Promoting Longevity Originally, Dillon didn’t want the responsibility of owning a company, but his search for a potential employer with a solid vision came up empty-handed. So he ended up buying Unique. “I [took it over] with a vision of a company where people could spend their lives,” he says.
His creative incentives include a tax-deferred profit-sharing plan that, as a 401(k) plan rider, helps him promote longevity by gradually vesting recipients. Payouts average about 5% of compensation. The custom plan requires Dillon to get regular IRS approval and this year should pay out $200,000. Through it, Dillon says, people see they’re not just “enriching Bob.”
Soon after taking over Unique, Dillon asked his best installer subs to work for him. He later developed a philosophy of hiring people with no home improvement experience so he and his seven trainers could teach them the Unique way. Each position has manuals and tests. Dillon’s panoply of incentive plans includes an installer plan that provides, for instance, a $450 bonus should the installer reach $56,000 a month in installed product. Each month the most productive installer receives $150, the installer with fewest service calls gets $150, and the installer with most referrals gets $150.
Slowly, Dillon has learned to take care of his people and his business. He has established enough systems to ensure that if he walked away today, his vice president, Bill Stevens, could take over.
More Leads Than He Needs In the late 1990s, Dillon employed 20 telemarketers and 17 sales reps. But in response to Indiana’s do-not-call crackdown, he switched to TV and events marketing. He now employs five marketers and nine sales reps and says he has more leads than he needs. Still, he’s not sitting idle. “I’m sending two people to computer school, to learn how to use the Web to get more leads,” he says. He knows that, as with overexpansion, over-reliance on any lead source could hurt.
When he first tried media, he admits he knew nothing. He “threw away” as much as half a million dollars over three years. Now, a professional firm produces his TV spots. An hour after commercials run, Dillon knows how many leads come in. He knows what shows return the most profitable leads and how testimonials, videotaped at state fairs by Sherman’s crews, work best. Year to date, he’s spent less than 13% of revenues on marketing costs. And now 63% of his business comes from media sources.
Dillon’s salespeople make the most of leads, with the lowest paid earning $75,000-plus a year. Dillon believes part of the ability to work the leads hard comes from the confidence the salespeople get from being salary-based. Of course, working for an ethics-driven business doesn’t hurt.
“What has kept me around,” says John Inman, a Unique sales rep for nearly three years, “is that Bob’s very ethical with the customer. If a mistake happens, he favors the customer.”
Dillon’s attorney, Carolyn Andretti, niece of racing great Mario Andretti, says she beats Dillon up for going too far, for satisfying customers who themselves are unethical. “Bob, you don’t have to do that,” she tells him. “He says he doesn’t want unhappy customers,” she adds. In the six years Andretti has represented him, Dillon has sued just one homeowner.