Shed Geek Podcast
The Shed Geek Podcast offers an in depth analysis of the ever growing and robust Shed Industry. Listeners will experience a variety of guests who identify or specialize in particular niche areas of the Shed Industry. You will be engaged as you hear amateur and professional personalities discuss topics such as: Shed hauling, sales, marketing, Rent to Own, shed history, shed faith, and much more. Host Shannon Latham is a self proclaimed "Shed Geek" who attempts to take you through discussions that are as exciting as the industry itself. Listeners of this podcast include those who play a role directly or indirectly with the Shed Industry itself.
Shed Geek Podcast
Beyond the Boom: Redefining Value in the Post-Pandemic Shed Industry Part 1
Navigating the shed industry in a post-pandemic world requires wisdom, strategy, and strong partnerships. In this revealing conversation, Jared Ledford welcomes Sheds Direct's dynamic duo – JW Rucker (District Sales Manager) and Marc Church (Business Development Director) – who bring decades of industry expertise and infectious enthusiasm to the discussion.
The conversation dives deep into how COVID fundamentally transformed the shed business, creating what Marc describes as a shift from being shed sellers to mere "order takers" during the pandemic boom. As JW explains, "You could be bad at selling sheds and have a line out your door in 2020 or 2021." Now, as the market normalizes, quality and service have reemerged as crucial differentiators.
At the heart of their discussion is the "price, quality, and service triangle" – the industry principle that no manufacturer can truly excel in all three areas. This challenging reality forces strategic decisions about identity and market positioning. What's fascinating is that despite conventional wisdom suggesting price drives purchasing decisions, Marc reveals their value line represents just 10-15% of total sales, proving customers ultimately seek quality and value over rock-bottom pricing.
For dealers, the insights shared might fundamentally change how you approach manufacturer partnerships. The team candidly discusses how choosing partners solely on price often leads to spending countless hours addressing quality issues rather than selling more sheds. As Jared laments from experience, "We're still getting negative reviews from other manufacturers just now, and it makes us look bad."
Whether you're a manufacturer, dealer, or industry supplier, this conversation provides critical market intelligence as we navigate 2025. The early winter challenges, the promising spring momentum, and the industry's overall trajectory offer valuable perspective for anyone invested in the portable building space. Their closing message resonates clearly: success lies not in racing to the bottom, but in delivering quality products that make customers proud and keep referrals flowing.
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This episodes Sponsors:
Studio Sponsor: J Money LLC
Shed Geek Marketing
Hey guys, what's up. This is Jared and this is the Steel Kings podcast. Eric is on an assignment with the pole barn crew today, so it's me rocking solo, but I'm not coming alone today. I've got a couple of special guests in the studio with me today. Um, quick shout out to the team over at J money. If you are a contractor, a metal building dealer, shed dealer, really any kind of home improvement at all the team over at J money can get you taken care of on your financing needs. Contact Joel, Katy, the team over at J Money. They will be happy to help you with your financing needs. Quick shout out and plug to our podfather, Shannon over at the Shed Geek podcast. Check his show out on Wednesdays. He has had some special guests here recently and we're getting into some fun stuff there on Wednesdays as well. The guys over at Shed Geek Marketing, Dylan and his team, are doing a great job. If you are metal building dealer, shed dealer really any anybody who's using marketing if you're on social media google check out the team over at shed geek marketing. They're happy to get you, uh, started down the track to success without further ado.
Jared:You guys have heard me talk about. Now we're on episode 9, 10, something like that. For the last couple months you guys have gotten to know me, gotten to know Eric a little bit. You all know that we sling sheds in metal buildings nationwide. On the metal building side we're getting into tri-state coverage with our wood sheds. But you know you've heard us talk about some of the struggles we've had over the years to find the right partner when it comes to wood sheds. And let me tell you something Sheds Direct has been great to us. You guys have heard us rep them over the last couple of months. What I'm really excited about today is I get to have them in the studio with me.
