and they’re happy with us. I’m not happy with my elevator company. Have any recommendations so that that’s really where I’d say probably 80% of our new business comes from. Is just people finding us, hearing about us, and wanting to reach out.

Matthew Allred 0:36
Hello and welcome to the Elevator Careers Podcast sponsored by the Allred group, I am your host, Matt Allred, in this podcast, we talk to the people whose lives and careers are dedicated to the vertical transportation industry to inform and share lessons learned, building upon the foundation of those who have gone before to inspire the next generation of elevator careers. Today, we are joined by Aaron Bailey, Sales Director at Star elevator, based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Aaron holds a degree in mechanical engineering and began his career with TK elevator immediately after graduating with over a decade of experience in sales and sales management, Aaron takes pride in sharing his experience with customers, helping them make informed decisions about their elevator systems. Well, Aaron, welcome to the show.

Aaron Bailey 1:24
Yeah, thanks for having me. Matt,

Matthew Allred 1:26
thank you. I’m excited to be able to talk a little bit more. You’ve got a unique background from the times we’ve talked before and and I always like, like sharing interesting stories. So let’s start off with just telling us how you got started in the elevator industry.

Aaron Bailey 1:43
Yeah. So I graduated in 2011 my background to mechanical engineering. I went to go work for TK elevator in their product applications department, which is, it was great, great learning experience to start my career. It was really the custom application. Whatever the customer wanted, a unique application, we would make the design to to build it, and then from there, I moved into new product design about a year after starting there.

Matthew Allred 2:19
This was Atlanta, I assume, is that where

Aaron Bailey 2:22
No, it was headquartered in Germantown, Tennessee. Okay, so just, just kind of one of the suburb of Memphis, about 50 miles from their, their main manufacturing facility.

Matthew Allred 2:36
Okay, so was that prior to, I mean, prior to building the the test tower and everything, in the Atlanta area, then correct,

Aaron Bailey 2:43
yeah, yeah. So they still do the manufacturing, from what I understand, in in Middleton, Tennessee, but they did move the R and D to Atlanta, so I was not not there when they built that magnificent facility they now have in Atlanta.

Matthew Allred 2:58
Understood, yeah. So when you were going to college, I mean, did you grow up saying, Hey, I’m gonna, I’m gonna be an elevator person?

Aaron Bailey 3:04
No, no. I mean, definitely not. I mean, I think it was more of a path of least resistance to get a to get a job. My dad had worked, worked there for a couple of years at that point. And, yeah, I mean, it seemed, it seemed interesting. I mean, it’s a, you know, I like mechanical things. And elevators have a lot of mechanical parts to them, so it seemed like a good, good thing to at least get in and get experience in

Matthew Allred 3:29
What was your dad’s role? I mean, was he in the field in the office in the tower?

Aaron Bailey 3:35
So he was in charge of, he’d worked there a couple years as a consultant in their process for process improvement. And then by the time I had started, he had moved into a role as managing their order, their order management team. So when you’re placing an order for something that goes into that group, and he was overseeing that at the time

Matthew Allred 4:00
Very cool, very cool. So had a little bit of an inside, you know, to, you know, somebody that could at least put a word in. And, yeah, ended up in Tennessee. And how long did you, I guess, work there before, before you started to like it. I mean, it’s not uncommon for people to start a job out of college and go, Oh my gosh, this is not for me.

Aaron Bailey 4:22
Yeah, you know it was. I’ll never forget the first when I started, I would say, you know, you’re, you’re onboarding, the typical corporate onboarding stuff, like a day or two, and then after that, they sent me out to the factory, the test tower for two weeks. So I watched a guy build a geared machine and assemble it together. I’d see them form up steel for building a platform for an elevator. So it was kind of, kind of the the intro was, you know, hey, you go, here’s, you know, I did some layout drawing stuff to see what an elevator was, and then they sent me over to the field and the test tower for a couple of weeks to, this is. What it is that you’re seeing on a piece of paper. So really, a, really a fantastic onboarding experience for my first, first job. So that

Matthew Allred 5:07
kind of, kind of hooked you is, it almost sounds like it’s like, this is amazing,

Aaron Bailey 5:11
Yeah, yeah, it’s, it’s fun, right? You get to and that’s I did. I did enjoy that role the three years I was in it. You know, when, when, especially, I moved in a new product where it was. You know, you’re designing something on a computer in modeling software, and then you’re building the manufacturing prints, and you’re going to go out and watch the people build it and put it together and find out where you messed up.

