From Food Distribution To Custom Shed Sales

A great shed lot doesn’t win by accident, and neither does a great salesperson. Ron Romeo from Ultimate Structures joins us to share how he went from a 24-7 career in food distribution to building a portable building business that thrives on custom orders, local trust, and relentless follow-through.

We unpack what it really takes to sell sheds and metal buildings in today’s market: learning product differences fast, studying competitors for weaknesses, and creating a buying experience that goes beyond a website. Ron tells the true start-up story most people never hear, selling sheds out of the front seat of his truck with only six display buildings, then proving the demand and earning more inventory. If you’ve been debating display strategy, commission structures, or how much inventory you actually need, this conversation brings practical clarity.

We also get into the modern mix of digital marketing and on-lot selling. Ron explains why the internet struggles to show options and true color, why customers still need to touch and feel the product, and how a strong sales process turns “just looking” into a designed, customized order. From diversification into pre-engineered metal buildings to building a dependable bench of subcontractors for site prep, concrete, electrical, and garage doors, we lay out how dealers can reduce friction and close projects faster.

If you care about shed sales, portable buildings, custom sheds, metal carports, local SEO, and marketing ROI, you’ll take pages of notes. Subscribe to the Shed Geek Podcast, share this with a dealer friend, and leave a review with the biggest idea you’re stealing from Ron.

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This episodes Sponsors:
Studio Sponsor: Shed Pro

Shed Sales Summit
CAL
PlayMor Playsets
J Money LLC

Transcript

INTRO 0:00

Hello and welcome back to the Shed Geek Podcast. Here's a message from our studio sponsor. Let's be real. Running a shed business today isn't just about building great sheds. The industry is changing fast. We're all feeling the squeeze, competing for fewer buyers, while expectations keep climbing. And yet I hear from many of you that you are still juggling spreadsheets, clunky software, or disconnected systems. You're spending more time managing chaos than actually growing your business. That's why I want to talk to you about our studio sponsor, ShedPro. If you're not already using them, I really think you should check them out. ShedPro combines your 3D configurator, point of sale, RTO contracts, inventory, deliveries, and dealer tools all in one platform. They even integrate cleanly into our Shed Geek marketing solutions. From website leads, to final delivery, you can quote, contract, collect payment, and schedule delivery in one clean workflow. No more double entries, no more back and forth chaos. Quoting is faster, orders are cleaner. And instead of chasing down paperwork, you're actually running your business. And if you mention Shed Geek, you'll get 25% off all setup fees. Check it out at shedpro.co/ShedGeek. Thank you, ShedPro, for being our studio sponsor and honestly for building something that helps the industry.

Welcome And Ways To Connect

Shannon 1:33

Okay, welcome back to another episode of the Shed Geek Podcast. Thank you guys for continuing to be a dedicated listener here in year number six. Uh, very excited for today's interview. Um, you know, it's been uh it's been uh on the calendar here for a couple weeks, and we're here we here we are. But before we get rolling, uh before we get started, uh we always want to give you ways to stay plugged in with us over here at the Shed Geek Podcast. So uh phone number is 618-309-3648. For those who have questions uh or comments, or would just like to be a guest on the show as well. Uh our email is info@ shedgeek.com. Uh just send us over an email and we'd love to chat with you for whatever reason you're reaching out. You can contact us as well at our website, uh shedgeek.com. Just fill out a lead form. Someone will be in touch quickly, or our Facebook page, and please give us a like and a follow. Go follow our Facebook uh business page and uh give us a like on YouTube. We really appreciate that. We'll be happy to do that back at your request. Um, the Shed Sales Professionals group, we are admin on there, so we appreciate it whenever you guys can go there and add value to the industry through meaningful communication and conversation. And the call-in line for anybody who has a plain community friend who would like to listen. The number is 330-997-3055. Hot item of the day. I don't have a hot item of the day. The weather's been crazy here, Ron, uh in southern Illinois. So, I'm looking forward to some nicer weather this weekend. But wanna wanna welcome Ron Romeo to the show of Ultimate Structures. Um, Ron, I'll tell you what, if you don't care, just introduce yourself a little bit about who you are and what you do.