Jared:A couple of guys who have really one guy who's been an advocate for Dayton Barns for a long time was riding with us for a short time as well really helped us start and grow this business and took his talents over to Sheds Direct. And let me tell you something very, very, very seldom in your life do you meet somebody that you have an immediate connection with. A little over a year ago, a guy stepped into our shop that really changed the way that I thought about slinging wood sheds. I'm going to introduce you guys to JW Rucker. He's the district sales manager for Sheds Direct, and I'm also going to introduce you to the business development director for Sheds Direct, Marc Church, and let me tell you something Marc is a very special guy. Very, very seldom do you meet somebody that has his talent and his love for the industry. He and I had an immediate connection, and the joke that we always ask each other is how many people have you met with my energy level and how many people have I met with Marc's? And the answer that I always give Marc is I have never met anybody who loves slinging sheds like Marc Church. So let me tell you something, guys I am super pumped up and excited to bring these guys into the studio. These two guys are from Sheds Direct and let me tell you something we are proud and happy to be a Sheds Direct dealer.
Jared:Without further ado, JW, Marc, you guys are here in the studio with the Steel Kings, with Jared. What's up? How's it going? What's up, Jared? How are you today? Buddy, I am, uh, I am blessed beyond my uh, my comprehension this morning. I can tell you we ran into some technical difficulties. I'll give you a little peek behind the curtain. Uh, these guys were sitting there laughing at me because I went through the whole spiel. I did the, I did the advertising, I did the, I did hype up, and they're just sitting there thinking Jared your microphone's off, brother. So we're finally in the studio, we're finally here.
Marc :So, man, I'm better than I deserve this morning, how's that I was texting JW like do I supposed to be able to hear him? Does he supposed to be able to hear me? How does this usually work? Honestly, man, I'm super excited to be here. I feel like I'm on Fox News right now with the whole podcast thing. I'm super excited. While I travel, I listen to podcasts quite often. I've been listening to the Steel Kings podcast here probably over the last six months. Shannon doesn't know this, but I've definitely been a shed geek podcaster as well, so super excited to finally be on one of these and and be able to to answer questions and talk to you guys about Sheds Direct. Yeah, man.
Jared:Yeah, it's, this is something. So, I was telling at the beginning, you came to me about a year ago and this is Marc. So, Marc walks in the door and I don't know Marc from anybody else. He's a complete stranger to me and I mean you can already hear it in his voice. He, he's got a uniqueness to who he is and, man, he sold me that second. I was ready to. I mean, you'd have to, you'd have to tell us Marc, but I mean I was ready to sign up that second.
Jared:Now, at the time the ironic part is JW was working with us and had been for a while and uh, you know it was. It's been a tumultuous, to say the least, stead partnerships over the years. We have a rule here we don't talk bad about anybody, and not that those relationships were bad, but you know when the relationship's good, when it's good right, you know how good the grass can be when it's green. So, I can tell you we've been repping you guys for the last few months and we couldn't be happier with what we've got so far. So first of all, thank you from the Dayton Barns team and Steel Kings. But tell us a little bit about yourselves, guys. I mean, that's usually what we do here. First is we introduce and tell us a little bit about yourselves and your product and kind of go from there.
JW:JW, you want to go first? Yeah, I'll take the lead. So, my name is JW Rucker. I have been blessed to be in the shed industry since I was 16 years old. So, I got linked up with Eric Olson, who obviously isn't here today. But awesome man, we linked up. He asked me to help him out of the shed lot one day and it was a rainy day, horrible weather day. I was 16 years old Somehow. I sold seven sheds that day and had to call Eric for every single one of them and ask him for help on how to do it. So, I mean, it's been a journey ever since then. I was so thankful that he gave me that opportunity. We were able to kind of grow this business.
JW:I remember meeting Jared. Jared came along and really put gas in our engine to continue to grow the business and then last year I made the transition over to the manufacturing side of things and took a role here at Sheds Direct and have been super happy since, super thankful to work at the team at Sheds Direct. We are proud to service many states in the Mid-Atlantic and then over in the Midwest. So, I'm the district sales manager for our Ohio, Indiana and Michigan districts and it's just been an exciting opportunity and through it all I still got to keep my relationship with Eric and Jared and the crew at Dayton Barns and be able to help them, you know, meet their shed needs, sell sheds and be successful. So super thankful for being here today. Thanks for having us on, jerry. Yeah, for sure, man.