Matthew Allred 5:31
Right now, it’s going to be really rewarding. You know, my oldest son studied engineering for a couple years, and he was just, he kind of got disheartened when he realized that a lot of engineers never get to see what they you know, they’re just drawing it or whatever, and it goes somewhere else, and they may never get to really witness it, but to watch the whole process gotta be super exciting.

Aaron Bailey 5:51
Yeah, yeah, a lot of Yeah, it was the the project. I was on one project for about a year and a half for a new product, and that was fantastic experience, getting to start from the beginning all the way through, going to our test tower to see a crew install it and take notes on, oh, we need to tweak things a little bit to, you know, make improvements before we make this a release product.

Matthew Allred 6:15
That’s very cool. How long did you work in in Tennessee, then in that environment?

Aaron Bailey 6:18
Just over three years. So really, right kind of, right at, I don’t know, a year, three years in a month or so, when I was trying to, you know, I never really saw myself staying in engineering my whole career. It’s just not, not the ideal personality fit. I did always want to get into sales, but that was a challenge. I made it pretty clear for the last six months I was there as I’d like to move into a to work in a field office. I’m open to location. I’d like to go into sales, sales position. And there really weren’t any opportunities presented, which hence why I, when I was looking Otis, had a position for a project manager, a new installation that I met, you know, they were, I met all the requirements. And I figured, hey, I can get into a field office and, you know, move into sales on that path, right? Kind of a another stepping stone,

Matthew Allred 7:11
Right, right, right. So is that what took you to California?

Aaron Bailey 7:14
Yeah, yeah, it was. We’re looking at, uh, my wife and I wanted to move out more west. So Denver, at the time, we really wanted to move there. Seattle was with another potential. San Francisco just kind of came up, went out there, did, I did an interview, and, you know, really, really enjoyed it, and figured, hey, let’s, let’s take the risk and give it a try

Matthew Allred 7:41
Yeah, yeah. So what do you love most about the West Coast? I mean, from what you told me, you grew up in Georgia, so it’s a little bit different.

Aaron Bailey 7:50
Yeah, definitely different. You know, growing up in Georgia, I still did a lot of outdoor activities, big into backpacking when I was younger. So, I mean, really, that’s, and that’s kind of what we do here. We just have access to a lot more and, honestly, just more comfortable weather, to enjoy it more often. So, yeah, I mean, that’s, that’s really what we love. Love out here is just the access to just, you know, world class, just natural beauty that that’s within two, three hours driving distance. So we end up doing a lot of vacations like, you know, Lake Tahoe or the Northern California coast. We went to Yosemite last year. So those are kind of the things that we really love about about this area, that and the food food, we’re big, big into food, like to cook. So, I mean, it’s, it’s kind of crazy. The farmers markets here, especially you go, compared to other places, is you can buy anything, and it’s grown within 100 miles a year. Wow. So that’s a big, a big draw for us, that we really enjoy as well.

Matthew Allred 8:59
That is awesome. So you don’t see yourself coming back to Georgia anytime to stay long

Aaron Bailey 9:04
um, you know, I never, never gonna rule that out. But it’s, it’s, you know, obviously, you know, if there’s, you know, you tell me there’s this great career opportunity that’s, you know, I’ll pay you three times what you make. Well, okay, well, that changes things. Sure, I’ll move where you want me to but no, I mean, realistically, probably not.

Matthew Allred 9:24
Yeah, yeah, that’s awesome. I mean, it’s awesome. You found a place you love. And I mean, you’ve also told me that the elevator industry in particular is is a little different in the Bay Area. Tell us. Tell me more about that. What does it mean?