Ron Romeo 3:23

Absolutely. Um,

Family Roots In Food Business

Ron Romeo 3:25

and I really appreciate the uh the offer here. Um, so yeah, my name's Ron Romeo, um, from a small town in southwestern Pennsylvania, Uniontown, Pennsylvania. And uh my family roots have been here since the early 1920s. And um, you know, we uh we were synonymous, our family's been synonymous in the food industry, actually, uh dating back uh to 1935 when my grandfather Stefano opened a 400 square foot Italian deli groceria in downtown Uniontown. And that's pretty much where we all started. And uh, you know, life goes on, and uh, you know, my father uh he was the successor to his father, my father Frank Romeo. Um he uh went up through the life, you know, through the hard style, you know, of course, and um um went to World War II. Uh he served in he served in Patton's Third Army, and uh he's actually a bronze star. He was a bronze star recipient. And uh when he came back from the war, uh he kind he's kind of the catalyst that uh grew the Romeo name in the entire food industry when he came back in 1945. Of course, he came back with his father and kept working in the deli. Pretty much he actually grew up as a little child in that deli. He used to sit in a little cupboard with one light bulb above uh his head, and that's where he'd do his homework and he'd nap until his father would decide to close about 11 or 11:30 at night. Um, Uniontown, we were in uh a coal belt, you know, coal mining patch towns surround uh the city of Uniontown. And at that time, downtown Uniontown was a real buzzling uh uh city. Uh we are the county seat uh in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. So, you know, there's always activity with our courthouse and our attorneys and so forth in the city. But um, yeah, dad uh he grew up in in the little deli, and then uh once he came back, um he had he had seen the world, you know, in the military, and he had a lot of aspirations to not be trapped inside that little 400 square foot deli the rest of his life. So, he became uh very interested in selling food to small mom and pop groceries, bars, social clubs. Uh he never had a car at that stage of his life. So, um his my father's wife, uh my mom Esther, she came from a family of seven children, and uh between the boyfriends of her sisters and her brothers, my father uh would bum rides from the mixture of people there to the city of Pittsburgh, which is about 50 miles north of us. And at that time, you know, that that was the hub where a lot of the food products came in to southwestern Pennsylvania. So, he had heard about the strip district in Pittsburgh, and uh so he would talk into one of the brother-in-laws or boyfriends to, hey, let's go to Pittsburgh. I've got a little bit of side cash, we're gonna buy some things, and then they would sell it on the way back from Pittsburgh to Uniontown, and uh he would pay them for their gas and their time, and you know, they'd have fun on the way back, of course, stopping at different bars and so forth. But whatever products he had left, then the next day he would hustle those in the Uniontown area within a walking distance of the deli. So, it's a pretty great story. And uh around 1948, he found a vacant uh warehouse um not too far from where the deli was. And uh he coerced one, you know, he went to there were two main banks at that time in Uniontown. The first bank he went to, they turned him down. The second bank, they felt that he had a vision, and of course, that's where it all started. And my father actually, you know, started his own distribution company around 1948.

Shannon 8:16

Very nice. I love hearing the Italian names like Stefano. I mean, I just don't feel like you hear that in America very much anymore with like that uh that that that Italian name. Maybe it's more like prevalent than I realize, but yeah, definitely love hearing that. The whole story sounds really awesome. It it's very wholesome, uh, and it's kind of where your roots begin, as I understand it, in the food distribution uh industry, uh if that's the correct term, for over 40 years.

24-7 Work Ethic And Reality

Shannon 8:48

Is that correct?