Marc :Yeah, what's up guys. My name is Marc Church. I've been with Sheds Direct since 2018. A funny fact about me I am clean shaven today, but at one time in my life, my beard was as long as Jared's. So, I decided to take a sabbatical and move to Wyoming and live in the mountains of the Bridger Tetons for about a year, until I just got too cold and said, man, I've got to get back south. My bloodline was not designed for five feet of snow. So, at that time, Jared, I had that beard going. But no, I started with SDI in August 2018.
Marc :Previously, I was with United Parcel Service in their sales management teams for about 12 years, and I have three children, a wife. At that time, I was traveling to multiple states all over the place, and so I was also. One of my hobbies is coaching ball. I love to coach baseball youth baseball and so I was on a baseball field and our founder I was actually coaching his son at the time. We strike up a conversation and I said man, you can't make any money selling sheds, what are you talking about? And so he said, hey, come to the office, let's sit down and talk about it. So, from there, 2018, sheds Direct was definitely a much different entity at that time From transitioning through COVID. Now post-COVID, we've definitely been highly blessed and super excited about the future and things to come, especially about our partnerships with individuals such as Dayton Barns, such as Jared and his team, and really that collaboration of technology and really the desire to sling sheds is what I say, and so just super excited about the future for sure.
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Jared:So, I'm gonna jump right in here. I want to hear what you guys are seeing, market wise, right. So, industry trends heading into 2025 sales season Is there anything that you guys can share with a broad audience? Right, we talked to manufacturers, other manufacturers, we talked to dealers, we talked to suppliers. We've got a little bit of everybody in the pool here of the audience of the Steel Kings podcast. What are you guys seeing? I mean, I know, from our perspective, you know we're seeing the businesses down podcast. What are you guys seeing? I mean, I know, from our perspective, we're seeing the businesses down a little bit this year. Right, and we have to do something creative.
Jared:Dayton Barns is obviously we're a national kind of a conglomerate at this point for metal buildings. What we're trying to do is we're trying to really find a niche with our wood buildings. We've, you know, over the last couple of years, we really peaked, probably in 2021, 2022, with our wood sales and then struggled with our supplier at that time and then, really, when we got with you guys last year, we got kind of at the tail end of the season. We didn't get our supply until mid-summer and we had a great fall and we're having a really strong start to our year, but I think there's a lot of people out there listening to the podcast now that are like man, do I want to sell sheds anymore? Right, you know, what are you guys seeing? You know, I think it's right now. It's where does Sheds Direct? See the industry going? Is it technological, is it? What do we need to do as a whole? See the industry going?
Marc :Is it technological? What do we need to do as a whole, as an industry? JW, you want to take this, you want me to take it, you take it, you take it. I'll jump in.
Marc :So, first off, I would say this COVID was a blessing in the shed industry for many reasons. Also, with COVID, it brought tremendous challenge. When you look at just the pressure of supply chain, the pressure of production deliveries, just system overload, no one has ever managed in our generation, no one has ever managed an organization in any industry during a pandemic and nobody has ever managed one post pandemic. Okay, so the first thing I would, I would tell you, is coming out of coming out of COVID. Now, you know, 2023 really was the year we came out of COVID. It was a struggle for, for many reasons, every dealer that I spoke to, sdi or non-SDI, it was in that downturn Every finance company, rto company, any partner at that time that was in the shed industry I would have weekly, monthly conversations with. It was a struggle for everyone and really you had to pivot daily to really stay in front of the ebbs and flows of the industry Coming into 2024, we are really, really excited, mainly because our mindset in the fourth quarter of 2020, it really or my fault coming into 2025, we're really excited.
Marc :Our mindset in the fall of 2024 was hey, you know what? We're not sure what 2025 is going to do. We're not sure what 2026 is going to do. We're not sure what tomorrow is going to do. Okay, but at the end of the day, we're going to really develop a strategy and try to implement that.
Marc :So far, the biggest challenge that we have seen coming into 2025 is really the weather situation, something that we could never predict. Some of our areas Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York saw tremendous amounts of cold weather, tremendous amounts of snow. We have a dealer up near the Cleveland market and so I called him and he had a tremendous November, a tremendous December and January. Man just was not really in the picture and I called him. I said what happened, what's going on? He said I haven't seen my lot in 30 days. He said I've got two feet of snow on the pavement right now. So, you know, first off, that situation. Even down in the South, we saw more cold weather and snow than we have in many, many years. Our dealers in the eastern strand of South Carolina, North Carolina, all the way up into Virginia they were getting snow Places at the beach four to five, six inches of snow. So, number one, the winter was a struggle was a struggle.