Aaron Bailey 9:36
Yeah. And again, this is more I don’t have experience that much. I mean, I talk with other people from other places, but I think there’s a couple things that make the market unique. Is that in a small geographic area, you have a very different feel and approach to how you would sell, right, right? You might like San Francisco and San Jose, for example, lots of big property Management companies. That’s who you’re going to be interfacing with. But you might be in the Oakland Berkeley area, and it’s maybe 50% or more of the time you’re talking with the owner of the building. So it’s just, it’s it’s fun, because you’re kind you kind of get to play, a little bit different process, depending on how who you’re selling to. So I think that’s pretty unique. The other piece that that is, is, especially San Francisco, somewhat Oakland, is we have a lot of old buildings, 100 plus year old buildings, very consistently like that. I think we had mentioned, I know we mentioned basement drum elevators. I think that you saw it in a museum post. Well, you know, we have, we have 70 plus of them, which is, which is always, you know, it’s something to see that this is literally over 100 years old, installed probably shortly, you know, a lot of them installed after 1906 the fire and the earthquake. And they’re still in operation. And those are probably my favorite modernizations to do as well, because those are, they’re all They’re similar, but none of them are the same. So it you kind of always see something new with these old elevators.

Matthew Allred 9:37
So explain just a little bit to me, and partly because I’m, I’m a little bit ignorant when it comes to what you know, is really done in a modernization. I mean, on one hand, my mind says, Oh, you probably got the shaft. And you, you start from scratch, but, but a lot of times, you know, somebody told me the other day, well, it’s just, it’s more about the controller, right? It’s more, you know, if you’re swamping out the controller, then, hey, it’s a modernization. So, so what I’m hearing, though, is, is the basement drum stays there.

Aaron Bailey 11:40
No, we replace it. I mean, those are okay, okay. It’s almost, we really call them a conversion, because it’s a drum. The the difference in in movement between a drum and attraction is different. So there’s no modern equipment like a 1960s elevator. We can replace the machine. There’s a very similar like for like conversion with a drum. It’s custom application.

Matthew Allred 12:02
That’s what I was gonna ask, is, yeah, how do you I think you replace an old drum that’s 100 years old?

Aaron Bailey 12:06
So, yeah, we don’t. So, you know, at a bare minimum, it’s all the mechanical components. But we’ve had times where, either by customer requests or because it has wooden rails, not steel, we’ve done what is actually a new installation in an existing voice way. So, yeah, every one is just, just so different. And then, yeah, to go back to quite you know, modernization, though, can mean a lot of different things, in general, at a minimum, it’s replacing your control system. Right where you go from that is dependent on, well, something I’ll ask the customers is, what do you want the end result to be? Do you want it to perform like a brand new elevator? Well, you’re going to be replacing a lot more. Or do you want to just get a modern controller so it has, you know, boards and parts available in case stuff fails? That we can go that route. But be aware, you have all of these other systems that are 60/70, years old

Matthew Allred 13:04
Right, right. No, it’s fascinating. It’s got to be fascinating just to see the history. I mean, if you’re dealing with elevators that are that old, and then obviously brand new, cutting edge and everything in between, that’s going to be, I think, a challenge from, certainly from a service repair perspective, because if you’re not doing a modernization, well, then you may be repairing the old drum system, which is little crazy in my mind.

Aaron Bailey 13:27
Yeah and again, we’ve done that before, so kind of just just speaks to the quality of the people that we have in the field doing the work, is they have experience with this, and we do a lot of them on service that are 100% original and in general, outside of a major component failure, they’re pretty reliable, just well, well made. You know, they don’t make stuff like this anymore.

Matthew Allred 13:52
Awesome. That’s awesome. So what do you love most about the elevators, the elevator industry? I mean, you’ve obviously come, you’ve stayed. What did you kinda love?

Aaron Bailey 14:03
Yeah, I mean, there’s a couple of things I’d seen probably what my, you know, my favorites is, is the sales process with customers. I’ve, you know, my view has always been, is it’s my job, because, because it’s a niche market, most people don’t know anything about elevators. It’s a box that takes me up and down. I don’t think about it unless it’s broken. So it’s it’s enjoyable for me to go and sit with customers and explain what they’re getting and what they’re looking for and the pros and cons of everything, and really just take a consultative approach and help them make the best decision that they can based on the information I give them. I may not always agree with the decision, but at least you know my job is to help them at least have some information so they can make a decision. And I say the other part is I really enjoy the team aspect internally. At the company, just the tie the partnership that we have between our operations people and the sales staff, and how, when issues occur, we all take a little piece of the problem and work together and come up with a solution. So the teamwork aspects is a lot of fun, and it’s really rewarding.