Ron Romeo 8:49

Yes, yes. So, yeah, so I pretty much followed my father's footsteps. Uh at the age of nine, I was working in the deli, just doing whatever I could do. And just, you know, the only time I could really see my father because he worked so much is to hang out with him. And um, so uh yeah, as I grew up into the business, um I became you know involved in the warehouse, you know, until I had a driver's license. And then, of course, once I was old enough, then I became a truck driver, you know, delivering merchandise to our customers because we had our own truck fleet, we had our sales reps out on the street, you know, selling the products. And uh so it was a multifaceted, you know, just you did everything. I was kind of like the utility guy, you know, and so um just grew up, yeah, for 42 years in food distribution. Uh it , I mean, we could go on for three hours just talking about that. But um, you know, when you're in in a family business and you're working 18 hours a day, six days a week, uh, in fact, the food industry is so demanding, it's 24-7, it never turns off. And we were the local yokel food distributor, you know, in the community. So people would lean on us, especially during uh key holiday seasons, Mother's Day, Christmas, Thanksgiving. They were always running out of products, we'd have to go back down, we'd have to leave the dinner table, go down, let somebody in the warehouse because they were running out of something for their restaurant. And, you know, there was never any downtime. So um, you know, as years went on, you know, and then I got married and then had two children and uh have a daughter and a son, and uh so it was you know, working, working, working, and you know, when you're in a small family business like that, um, especially my father, he was old school. Um, he didn't believe in paying us high salaries. He always had the mentality that um whatever you need, if you as long as you take care of the business, it'll be there for you later if you need it. So he never believed in paying us high salaries. And uh so I knew my kids were you know growing and it was getting close to where the oldest was she was gonna be going into college, and my son was a year and a half behind her that would be trailing as well into college. And honestly, I didn't have a lot of money available to be set aside.

Building A Car Wash Side Hustle

Ron Romeo 11:36

So um, you know, I did uh build a car wash in uh the year 2000 and opened it. I had a I built the first state-of-the-art car wash in Uniontown, uh, opened it up in January of uh 20 or 2001. And so that was a business that I figured would not take a lot of my daylight time. Um, it was totally automated. You know, I was the first one to offer credit card payment on the automatic phase. Um, I had, you know, everything was state of the art because all the other car washes were old, never invested into, and people just let them run as they were, and it took off like a rocket, truthfully. So I did the car wash thing for about 15 years and you know, learned to do all my own maintenance because you couldn't afford to have service techs coming in for everything. And so it's a tough business, you know, trying to do it all yourself and working on another full-time job. So um, but my aspirations, once I got that opened, um it was doing so well, I wanted to actually get up to three car washes. I wanted to build uh two others about 12 miles away from Uniontown. The first one I was actually gonna give it to my daughter, and the second one, uh, or the second and the third one, I was gonna give it to my son. And then we would have a nice little triangle and I could hire a full-time maintenance guy. That was my aspirations. So I did buy a second piece, uh, second piece of property uh for where that second car wash was gonna go, about 12 miles from Uniontown. And um, unfortunately, though, the some things didn't work out on the property uh uh the way I wanted it to uh to build the second car wash. So, then I had this commercial piece of property just sitting idle, and um, you know, I'm paying taxes, you know, paying somebody to cut all the grass and maintain it, and you know, nothing's going on. So, I'm thinking and thinking, I'm there like, what can I do that's not gonna tie me down that I can do on that property, but not have to be there and they and somebody can't steal it, you know. So, I'm thinking and thinking, and I don't know. Um, it just hit me in my head, and they're like, nobody's selling sheds from like Uniontown to Greensburg, which is 30 miles east, and from Uniontown to Pittsburgh, which of course was 50 miles north. And they're like, nobody's selling sheds, you know, for some reason. And I had bought a shed uh in prior years, and in fact, my original shed that I bought, I still own it, it's 32 years old. And wow, yeah, that's pretty crazy. So, and I bought that shed going north toward Pittsburgh, about 15 miles from Uniontown. So um, I'm there like, yeah, no, nobody's really selling sheds other than that one guy, and that location was very well established for uh years prior to when I bought my shed. They sold sheds, but they actually uh focused more on at that time the wooden Amish furniture, the Amish outdoor play sets for kids, and the battleships made out of wood, you know, you know, the beekeeper uh type of play sets. So anyway, um I'm there like I gotta look into this shed industry and see what it's all about. So