Marc :What we have seen since then is a very, very strong end of February, March and April and really building that momentum going into 2025.
Marc :We started to see that with our dealers in the South Carolina, Oklahoma. Virginia really started to see that towards probably that last week of Virginia into March, and now we're seeing this momentum shift in April with our dealers in Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York. So you know, from an industry standpoint, I do keep in touch with multiple builders, keep in touch with multiple competitive dealers standpoint, I do keep in touch with multiple builders, keep in touch with multiple competitive dealers and so far, I think that we were anticipating another struggle and not saying that, hey, it's all roses. But I do believe that the industry as a whole, on the shed side, is really excited about what's to come throughout 2025, into 2026 and definitely in the future. So, starting to see that momentum ramp, starting to see people get excited about, like I say, coming in early and staying late, slinging sheds, calling old leads, whatever it is, you know, people are really starting to get excited again and feel like the industry is starting to come back very, very aggressively.
Jared:Yeah, I see.
JW:I'll second that, if you don't mind. The biggest difference that I've seen 23 and 24 were challenging post-COVID. As Marc said, in 2020, 2021, 2022, dealers were used to having a line out their door. In all seriousness, whether they were a good dealer or what, what you know, a bad dealer like you could be bad at selling sheds and have a line out your door in 2020 or in 2021, 23 and 24, that just wasn't the case and you had to get creative. You had to kind of figure out how to advertise online. You had to figure out and have a sales pitch, because it wasn't people coming with pockets full of money trying to spend it, it was you were. You were fighting to earn business and you kind of had to adapt and learn that.
JW:So far in 2025, I'll echo Marc though the winter was the most challenging. I've lived in Ohio for seven or eight years now. This was the most challenging winter that I can remember in terms of just we got 16 inches of snow one day and seven days later we got six more on top of it, in January, you know and just record cold temperatures, and it was definitely a challenge. But I think there's some more excitement. I talk to my entire team pretty much every day of dealers and they're all excited man, they've got, they're starting to get some lines out their door. Really that last week of February just kind of busted loose, and February, march and April have been a blessing so far.
Jared:Yeah, I think we, coming off of 24, I think we had a couple of different things right. We had there's always the uncertainty in the political climate when there's an election going on. I think there's a lot of things that we're heading. 2024 was just a rough year across the board, I think, for portable building dealers, metal building dealers. I know we talked about it, we talked about it at length. I think the one thing as we transition into, I want to talk a little bit about and JW refers to this price, quality and service triangle. We'll talk a little bit about that. But I think, from a dealer perspective somebody who's been on the opposite side, if you're sitting there thinking, you know, well, I'm not excited. These guys sound excited. I'm a dealer who's coming off of a really strong 23. And you know JW can attest to this we had a really, really, really good relationship with our manufacturer at that time and if you would have asked me in January of 24, if I was interested in changing shed manufacturers, I would have told you there wasn't a snowball's chance. I would have told you there wasn't a snowball's chance, zero percent going to happen. But two or three months goes by and promises made were promises not kept Right and if you're sitting back and you're dealing with something like that, really take it, really take a hard look. Because the way the JW and Marc are right, the way the market was during COVID and post-COVID there were so many more manufacturers, there were so many more buildings to go around, the building materials were cheaper than they are right now. A lot of that stuff has changed and if you're a dealer and you don't know, I'm telling you these guys will back me up. The market has changed tremendously for a manufacturer over the last couple of years and that, from a dealer perspective, is always hard to understand. It's hard to sit back when you're used to getting inventory on a regular basis and all of a sudden you're not getting inventory as regularly as you were. Well, that's because building materials are more expensive. That's because it's harder to produce a shed right now than it was two or three years ago, not to mention municipalities we all all know are getting harder to deal with.
Jared:Sheds are becoming something that needs to be permitted heavily across the board. You might be in a situation where you're looking for site-specific blueprints on a wood shed. We had one last year here in Champaign County, Ohio. I had to get site-specific blueprints and you know all these different things for a shed and I've never had to do that before, never had to have foundation stuff, never had to care about that stuff.
