Bob on a rainy day in the yard of our Tacoma distribution center.
Robert “Bob” Jewell never expected to live in the Pacific Northwest. In fact, when he first visited 12 years ago, he was living in the Northeast, working on big machinery in Maine. But when he needed a break from his small town, his brother invited him to the Northwest to get away for a few weeks. He packed a backpack and a duffle bag and never looked back.
“Moving really helped spark a change in my way of thinking,” he says. “I still feel like I’m on an adventure! I feel as though I can accomplish whatever I set my mind to, which helped fuel my ambitions and aspirations.”
He quickly found a job at our distribution center in Tacoma, Washington, cutting EWP products. When he met his wife, Carrie, they decided to print her art on t-shirts and sell them, launching a small business together. Bob showed their merchandise at art shows, and they were featured in a local magazine.
“You may not guess it, but our t-shirt business has allowed me to learn and apply new skills to my work at — and vice versa,” he says.
After seven years in operations, he moved to a customer service representative role. Then, two years ago he moved to an inside sales role, taking on responsibility for some of our larger customers in the Pacific Northwest and Hawai’i. Though he didn’t have much experience selling to our Distribution customers, he says didn’t shy away from the challenge and worked hard to learn the role.
“I’ve even received a few awards for my work,” he says. “While I was in operations, I received a Wood Products Innovation award, and when I was a customer service representative, I received the Impact Player of the Year award. The recognition makes me want to keep learning and growing.”
Bob and his wife Carrie at an art fair. Bob is wearing one of the shirts he printed with Carrie’s artwork.
MEET BOB
Your title is inside sales representative. Tell us what you do.
The way I see it, the most important task I do is to build customer relationships. I spend a lot of time communicating with existing customers and potential new ones. I have a large variety of customers, and each is looking for different things. It’s not just engineered wood, or steel, or lumber, it’s all our product offerings. So my main focus is to help provide our customers with our full range of products and services — and last year I exceeded my goal of $10 million in sales margin. When I’m not on the phone with a customer, I do data entry or work on some research for the next project.
What led you to this job?
I’ve been with for over 12 years now. I started in operations as an EWP cutter, working with equipment like chainsaws. After about seven years, I decided I wanted to try a new challenge. I transferred to customer service and started cross training in sales. Then two years ago, I was offered a role in sales. I think one of the main driving forces for my career progression was my side business. It made me want to challenge myself to be a better sales rep so I can apply concepts from work to my own business.
What’s your favorite part of your job?
All the networking I do, both inside and outside of the company. Whether or not things work with customers, I always want to leave a good impression. That way, the customer will think of me first when they need something. It’s mutually beneficial. After working this way for two years, customers come back and ask for me specifically, which is pretty cool.
I also like building good relationships within the company. Sometimes I get to train new team members, and when or if they move on, I keep that good relationship with them, too. It’s nice to know you have people you can count on, and vice versa.
Fishing is one of Bob’s hobbies.
What are some challenges you face at work?
When I first started this role, I had no background in sales, so my biggest challenge was a steep learning curve. I had also never really had a job where I spent so much of my time on the phone. Cold calling especially is difficult, even with all the experience I have now. Currently, though, the biggest challenge is working with Operations to make sure we fulfill customer expectations. Volume can be high at times, and we need to make sure we complete everything without doing excessive hours.
What do you like about your team?
Everyone is smart and extremely motivated to succeed — and we all help one another. I don’t ever get the sense that one person feels they’re smarter or better than anyone else. When everyone feels equal and part of a team, and we’re equally motivated with good relationships, then everyone is happy.
Bob, right, with a few other “bearded Ops guys,” Shawn Harrington and Jack Groff.
What other interests do you have?
So, my wife Carrie is a talented artist. I thought it would be a great idea to share her art but wasn’t sure how. I ended up pitching her the idea of putting her art on t-shirts, and that’s now our passion. We started off by printing a few shirts, and they looked great. I got us into an art festival, and people really liked our shirts. I’ve since then taught myself how to print her art onto shirts and continue to learn how to work the business for us. We’re actually pretty big in Tacoma and were featured in the South Sound Magazine. Since then, I fell in love with screen printing, and it has become an outlet for my artistic side. As you can tell, I’m very passionate about this.
I also really love to fish! It’s super relaxing, and you get to be out in nature with beautiful scenery. There’s nothing like the adrenaline of catching a fish and seeing it jump out of the water. Honestly, I’m hooked… don’t mind the pun.