Matthew Allred 15:19
So tell me, tell me a little bit more about that, because what I want to dig into just a little bit is, you know, you you worked for a very large company, but then you’ve also worked for a smaller company, and then you left and you went back, you know, and maybe that’s unique pathway, but you’ve kind of seen both. Tell me about the difference between teamwork and one versus the other in your experience?

Aaron Bailey 15:41
Yeah, you know, it’s, I have been fortunate enough working, when I was at TK, doing modernization sales, I was pretty fortunate to have a really good operations team. So I really, I think it’s dependent on your situation, where you go, you know, it’s really, it’s really about people, not what products you’re selling better people are going to provide better service to customers. Then whichever product you want to tell me is this much better than that product. So I’ve had a good experience. I think, you know, a big, a big difference, though, is just kind of flexibility in how you run the business, you know, there’s not a lot of an independent. We don’t dig quite as much into, oh well, we’re only at, you know, X percent margin on this job. We really can’t offer them that, that free two hours of standby versus, you know, an independent, it’s like, well, we want to, want to keep this customer happy. Want to have them forever on service. It’s worth it to if this makes them happy. It’s a small price to pay, and you can just go ahead and and do it. No approvals, no anything like that. And I think that that makes it a lot. I guess it shifts your focus on, you know, the end goal is customer satisfaction, not purely, you know, how much money can we make on this one little piece of the pie,

Matthew Allred 17:05
Right? Well, if you’re, yeah, if you’re worried about, I guess, winning X margin on every single interaction, it’s a little harder to to pay it forward to, to go out of your way and allow them to see it. Because you, you’re not, you know if it comes down to that much, but do you do you find that you you’re able to do that a lot more and still be profitable?

Aaron Bailey 17:28
Yeah, absolutely, because with that comes opportunities that you would have never had. There are plenty of customers we’ve had where we’ve done one modernization with them. For example, it went well. And then three years down the road, you know, we’ve picked up four other service accounts, and they’re telling us to give them a bid on another modernization that they’re not even going to take out to bid, because they, they’re, they trust us and know that we’ll do the job. So it’s, it’s really kind of you’re you really want to be thinking, if you play the long term game, you’re not going to really have to worry about, you know, squeezing this much more on every little sale is that, you know, you’re just going to win the work organically.

Matthew Allred 18:12
Yeah, no. Have you ever had a situation where you, because of your flexibility, you were able to win an account, or win the mod or or, you know, maybe they needed, you know, some kind of, hey, can you do something a little more custom around this and so and so, can’t do it, but if you can do it, we’re going to give you the business.

Aaron Bailey 18:32
Yeah, yeah. I think, you know, definitely on on some of the more challenging projects, basement drums, or other other very difficult projects. You know, you have flexibility with kind of your your pricing, the billing structure. We can be more flexible with that on not that we’re, we’re not in the business of loaning money, but we’re, we’re willing to, you know, not ask for 50% up front. And that’s a you have to

Matthew Allred 18:56
What does that look like? What can you do that? Maybe you couldn’t do at some of the others.

Aaron Bailey 19:01
I think a lot of it I probably could do, but it gives to a point, especially as a rep, that you have a lot of noise around you at once, and sometimes it’s just you don’t have the time to go through the multiple levels of approval to get something to say, hey, they’re willing to do this, but they’re only willing to give us 10% down. We can structure the payments like this, and they’ll accept it, you know, items like that. It’s just, it’s a lot, it’s a lot cleaner when it’s, you know, one, one quick phone call to my boss or or that. And, hey, this makes sense. Let’s do it. And, you know, away we go.

Matthew Allred 19:39
So it’s not that that maybe others can’t as much as, like you say, you got a special approval, got some red tape, and is the rep really willing to fight for that? It if it’s that big of a fight? Well, I could probably be out doing some other things. And, you know, maybe this one’s not, I don’t know. I’m just curious.