Jared:You know here where I'm at in Champaign County you have to have a 36-inch frost footer for any wood shed over 200 square feet. Inch frost footer for any wood shed over 200 square feet. Figure that out Got to be anchored to a 36 inch frost footer, not a 32 inch. 36 inch now because the code's changed. So I mean you're asking a customer to spend thousands of dollars more than the price of a shed just to get a shed here in Champaign County. So, with all of that said, I want to talk about that price, quality and service triangle with you guys. I want to talk about what's important to a dealer perspective, because I feel like right now I have the best shed. I have certainly top-notch service. I can't think of a time we've had any kind of customer service issue. Knock on wood. I can't think of a time we've had any kind of customer service issue knock on wood and the pricing is fair.
JW:JW, explain that to me. Yeah, that's really your baby. Yeah, this is something that we talk about a lot internally. Try to balance it. It's, as Jared said, the price, quality and service triangle. Call it whatever you want. That's kind of what it is. Price is pretty straightforward. Obviously, that's the price, quality and service triangle. Call it whatever you want. That's kind of what it is. Price is pretty straightforward. Obviously, that's the price of the product you're selling. Quality is obviously straightforward. That's how good is the product you're selling.
JW:You know what materials are you using. Are the rafters 48-inch? Are they 16-inch? You know somewhere in between. What are the wall studs, you know, and how far your joy is spaced and things of that nature. And then service kind of encompasses a wide array. It's you know what systems and processes do you have. It's how fast is your lead time? That's big for a customer and obviously what kind of customer and dealer support that you have on the back end of your organization.
JW:And it's a challenge to find a balance between those three because you really can't be the best at all three. It's impossible. Can you have bits and pieces of all three? Definitely. But that's finding that balance and kind of limboing to figure out, hey, what is more important in the market right now. But even more so, what is our identity as an organization. And we've been having a lot of internal conversations about that recently. And I think if you go back before COVID in the shed industry and you talk to every big manufacturer, they would all tell you they had an identity. You know, hey, we pride ourselves on this. When COVID happened and all of a sudden the industry just blew up, it was you could put 100 buildings on a $300,000 dealer's lot because you had the cash to do it. You could have whatever systems you needed to have, or lack thereof, because sheds were still selling. You could be as good quality or as bad quality as you wanted to be, because people were still buying it.
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JW:And I think in the midst of that we kind of had a bit of an identity crisis for lack of a better term in the industry of all of a sudden, all of the manufacturers are trying to be the best at price, the best at quality and the best at service, and it's just never attainable. And we're seeing Jared's heard me say a lot the cream starts to rise to the top. I think it did so a little bit in 24. It's going to continue to do so in 25. People who are still aggressively fighting and trying to be the best at all three are not going to survive. And that's just the fact of the matter. And this is more on a manufacturer side of things. But also, this is important for dealers to understand If you're dealer discounting every building over half your commission just to be the best price, you're devaluing what you're bringing to the table and what you're offering, and I think that's just a challenge. So, we've really been trying to find the happy medium of it.
JW:Sheds Direct. We know we build one of the best sheds on the market and we're proud of that 16 inch on center. You know we're proud of our hurricane ties and some of the other products that we offer, and we're blessed to be able to do that and provide those we try to market at an aggressive price. And we say Marc is the man on the road. He's constantly going out and visiting dealers, talking with manufacturers, not even like behind people's backs, he just walks in and introduces himself and talks about where they're priced, you know, and what they're seeing in the industry, and he does a phenomenal job at that and it's we like to understand.
JW:You know where we're at and stay aggressive and competitive with the pricing. We're not going to be the cheapest, but we don't want to be the cheapest because we know we're offering one of the best. And then on the service side of things, we have a very quick lead time in the industry. You know, right now, obviously spring rush is a little longer than usual, but we're consistently two to three weeks on a custom build, sometimes even shorter than that in some of our Southern districts. And we're just, we're proud of what we offer our technology and our systems and our order processing for dealers and the speed and the fluidity that we bring to the table with that. So, it's a balancing act and, Marc
JW:, I'll let you touch on anything you want to touch on there as well, with the kind of triangle we discussed.