Spotting A Shed Market Gap

Ron Romeo 15:21

uh I was on I was on uh a sales call with my business. I had to I had to go to Williamsport PA. That's where the uh little league national uh baseball tournaments are anyway. I had to go to that area for something about the food industry, and I'm coming down a little two-lane road, I'm about six miles outside of Williamsport, and I passed this location, it must have had 300 sheds sitting outside. And I'm there like, whoa! And I hit my brakes and I did a U-turn and I drove back uh to that location. I pulled in and I just kind of drove through it, and I'm looking at all these sheds, I'm there like, oh my, this is something. So, I just went into the office. I asked, I said, Who's the owner of this location? And uh they said, Well, what do you want? And I'm there like, I might want to sell sheds. And they says, Well, the owner's not here, but the manager's upstairs. I says, Well, can you get him? I gave him my food service business card at that time, and I says, I'd like to talk to him while I'm here. So, he came down and was a young Amish guy, you know, with the suspenders, the whole get- up. And uh so I'm there like, hey, I'm so-and-so. I'd like to talk to you about selling sheds. He says, Well, come up to my office. We go up, and he had a huge map on the wall with little red pins stuck in it. And so I figured, you know, that's where they were look, they had locations. So he asked me, he says, Where are you from? And I said, Well, southwestern PA. I said, I'm about 50 miles south of Pittsburgh. And he goes, Oh my, he goes, We have been looking for a lot there for two and a half years. And I says, Well, I have three potential pieces of property that we can maybe do this on. He goes, Well, I'm gonna send a site survey guy down in a couple weeks, and he goes, I want him to look at all three locations and then he'll report back what he likes. So, so they did. The guy shows up a couple weeks later. I took him, um, I had a location in Uniontown that that that I owned, and then uh my second dairy lot that was in Connellsville, about 12 miles, that was the lot I was focusing on. And I says, Well, let's go down here because this is where I really want to do it. So, we go down to that lot. So, at the end of the day, after we looked at the three locations, he goes, I really like this Uniontown location. He goes, It's not normal that we find a shed location entering in the city limits, but he goes, You got a traffic light that just stops all the traffic in three directions. The visibility is fantastic. He goes, I think we ought to key in on the Uniontown location. And I says, All right, we could maybe talk about that. And I says, Hey, if it takes off, then maybe we could do the Connellsville location. So, um he sends the guy back down again a couple weeks later to sit down and talk. And uh so he reviews the programs that the shed manufacturer had. They had a cash program where you paid on delivery for your displays, or you could do a 30-day uh credit term plan that allowed you to make a little bit less markup where they'd give you 30 days credit. And I stopped him right there. I said, Listen, I'm in the food business. I sling about a million dollars worth of perishable food products every day. I'm not buying any inventory. I said, Um, whatever I do next, I am not paying for inventory because this is that's weighed me down all my life, and I don't want to do it. So he goes, Well, we have a straight consign commission program to where everything's brought in on consignment. And here's what the commission rate is. And I said, I'm sorry, but that's not gonna cut it with me. I said, I'm a seasoned salesperson, you don't even have to train me. You give me some brochures, you tell me how your system works, that's all I need, and I'll take it from there. So, I can get this thing up and running as soon as you want to, but I can't do it for what you just told me your program is. So, he asked me, he goes, Well, what will you do it for? And uh so I threw a number out at him, a percentage point that I thought was fair, and I says, That's it. I says, I'm not doing it for any less than that. He goes, Well, we've never approved a commission rate like that. And I says, Well, you take it back to the boss, you tell him to call me, and I'll sell myself to him, and then we'll just see what happens. So, two days later, the guy called me back and he says, I can't believe the boss approved it. So, he approved the commission rate that I threw out. Next thing I know, they sent me in some brochures, and the week after that, they sent like six small little shed displays in, and I just lined up the six displays on the property there and latched the doors open, put my phone number inside with brochures. My warehouse was only a quarter of a mile away from the location. So, you know, if I had somebody really interested, if I could sneak out, I'd just run down and meet them, or I'd just say, hey, can you meet me on my lunch hour? Or I'll meet you after work, or I'll meet you on Saturday, or I'll meet you on Sunday. You tell me what's best for you, because I'm uh I was just brought up in customer service, you know, and uh with the food industry. So um, so anyway, that's how it kind of took off.