Aaron Bailey 19:57
Yeah, yeah, no, I think that’s, that’s probably the biggest. Thing, and that’s something I’ve seen, is probably the biggest difference, is the amount of time that I can spend on, you know, value added things for the customer, or getting actionable items done within the company. Is, you know, that’s really, that’s what I spend on, my time on, I don’t have approvals, approvals, logging all these data points they’re looking for. Or here’s the new strategy of the day, and now I need you to forecast all these things. We don’t. You don’t have that so you’re really able to focus on doing your job and doing your job well. You don’t have all this external noise

Matthew Allred 20:35
right? And do you find that that your your business? I mean, I guess grows organically. I mean, do you get customers coming to you just because of of who, who you are as a company?

Aaron Bailey 20:46
Yeah. I mean, that’s, that’s our number one source of of new leads, is people reaching out. It’s really just reputation, right? We don’t have some giant marketing budget. You’re probably not seeing this pop up on on Google anywhere, you know, type in elevators. You’re gonna see four big companies before you get to our name, but a lot of it’s just reputation. People talking and they’re happy with us. I’m not happy with my elevator company. Have any recommendations so that that’s really where I’d say probably 80% of our new business comes from. Is just people finding us, hearing about us and wanting to reach out

Matthew Allred 21:22
That’s cool. So what was it that initially motivated you to move to an independent and was there some fear around? Oh my gosh, right, what am I going to do without brand recognition? I mean that I don’t know.

Aaron Bailey 21:35
Yeah. So, you know, no, I had known, you know, I had a good idea of Star’s reputation before I’ve been doing doing the mod sales, maybe about four years before I moved over to Star. And so I knew the reputation, especially consultants, spoke very highly of them, and so I wasn’t too concerned with that. I think a lot of it had to do just with frustration around kind of the corporate structure. Wasn’t a fan on being told this is what we should be telling our customers and knowing nah, but we’re not going to be able to do that. So, I mean, a big part of sales is it’s a lot more fun to sell when you believe in what you’re selling.

Matthew Allred 22:17
Amen, yeah, very cool, very good. What would you say is one of the biggest things, biggest lessons that you’ve learned just being in the industry through your career,

Aaron Bailey 22:27
A couple so, two things, I’d say, patience and consistency, especially the sales side, is a lot of these are long, long sales cycles to get it. People don’t have hundreds of 1000s of dollars just sitting around, especially on the modernization side, or even service they can’t get out of their contract. But I think just playing that long game, being patient and being consistent with your process, and knowing that, okay, you know, I I might not talk to him, you know, they might not be able to buy anything today, or want to switch service providers today, but if I can provide good advice to them, and they’ll are they liked what I said, I’ll get a phone call in a year or two say, Hey, we’re ready to do this. You know, I’ve had, I’ve had customers call ask me to look at their elevator for modernization, not a current customer. It’s a simple relay based controller. And I’ve told them I go, you know, we can modernize it. You’ll get all this, but it’s going to cost X. And you know that we can keep this equipment running. You might have to pay repairs, but you can keep it running, and it’s maybe that’s a better option. And so we’ve gotten sales that way by just me being honest with them and not trying to sell them something they don’t need, right? Make them want to come over and work with us.

Matthew Allred 23:42
Yeah, when they want it, when they need it, right, they’re gonna, they’re gonna call and say, Okay, now we’re finally ready. Maybe, yeah, we realize we need to modernize, but maybe we needed a few years and a lack of pressure to allow us to move that way, because sometimes people panic in the face of pressure. And I don’t want to do that

Aaron Bailey 23:43
Yeah, yeah, exactly, yeah. It’s, there’s a lot of push in the industry to just kind of, well, sell them something. You know, hey, sell them a new door operator. Well, I looked at their callback report, and we’ve only had one callback in the last two years. It wasn’t even a door operator, well, it’s an old door operator. Sound the new door operators, well, that’s, it’s not really, not really being honest with the customer at that point

Matthew Allred 24:28
Right. So one of the things I love about the elevator industry is is kind of the the community. I mean, when I first started recruiting, it was just kind of blew me away. How, how does everybody know everybody? How can they make two phone calls and and understand, you know, it’s like, this is, this is a little bit very different from where I’d come from, and almost a little bit like, like, small town. I grew up in a small town, and so I’m like, okay, but, but it had a way of just kind of drawing me in. So I spent more and more time in elevators and less and what I was doing, but, um. Yeah, that being said, there are a lot of, I guess, funny things that happen. And I’m just curious if you was one of the funniest stories that you’ve experienced, or you got anything like that to share.