Marc :Yeah, no, I think that JW hit it pretty well. I mean, I would say this, so you know from a, from a price and service and quality standpoint. You know I am a listen. I'm a sales guy through and through. I'm not highly detailed, nor am I very good at pivot tables, pivot tables or Excel spreadsheets Okay, that's just not my strong suit. I'm a sales guy, right. So, I love talking to people, meeting shed friends. I'll be up front with you. Hey, I'm proud to work in the industry. There's plenty of customers. Everybody's trying to feed our families, right. Like I mentioned earlier, I got three kids. A lot. We're trying to feed our families. There's enough customers to go around for everybody to be successful.
Marc :One of the things that was a struggle with SDI is pre-COVID. We spent a tremendous amount of investment training dealers how to sell, what to do, points of contact, all that stuff. Well, COVID comes along and changes the mindset. We became order takers, right. We no longer were shed sellers, we became order takers. It was easy. You know what I'm saying, pivoting over to 2025, I am a big data guy. So, customers are looking for a quality product at a great price that's super easy to deal with and get into and so you can't really be all three. Okay, here's an example of that. We have a value line. We call it the Eagle Series. It primarily makes up 15%, 10% of our total revenue. That price point is really, really low in the market. But, yes, the quality of the shed is, you know, we two by fours in the four, 24 inch in the walls. It's a value on a shed. You would think well, if every customer is only focused on price, that's all we would sell. Honestly, it's 10 to 15% of our total overall revenue. So, customers are looking for a great shed that is priced in the market. It doesn't have to be the cheapest. They're not looking for the highest of the highs, they're not looking for the lowest of lows. They're looking for quality at a great price point you wouldn't even think about.
Marc :Then really, the service piece comes into play. Customers want it to be easy. I tell dealers all the time listen, your job is to sling sheds and sell the shed. It's not to schedule the delivery, it's not to follow up with customer service, it's not to handle this and that I need you to sell the shed. Call the next lead, sell that shed. Call the next lead, sell that shed. Let us put technology in place behind you to make it super easy and super seamless for the customer. But I will say this customers want a quality product.
Marc :Here's an example SDI in 2018, 2019, we used to sell the T111 sided board, and so, man, we're heavily involved in the community. Sdi is always really trying to support, whether it's ministry, whether it's needs of the community, and so I remember seeing a T111 building that man it probably was two years old, it molded, had all that nastiness on it and I said I don't care if that costs five bucks, I can't put my name on that. I can't go to church on Sunday morning and say, hey, I just bought a T111 from you and you know it's molded, I just can't do that. So, really, what we're trying to do is really focus and mesh and try to find our identity.
Marc :What is it? What do we want to do best? Number one we want to build a great building. We want to build a unit that you know what, 10, 15 years from now, you're going to look at that unit and say I am super excited about that purchase. At the same time, we want it to be at a great price point that is, in the industry and make it super easy for the customer to get in the unit, whether it's processing the order, scheduling delivery and delivery of the shed. But we are focused on building a building we can put our name on at the same time at a price point that is advantageous for all parties.
Jared:Yeah, I think JW said something that I want to kind of circle back to as we get into another topic. It all kind of flows together. One of the things that we've seen in the steel side of things, the steel building side, is this kind of constant race to the bottom right, and I think with COVID it created a vacuum of interest with people where, well, I can build a shed, I can become a shed manufacturer, I'll start selling sheds. And then all of a sudden you get every Tom, Dick and Harry coming in wanting to build sheds or wanting to, you know, build metal buildings. And well, they, they've got tube seal scraps over here at the, at the local manufacturer yard and I'll just start buying tubing and I'll start making my own metal buildings and selling them. And what that's created is it's created this huge vacuum effect where all of a sudden, the pricing is now based on something that isn't even a comparable option, and that's something that Marc and I have gone back and forth about is like you know, a lot of places out there will say, hey, we'll price match this or we'll price match that, and really what you're price matching is like 48 on center rafters. Right, you know, you've got maybe 36 wall studs. God only knows what you're using for building materials. It certainly isn't a quality product like LP, right, you know? Goodness knows what it is. It could just be lined in two by fours. You don't know what you're getting half the time. And I think from a dealer perspective it has become extremely difficult to find those really reputable partners Like for us. American Steel cannot speak highly enough about our relationship with American Steel. Carolina, carports, eagle you know some of these really top tier metal building manufacturers that haven't been doing it for a couple of months or a couple of years. They've been doing it for decades. These are companies that are OG companies. That's where Dayton Barns wants to be and like for us.
