Published August 2002

At Randy’s, ‘real value
is in the people’

By John Wolcott
SCBJ Editor

After Sept. 11, an Everett business — Randy’s Ring & Pinion — responded to the tragedy by rallying its stunned employees to work even harder to show their resolve to resist giving in to the terrorist attacks on the nation’s economy.

“Everyone was really feeling hurt. But we doubled our marketing efforts and maintained a positive attitude in the workplace,” said Paul Carey, the firm’s marketing manager. “That made the difference. We saw a real drop in sales after that event, but within two months we’d passed our earlier sales volume.”

It helped that founder and President Randy Lyman already ran his business with a positive, motivated, competitive attitude, so creating that same response to the attacks seemed natural for this fast-growing company.

For years that same positive sales and customer-service attitude has helped the business carve out a significant national niche in the differential market. Since it was started in 1982 in California, Randy’s has become one of the most successful sales firms for rear-end, ring-and-pinion gear sets that are essential for keeping trucks, buses, cars and other motor vehicles operating.

“It’s not well known outside of the industry, but these differential gears are very precise pieces of equipment that not everyone can repair or work with. Some mechanics might not replace or re-build one in several years. Our retail shop people work on many of them every day, so they’ve become experienced specialists,” Carey said.

Along with its Everett retail shop, Randy’s has such business clients as the cities of Everett, Seattle and Tacoma, vehicle fleets such as Gai’s Bakery and Frito-Lay and more than 3,000 auto repair shops, plus owners of custom cars and racing vehicles.

But it’s not just stocking and shipping thousands of differentials, axles, positractions and tools that makes Randy’s successful, it’s the customer service and motivated sales force, Carey said.

“We use state-of-the-art computer systems for tracking and shipping, with 25,000 active customers in the database compared to only 12,000 in 2000, but the real value is in the people,” he said.

Randy’s takes an unusual approach to motivating its sales staff, he said.

“We handle about 1,000 calls a day, double a year ago. We have motivated sales people who make customer service a priority. We promote competition among the sales crew, but customers still come first. Along with individual commissions, we also have group commissions, so related sales people will help keep commissions up for one of their group who spends a lot of time helping a customer with a special problem,” Carey said.

The company also pays commissions to its shipping department employees to eliminate the kind of dissatisfaction that often exists between sales and shipping staffs.

“We know that our commissions enable our shipper to increase their pay, so they are really motivated to get the shipments out that the sales staff has promised, so everyone works together for the customers’ interests,” Carey said.

Those attitudes come from the top management, he said, including Lyman; Jeff Wilson, vice president of operations; and General Manager Mark Weedin.

“What also keeps our people motivated is monthly outings for bowling, racing go-carts or picnics with their families. Next Memorial Day, half of the employees are already planning on a camping outing together,” Carey said.

With sales increasing about 40 percent annually in recent years, Lyman wants to maintain a 30 to 40 percent growth rate. As for expanding, he’s interested in creating a network of franchised service shops nationally.

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