AD- SHED SALES SUMMIT 21:23

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AD-CAL 22:13

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Product Knowledge And Competitive Edges

Shannon 23:17

So a couple of things come to mind. Simon Sinek talks about in his book, Finding Your Why. He talks a lot about how Steve Jobs would be good at selling anything. Because he made computers and he sold computers, but it was really the mindset behind the sales philosophy that drove it. You could have changed the product out and they would have had the same success. Meaning a good, seasoned salesperson can really move the needle. There's just not a whole lot of training that needs to be had in terms of sales. But what about product knowledge? Did you feel like there was a large learning curve like on product knowledge, or did you take to that pretty quickly?

Ron Romeo 24:19

I took, I you know, the shed industry is not as complex as people might think it is. Um I was used to training salespeople. So, you know, I hired all of my sales reps, I trained them. Um so you have to focus on the important attributes um of that particular manufacturer's way that they build. And then the next thing you have to do before you even try to sell is you have to then look at your competition because everybody has their strengths and weaknesses. You know, we were a small independent food distributorship that had to compete against national companies, you know, Cisco, U.S. Food Service, and so forth. So, we had we had to operate differently than they did to maintain that customer base to be sold on us, whether it was same-day deliveries in a certain market area. I mean, I had to come up with ways that we fit through the cracks, but yeah, everybody has their weaknesses. And once you find out what those are, that's what you attack. You attack their weaknesses. So, in the shed business, I just had to learn who else was out there. How were they building their sheds? Where their wall was the wall height the same height, you know, corner to corner where their dimensions are true, or were they measuring Eve to Eve on the buildings and saying it's a 12 wide when they're measuring the outside Eve to the outside Eve is 12 feet, but the corner to corner wasn't. You had to know, you know, exactly how those sheds were built and why they were different than anybody else's. So, once I once I received the initial brochures, I mean, I had no training. I just had to read through them, and then I had to physically look at that building. And then, of course, in my travels in the food business, because I was always on the road, anytime I saw a shed lot, I'd just pull in, you know, and I'd just look at the construction and I'd find the weaknesses of that particular builder or the weakness of that particular lot location. Oh, nobody's on site. Oh, the doors are locked, oh, there's no pricing, oh poor signage. So, you know, I I'd look at all that, and then I'd say, Well, this is what I have to attack, and pretty much, you know.

Shannon 27:00

No,

Six Displays That Started It

Shannon 27:01

that makes a lot of sense. And you said that they initially brought you six displays. Do you feel like do you feel like that hindered because you have six displays, this other location has 300 that you saw, but did that matter? Did you feel like you could still uh still sell off of that?

Ron Romeo 27:19

Well, I knew I had to walk before I ran. So, um the funny thing was, so I was up and running for about three months, and I mean I was I was kicking some butt. And uh the owner finally called me for the first time, and he said, Man, I see what you're doing down there. He goes, You're on fire. And he goes, I'm making a circuit around some of our corporate locations next week. He says, I want to meet you. I says, Well, just give me the time and day, and we'll meet at the lot. So, we meet and we're talking, and he's looking around, and he goes, Where's the rest of your displays? And I says, That's all they sent me. And he goes, Are you kidding me? You're doing what you're doing with six displays. And I says, I didn't know if you were gonna send me more. That's what they initially sent in to me. He goes, I'm sending two semi loads in next week. So that lot at that time I could accommodate about 20 sheds, probably, you know, displayed properly. Hey, next thing I know, following week, here comes two semis, and we got the lot up to maximum capacity. Uh, I didn't have an office at that time. I asked him, I said, hey, is there any way you could send me in just a nice little building to sit with people? Because here I'm dealing out of the front seat of my truck like a drug dealer selling sheds, you know. And I'm in like, I need a place to sit down and talk to people, you know. And he goes, Yeah, we actually have a used one. We're gonna we're gonna send it in with that second load that's coming down to you. So he did. He sent me in a nice little uh uh 10 by 18 uh fully finished office shed that they had somewhere else. And next thing I know, you know, I ran in electric to it, and that was at least a place to meet the customers when I had to meet with them.