Aaron Bailey 25:11
Yeah, yeah. So this happened a couple months back. We were going to look at, I think, three or three or four Hydros at a building, we’re not the maintenance provider. So we go out, we’re looking at them. One of the cars was down. They told us. They said, hey, it’s they the vendor tells us got a bad board. They can’t buy any new ones. We don’t know what we’re going to do with about the repair. So our operations manager, he’s looking in the hoist ways, he he opens the top floor door to that car, and sees that it’s on the stop switch on the car top, which is a safety feature. So he tries to, let’s, let’s take it off, takes off the stop switch, and then the car, then, then runs the car for 10 minutes on automatic. And says, not sure what they told you, but this, this elevator is fine. It looks like they just left it on the stop switch. So one of the, one of the easier sales you’re going to get is your competitors are selling it for you at that point. So Right. But yeah, so that that’s just a recent example, but yeah, back to your point about the camaraderie in the industry. It is, I guess. I’ve never worked in another industry, so I this is kind of just normal to me, but eventually, yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s funny how many connections and phone numbers and people that you know work at other companies that we chat with, that you chat with, and really build relationships with, because you’re, you’re seeing them all the time on these, these job surveys. So while we’re competing against each other from a company standpoint, you know, you build relationships with these people

Matthew Allred 26:43
Yep, absolutely, yeah. And there’s a, there’s a, I don’t know, a community, a friendship, that it’s, it’s really refreshing to see that it, that it still exists somewhere, and maybe there, maybe there are other niches out there. But the other businesses I had touched didn’t really see it, not, not like we have. So I think it’s important to, I guess, just be aware of that and continue to build it. Because I don’t know it’s it can be a lonely world if you’re not building those friendships. Yeah,

Aaron Bailey 27:14
Yeah, absolutely. And you know is, it’s always good to build relationships in general, just you’d never know when you might yourself in another opportunity, or maybe that person needs to to bring somebody else on to work with them. So it’s, yeah, it’s fun to work when you get to work with good people.

Matthew Allred 27:35
Absolutely, absolutely. So what advice would you give? I mean, looking back, you know, when you were just starting out, what would you say to someone who’s maybe brand new, or maybe they’re thinking about getting involved in the elevator industry? What? What advice would you give?

Aaron Bailey 27:49
Yeah I mean, I think, I think the the most important thing you can do is really learn the craft. Learn learn what you’re selling, or what you’re if you’re managing installations, learn what you’re installing, and, you know, there’s a couple ways to do that. I don’t think any of the from what you know, I’m seeing when I talk to people, I don’t think any of the companies do a great job of really structuring training. It’s kind of, here’s your training, and then throw you into the deep end, sink or swim. I think, you know, it’s all going to be branch specific. So, you know, if you end up in a branch that has really strong operations manager who wants to invest in the sales reps, because better sales are better projects for them to manage and execute, that’s great. That’s someone that you want to kind of tie your horse to. If that’s not available. I mean, the best people to get to know is the mechanics in the field, because they’re the ones doing it every day. And most of them, if you show interest in saying, I want to learn this, I want to hear about this, they’re going to invest a lot of time in teaching you. They’re going to be willing to do it, and they’re going to be happy to do it because you’ve shown them the interest. So I would say that is really, you know, in general, I think any careers right is build internal relationships with people that are successful or you’d like to learn from. So I think it’s similar in elevators. Learning kind of more the technical side is going to help you, especially in conversations with customers and understanding what you’re you’re selling them and putting together

Matthew Allred 29:20
right, right? And I’ve always found that fascinating, just how generous so many of the mechanics are to really give that knowledge to those who are sincere and interested. And I’ve heard it numerous times that if you show genuine interest and you really want to learn, you know, they’ll, they’ll open up the archives of their experience and their minds. And, you know, just vast volumes of things they’ve learned over the years.