Jared:When the opportunity came along to work with you guys, I knew immediately, because of the quality that I saw in the buildings that you produced, that's who I want to ride with. It's no longer a race to the bottom for me. I'd rather sell Cadillacs than Kias, right, nothing against Kias, you know what I'm saying. But you know, Cadillac just carries that ambiance, and JW's heard me do this.
Jared:The biggest comparison I can give you, the easiest one to understand, is when you're hot and it's muggy outside. It's 105 and you're looking for something cold to drink. An RC Cola might hit just fine. But you're still looking for a Coca Cola, you're still looking for a Pepsi. You know what I mean and that's where I get to in the in the shed and metal buildings is I've sold enough of these things. I've seen enough of them over the years.
Jared:I've been all over the United States looking at buildings. I can tell you, from a quality perspective, sheds direct is right up there with the best I've seen and I got to give you guys all the prep, the props in the world for sticking to your guns on that, because the quality matters right now and you know. Talk to me a little bit about what you see. You heard my opinion. I want to hear your guys opinion from a manufacturing side and I know you don't speak for SDI as a company, so let me gravitas that with. If there's anything said here, this is just JW and Marc's opinion, right, yeah? So I want to hear from you guys on a personal level how does that race to the bottom affect you guys in your current roles? How do you think it affects SDI and other manufacturers, not just you guys, it affects everybody, the whole industry, right yeah?
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Marc :Well, I can say this you know, everybody in the industry post-COVID is really struggling with understanding the manufacturing, understanding the margin, understanding really just the overall cost of doing business. You know, especially with the tariff situation going on right now, that's changing daily. Okay, and we have had multiple. You know, we just we had some conversations with a couple of manufacturers recently and discuss this topic of race to the bottom. At the end of the day, I do, and it's so funny, my, my kids get upset at me because when we're dealing with the situation at home, I equate everything to really the game of baseball. Right, that's what I know, that's what I enjoy. I equate that to the game of baseball and I tell them it's like purchasing a bat.
Marc :When I go to the sporting goods store and I'm looking at all the bats that are laid out there, it's an investment. Right, this is not buying a shed, it's not just hey, I need to throw a structure up in my, my backyard. Listen, it's an, it's an investment. My neighbors are going to see it, my family's going to see it, people in the community is going to see it. It's an investment that that I want to be proud of. And so, I tell them. It's like buying a new baseball bat.
Marc :I'm not going to buy the cheapest USA bat I can find. Yeah, it may be, it may say what it's going to say and it may save me some money, but at the end of the day I'm not going to do it. Now am I going to buy the most expensive, crazy, something that's been rolled and torqued and whatever they say? Probably not going to buy that either, but I'm going to buy something that I'm proud of, that I want to put in my son's hands or my daughter's hands that says you know what?
Marc :At the end of the day, I invested my hard-earned money in that bat. That's a quality bat at a great price point and it does everything I need it to do, and I'm proud of that. Right, you know I have made some purchases in my day that I thought man, this is a great deal, I'm going to save a bunch of money and then six months later, I'm like I'm a, I'm an idiot. I knew better than to make that purchase Right. And so, when it comes to Sheds, direct and just builders in general, you know the race to the bottom will get you to the bottom.
Marc :You know what I'm saying.
Marc :And what we're trying to do is we're trying to set ourselves apart from the industry to say look, we understand that right now. Hey, listen, it's tough for everybody. I mean, yes, great things are happening, but you have to put in a tremendous amount of effort to be successful. But at the end of the day, we are not going to play in that game. I'm not going to be the cheapest in the market. I don't want to be the cheapest in the market.
Marc :I want to put a building in your backyard that you can say hey, Mr Neighbor, come check this out. I want my neighbor to call me and say dude, where'd you get that at, Bro, I got to get one of those that's awesome At the same time at a great price point and make it super easy for the customer. That's really what our focus is. So, like I said, we can race to the bottom, but at the end of the day, that's going to put us all, that's going to put us all at the bottom of the ocean, and that's not where I want to be. Yeah, we.