Shannon 29:25

I'll tell you what, a lot of shed dealers who have gotten in probably over the last five years or so don't know nothing about selling a building out of the front of a truck. Uh, that is a story in in and of itself, and kind of tells the story of the industry and the different things that I always hear about the hauler stories of where these guys began with, you know, uh PVC pipes moving these things around before some of the equipment came along. But you don't hear the shed seller story side where it's like, hey, I had to pull up in my truck and get this thing sold. You know, I'd put signage out and numbers out, and I'd run down there and meet a customer every time somebody showed up, and there was a lot of customers that didn't turn into customers, you know, didn't turn into buyers, and uh we still put in the effort and we would go down there and just work that deal right out of the front of our pickup truck. I love those stories because that's real life and that's really how it happens. Uh based off your story, I would say, you know, even some of my thoughts to the greater industry uh and the dealer networks that are out there and the way online sales is kind of being approached in the in the industry. Um you know, more sales equal more displays. And my guess is that more manufacturers will typically do that, you know, and there's this there's this um back and forth between the manufacturer uh and the dealer that if I only had more, I'd sell more. Uh, and then it's like, well, if only you'd sell more, I'd bring you more.

Ron Romeo 30:57

Yeah. The key to that is um, and I just proved it. You know, sometimes you, of course, you get complacent with what displays you have and so forth. But um, and once again, it depends on the manufacturer's mode of business. You know, uh, some manufacturers they want to just flood lots with cookie cutter sheds, multiple sheds of the same exact option sizes, so forth, and they want to sell and of course push the RTO and so forth. But then there's a the other turn of it, the manufacturers that want to do custom orders. And truthfully, 75% of my orders are custom orders. I have the right manufacturer that that's the way when I uh, you know, I'm on my second manufacturer right now, but when I saw uh how they produced their buildings, when I went to visit them before I agreed to go with them, I saw that they were geared to do custom orders. And that's my biggest sales point is when somebody comes on the lot, well, you don't have a 10 by 18 with uh four-foot loft on this end. And I'm there like, I know that, but let me design one for you. You can get it in the same amount of time as if you could get it off of my lot, you know. So, right away I get them to sit down and design it. And truthfully, 75% of my sales, you know, they're custom orders.

Custom Orders Versus Lot Inventory

Shannon 32:32

Um I'm a bit fixated on that that thought even today. Um I ask, I ask every just about everybody I meet, uh, are you selling primarily displays or are you primarily selling you know new builds, 2B builds, new construction, a lot of different names out there for them? And um I find that at least 50% of most people I talk to uh will tell me, you know, uh it seems like people are wanting custom orders for the most part. So the larger part of our sales, every now and then I get tripped up and I hear somebody say, Well, we sell more off the lot, and then I have to like investigate more to figure out do they have one of those 300 building lots? Because then that makes sense. And that that would be more considered a mega lot, right? Like 40 buildings is almost standard. You see that in a lot of different places, and less than that, of course, but that's a big jump from four uh 40 buildings to 300 buildings. Uh and I consider that a mega lot. So, you can kind of bring people in from the tri-state area or your local hub or whatever, you know, you can you can advertise well to bring that in. But, I tend to think that, you know, if you have the right display models, you don't have to have such a heavy lift in inventory. And uh, of course, you know, we're marketers and we even sell marketing, Ron, so it probably sounds like a pitch for me, you know, to just say, why don't you dump that money into your online activities more and the digital landscape? Uh, because with good um with a with a good lot, but then also a good digital presence, a good social presence, you can accomplish probably the maximum effect that you're looking for. One or the other does well, but probably isn't the best answer. But it seems like a mixture of the two seem to be what wins business. Once you get them there, it seems like most of them, or at least 50% or more, are purchasing a building that they want customized for their self because they want their own colors or they want their own style.