Aaron Bailey 29:44
Yeah, no. I mean, I’ve had, I’ve had mechanics that I have relationships with, and they’ll, they’ll bring a print, I mean, I can barely follow it, but I have the basics, uh, they’ll bring a print of an elevator controller. Start telling me, oh, this is what, this is what the problem was, and this is what I did. And, you know, they’re, uh. A lot, a lot of the mechanics, you know, they really love what they do, so they’re happy to talk about it and share, share with you as much as you want to know

Matthew Allred 30:09
That’s awesome, awesome. And I guess, from from my perspective, I think of a lot of them as geniuses, just because I don’t tend to have that, that technical gift that some do, like, say, reading prints or fixing. I can take apart things, but I can’t often get them back together in a working condition. But that always fascinates me. So let’s you know, as we’re kind of getting close to our time here. Just got one more question, and my question is, what do you think the future holds for the elevator industry, what are some of the things you’re seeing?

Aaron Bailey 30:42
Um, so I think it’s, I think we’re going to see in a lot of markets, and some markets already like that. Like this is, you know, major like New York’s perfect example is, or LA is actually another one where, where really the independent elevator companies are really, you know, maybe not one individual, but overall, they have a market share. Are gaining more market share than than the larger companies are. And I think a lot of that just has to do with, again, the, you know, where’s the where’s your dollar going? What percentage of your dollars going to people that are adding value to your property, adding value to your elevator, and what percentage is going to layers and layers of management and board members and shareholders. So, I mean, we’re seeing that a lot. I mean, that’s it’s been like that for the last few years, but I’d say in the last year, especially with when we talk to customers, where did you find us? You know, what did you hear? Who’s your current provider? What are your thoughts? A lot of people are unhappy with the larger companies, because they’re just not not providing service, nor do they, they have to, if you read your contract, regular and systematic, at our discretion, is the only requirement for for maintenance visits. So I think that’s just going to push more and more business over, over towards smaller, independent companies, proprietary equipment. I’ve seen consultants that I never, you know, usually would spec. You know, anyone can put in their own equipment to seeing now where they’re being specific, saying non proprietary equipment only, we won’t accept you because they’re, they’re, they’re seeing just kind of getting locked into these long term deals is not the best interest of the customer

Matthew Allred 32:32
Right, right? So what? What, I guess, just looking a little bit on beyond that. I mean, this is pure speculation, but I’m just curious, what do you think that’s gonna lead the industry? Is it? What’s the outcome of what you’re seeing? I guess

Aaron Bailey 32:50
I would just expect to see more. I think we’re gonna see more third party equipment vendors, in general. I’ve already seen it with controls. Controllers have two or three controller vendors pop up in the last couple of years where it used to be, you know, there were these. There was two for a long time, and then now there were three, and then all of a sudden, we have five or six. So I think we’re just going to see more and more of the, you know, it’s just, there’s going to be a bigger market share for this third party equipment, and you’re going to start seeing more vendors come up. And it feels like that’s kind of the direction things are going in

Matthew Allred 33:36
Sure, well, and I guess I’m assuming that that ultimately the play, you know that it’ll lead to better customer service, better customer satisfaction. And that’s sounds like a good thing, good place to go

Aaron Bailey 33:48
You know, yeah, you know, I’ll be a little pessimistic. It’ll probably end up repeating itself, because somebody’s gonna buy up these independents and turn them into a big company again, or buy a big company’s going to buy them up, and then the process will start over again. So understood, yeah, but that’s the way it feels like from what I’m seeing, especially when talking with customers and consultants, yeah, yeah, probably a bit biased as an independent.

Matthew Allred 34:18
Yeah, Understood, understood. Well, no, thank you for for just chatting with me today. It’s, it’s always a pleasure. I appreciate your your time. Is there anything you wanted to share before we close this out?

Aaron Bailey 34:30
Nope, that that’s it. I’ll be, I’ll be at the NAAC convention in Atlantic City this year. So looking forward to that. So hopefully I’ll get to meet more build my network even more as we go.

Matthew Allred 34:43
Yeah, awesome. I will be there as well, so hope to meet you in person. Yeah, absolutely awesome. Well, thanks again, and good luck as you continue to build the business.

Aaron Bailey 34:52
Great. Thanks, Matt, thank you.

Matthew Allred 34:56
Thank you for listening to the elevator careers podcast sponsored by The Allred group, a leader in elevator industry recruiting. You can check us out online at elevatorcareers.net please subscribe and until next time, stay safe.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai