Print Solutions Magazine, December 2004 -- Cover Story: Webb/Mason

Warner Mason would like everyone's attention, please. That's not easy when the second-floor banquet room includes 40 energetic people and an open bar. He picks up a spoon from the long, ornate dinner table and ding, dings an empty wineglass. Most people who have gathered at this Baltimore club look up to Mason, literally and figuratively, so for the first time in an hour the room is quiet. "I have good news and bad news," he says.

The good news: It's October 2004, and Webb/Mason just finished another terrific quarter. Mason, the company's president, hopes everyone is eager to hear about the distributorship's September 2004 sales stars, enjoy dinner and initiate four newcomers into the group. The bad: Ernie might not be alive. Anyone seen him?

Seconds later, Ernie Vaile, Webb/Mason's quick-witted, self-effacing CFO, enters the room. He's dapper in a blue blazer, gray pants and a wide smile. Vaile keeps a sharp eye on the company's expenses, but his other eye seems to be on the lookout for people who ridicule him for doing that job so ardently. He walks toward his seat and someone heckles, "Ernie, thanks for coming early! What, did you walk?" Someone else shouts, "Ernie, you're the CFO. Next time put in for a cab, OK?" Laughter erupts.

Mason decides everyone should give Vaile a standing ovation for coming. Immediately, the team stands and hoots. Vaile, who innocently was mingling outside in the hallway, raises his hand in mock appreciation and says, "Thanks for the love." Then he deadpans: "It was a long walk. You should see my feet." To the delight of the room, he looks down at his shoes and winces in mock pain. "They hurt like hell."

Fun with a Pool Stick

Webb/Mason is one of the fastest-growing companies in the industry, achieving average sales growth of 24 percent annually since 1996. Last year, it opened its 11th sales office and achieved sales of $50.6 million, ranking the firm No. 10 on Print Solutions' list of Top 100 Distributors. The company is on pace to reach $60 million in sales this year. Equally impressive is how the company has achieved that growth: "We concentrate on finding cream-of-the-crop salespeople and talented customer service reps, then give them the power and resources to do what they do best," Mason said before the dinner party began. "We're looking forward to adding more star power next year. If we find the right people, this will be a $100 million company soon." For him and partner Kip Webb, Webb/Mason's executive vice president, that's a magical number. When the two started their careers in 1981, their employer, Wallace, was a $68 million company.

A key part of Webb/Mason's organic growth is its proprietary technology. In 1997, the distributorship was using a third party's e-commerce system to offer simple online stationery ordering, but the firm wanted a more robust one to handle larger, customized needs. Webb/Mason has invested more than $7 million in a system it calls Enterprise Print Management (EPM) Online. Online orders now account for more than 40 percent of the company's business, and the tool has helped it win or maintain multiyear contracts with clients such as AOL, Cox Communications, Newell/Rubbermaid and the world's largest spice company, McCormick & Company Inc. EPM Online integrates an end user's print strategy, including ordering, fulfillment, production, inventory management and cost control, and it integrates with Webb/Mason's back-end distribution and warehousing system. The company's 13-member information technology team releases EPM Online updates every 90-120 days, and new features derive mainly from customers' suggestions. (View the system's features at www.webbmason.com.)

During the dinner party, Mason and Doug Traxler, the company's executive vice president of sales and marketing, recognize the firm's top account executives for September. Seated at the table are 26 account executives, and 18 of them sell more than $1 million a year. The monthly winner is Arthur Newbould, who billed his clients $650,000 in September and is in charge of Webb/Mason's Houston office. Second is Don Yeakle, from the firm's Baltimore office. He billed his clients $591,000, thanks partly to his ability to penetrate business at a large bank. Five other account executives billed clients $300,000 or more during the month.

When the company's management team and account executives gather, a ritual is for each person to say a few words about personal goals or the company's progress. Tonight, just for the heck of it, Yeakle decides each speaker also should hold the pool stick that he grabbed from a corner of the room. Scott Bradway, who launched the company's Atlanta office in 1999, takes the stick and says Webb/Mason is the place he wants to spend the rest of his career. Others wave the stick and say the company's customer-first, work-hard-play-hard culture is refreshing. Many thank CIO Brian Fritsche and his IT team for quickly deploying EPM Online changes. "We haven't invented one idea--it's all about you and your customers," Fritsche says when holding the stick. "Our team will continue to measure our success by your success."

Soon, everyone has spoken except Kip Webb, Webb/Mason's executive vice president, and four new hires. Dan Cahill, a gregarious management-team member who's in charge of the company's Baltimore office, notices this and stands. When Cahill has an opinion, you're likely to hear it, probably twice, and it won't be whispered. The distributorship's four new employees are about to get, as one team member calls it, "Cahilled": "Newbies, you need to move to the middle of this table so we can appropriately heckle you!"

One newbie is John Imperial, an account executive in the Washington, D.C., office. Like most newcomers at the company, he can handle major accounts without having his hand held: Prior to joining the distributorship this year, he worked for Moore Wallace (now R.R. Donnelley) for 18 years, selling $6 million for the direct-seller last year. He gave up his book of business--the firm's non-compete agreement prevents him from contacting his accounts for two years--because he thought he could gain more control of his day and make more money at Webb/Mason. Imperial takes the stick and tells the group, "Having a dedicated CSR is huge, being part of a customer-first company is huge, having this much fun is huge--I know I'll be able to do what you hired me to do, and that's sell."

A Company for Career Salespeople

Webb and Mason launched Webb/ Mason on July 19, 1989, wanting to expand the cost-management concepts they honed at Wallace into a company that would provide entrepreneurial print management. In 1989, the firm occupied 500 square feet and sold primarily business forms and data supplies.

Since its beginning, Webb/Mason has defined itself by principle and personality, not by products. Today, the company offers a range of printed items and services, including commercial printing and promotional products, but its founders began the firm with this concept: Many successful salespeople become managers who miss taking care of customers daily, and many others know they could sell more if they had more control, resources and dedicated support personnel. "We thought it would be empowering to build a culture where the reins were taken off," Mason says. "We wanted a group of account hunters." Today, even Webb/Mason's 11 "founders" (people who have started and run the company's regional offices) maintain a book of business and seek new accounts.

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5 Keys to Success

These five concepts explain how Webb/Mason has increased sales every year since it was founded in 1989:

1. Customer-first mentality. "We realize we don't make anything," says Doug Traxler, Webb/Mason's executive vice president of sales and marketing. "This is a service business, and everything we do--from gaining accounts to our CSR team to our technology--has a customer-first focus. People are paid here to be smart listeners. We believe selling is the act of listening."

2. Ability to update proprietary technology. Webb/Mason has invested more than $7 million in its Enterprise Print Management (EPM) Online tool, and its 13-member IT team releases new features every 90-120 days. "Those features are driven by customer feedback," says Brian Fritsche, the company's CIO. "Because we own the technology, we're able to control it."

3. Ratio of customer service representatives to account executives. The ratio, which is nearly 2:1, enables account executives to do what they do best--sell. CSRs are empowered to manage job details, and Webb/Mason provides dedicated CSRs for top-selling account executives. "We have a CSR for new salespeople before they've sold dollar one, and that's such a reverse from the norm in the printing industry," says Scott Davis, founder of Webb/Mason's Boston office.

4. Culture that thrives on performance and puns. Webb/Mason's Outstanding Performance Club travels annually to a 5-star resort, CSRs can achieve commission bonuses and the company's culture is "work hard-play hard." That mix yields low turnover and high morale.

5. Vendor ideas and participation. Last year during its national sales meeting in Annapolis, Md., Webb/Mason held a trade show featuring 17 manufacturers that showed their capabilities to the Webb/Mason sales team. Long-time preferred suppliers include C.E. Printed Products, based in Carol Stream, Ill.; Dupli-Systems/Ohio Cutsheet, Strongsville, Ohio; GRIT Commercial Printing, Montoursville, Pa.; Thorn Hill Printing Inc., Freedom, Pa.; and Vallis Form Service, based in Glendale Heights, Ill.