Jared:we struggled right. So again, we've talked about this. We worked with other manufacturers. We've been other places. We loved the cheap price point. Matter of fact, Dayton Barns ate it up and loved it right. But what we figured out over time was that cheaper price point cost us other time down the road. We were taking care of customers. Exactly what you said, Marc. We were not picking the phone up and selling sheds. We were picking the phone up to an upset customer. Hey, my building's leaking. Hey, something's falling apart. Hey, something's come loose. Hey, I can't get a hold of the manufacturer. I've got a warranty question.
Jared:I can't tell you how much time we wasted personally, and you know that that seems to always be the trend when you're working with the race to the bottom right, you end up at the bottom where you know at the. At the onset it looks great, Everything's perfect. Oh man, we're slinging shed left and right. But then, six months into it, you're fielding phone calls. Hey, I can't get a hold of person X, I can't get a hold of person Y. You're the only person who picks the phone up and I can tell you from a dealer perspective, if you are dealing with manufacturing problems with your buildings. You need to think about what you're doing. It is a waste of your time. It's not your job. Your job as a dealer is to sell exactly what Marc said, and I'm so glad he said it. Your job is to pick the phone up or answer that Facebook message or that Google message or whatever, and sell that shed message or that Google message or whatever, and sell that shed. The manufacturer should be picking up everything on the backside of that deal, from transportation of the building to delivery to the customer's property, to customer service after the fact. You should not be dealing with that and if you are, you need to be getting paid commiserately for it or figuring something else out, because you are wasting time and you are going to find yourself upside down in a real hurry.
Jared:And that's where we were. I mean, I can tell you I still love our previous partners. I wish them well. They're doing well, but I was done with it. I was done with it from an overhead perspective. I was done with it from a customer customers being upset and frustrated perspective.
Jared:We haven't had hardly any fingers crossed metal building negative reviews over the last couple of years. Most of our negative reviews are from wood sheds from previous manufacturers. We're still getting them. We just got one the other day, Not even joking. We've been with SDI over a year now and we're getting reviews from other manufacturers just now, right now, and it makes us look bad and we have to go above and beyond and from a dealer perspective it's lousy.
Jared:So if you're sitting there thinking about anything that we've talked about, talk to me. My email is at the bottom, Jared, at Dayton Barns. I'm happy to walk you through. I'm happy to give you advice. I love what Marc said.
Jared:I say it a lot on the podcast too. There's plenty of buildings to be sold. We're all in this industry together. We should all lock arms and do the best we can, because the industry needs us to step up and be the very best we can be, because everybody wins. Industry needs us to step up and be the very best we can be because everybody wins. A rising tide raises all boats. That's the way I look at things.
Jared:I'm going to tell you this, guys we have gone to the extent with just a little bit of topics today. I want to get you guys on. We're going to go to a part two. I'm going to give a quick shout out to the guys over at J Money. They're there for you if you've got anything financing related. If you guys need help on a contracting project, if you're a metal building dealer or woodshed dealer, check out Shannon on Wednesdays on the Shed Geek podcast and the team over at Shed Geek Marketing. If you need help, if you are a struggling dealer right now, give the guys over at Shed Geek Marketing a call. They can get you set up all over the place price-wise. If you're worried about hey, I don't want to spend money on marketing, give Dylan a call. He might be able to help you out with something.
Jared:I can tell you guys, I always try to end the podcast on a positive note. Get out in your community and do something good for somebody. Do something good for a neighbor or friend. We are recording this on April the 17th. Tomorrow is Good Friday. Enjoy your holiday. You'll be seeing this after the fact, but I hope you guys had a great and happy and healthy Easter weekend and a great holiday on Good Friday. Marc, JW, I'm going to keep you guys here, but we're going to transition into a part two, so check us out next week. As we finish up this conversation, we're going to give you guys some talking points and little things to move forward. How's that? So, I can tell you guys, I appreciate you listening to the Steel Kings podcast. As always, I am Jared. This is the Steel Kings podcast. We are going to check you guys' out next week and we'll be back with the guys at Sheds Direct. So y'all have a good week and we'll talk to you soon Peace out.