Ron Romeo 34:42

Well, and then the internet's fine, but where I see the biggest downfalls of the internet versus displays, it's so hard to show options on the internet. And um, I just feel you know you lose a lot of option sales because either the person was on the designer program and they couldn't find this to put here. But if they can come touch it, feel it, I it's the old food thing. If we didn't sample food products and stick it in your mouth, I could tell you how great it tasted or what it'll do for your restaurant. You know what? Till I got that in your mouth, it didn't mean anything to that restaurant owner or chef. This is the same way. You have to show them the every design that you have available. You have to show as many options as you possibly can. My forte, truthfully, I sell large buildings. That's my forte. I'm a big building guy, and you know, nothing to take away from blue collar or lower uh classification of customers, but I focus on the upper level customer base that just can't find that special shed on a normal display lot that's just got the cookie cutter shed sitting out there. That's my forte is bam, you know, I'm gonna design that thing to look like your house as much as I can. Here's all the colors that are available. Colors is another thing online. You know, you can't get true color representation online. It's almost impossible to get that exact color. And there has to be like some companies that do sales strictly online. When that shed shows up, I just wonder what their return ratio is when that thing gets there. And oh my, that's not the color I saw online, and they refuse the order. I just wonder what percentage of online sales end up being returns because of that reason.

Shannon 37:05

So, uh it feels like it feels like um we're in between where all of one's not enough, but too much of one is not enough. You almost need that uh the online side to go capture the customer, but then you need them at your lot, touching, feeling. You know, uh to your point, you know, tasting the food makes you want to order the food. So, like even Sam's Club does this, right? Where you, you know, when they're trying to push out a new product, they put people out there giving out free samples because they want you to uh to see same with shopping for paint, right? Like you get your swatches and you know, you take them home, and it's very personal. And I think um the sales cycle of a building sale of a shed can be a couple of different, it can go a couple of different ways. It's typically been more um um, you know, just spot nanny. Um I'm struggling to come up with the words for some reason this morning, Ron. I'm sorry. Uh impulsive. Goodness, I couldn't come up with that one. It's been more impulsive. Um, but customers are starting to take more of a longer-term approach. They want to sit down and they kind of want to build it and they want to talk about the colors. And if you're uh holstering a welcoming environment where they come in and you're able to give them that experience, where buying a shed is more of an experience now than just a quick, let me get this, you know, win this dollar real quick and get them something. We really want to sit down and go through the the details with them. And I think the internet brings them in and then the touching, the feeling of the building, and then the the the value of a of a highly driven, well-educated salesperson does the rest of the job.

Ron Romeo 38:56

Yeah.

Why Local Trust Beats Online Only

Ron Romeo 38:57

And I also sell pre-engineered metal buildings, you know. Um, you know, the metal car ports, metal buildings. I represent two different manufacturers for those as well. And uh, so I've got a great mix, you know, and so I'd say that pre-pre-manufactured metal industry, I'd probably say 60% of their sales is online and you know, on an overall basis. I'm the the I'm the local guy, though, that you know, that they can come to touch those displays, see how they're constructed, but I'm the middle communicator between the manufacturer and the customer, because you know, most of that's all based out of North Carolina, and and and it's all Hispanic-based companies that are making those things. And there's sometimes there's a language barrier. Well, I'm the guy in the middle, I'm kind of like the interpreter between the Spanish and the customer, and they feel more at ease coming to my place and just say, Hey, I want to deal with you because you're a local guy. And that's been my my success, you know, for for what I've done over the years, you know. You know, I did I started in 2007 and and uh the years, I don't know how they've gone by so fast, but you know, um here I am, you know, 2026, and you know, basically, uh and comparative to the food business, this is like being semi-retired and still making significant you know income. Um comparative to the food industry. Uh, this is it's it's just a great industry. I love what I'm doing. Uh I'm built for it. Hey, I'm not a young chicken, but uh, you know, I'm seven, I'm 70, I'll be 72 in July, but you know, um I'll all I know is to I have a good work ethic because I was brought up in it all my life. So, you know, I just I just go at it a hundred percent.

Shannon 41:04

You know, I love it. I love I was gonna ask you my next question to ask you, and you kind of answer that is do you sell other products outside of sheds? And it sounds like I mean, I've looked at your website and it looks amazing, by the way. Uh I love your website, I love the way you've got everything laid out from your reviews to um, you know, the custom structures you guys do. You've got some FAQs in there just kind of helping to educate the customer. Um you know, do you find success with other with other products? Because of course you've got even in your logo, sheds, metal buildings, garages right there for people to see.

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Diversifying With Metal Buildings

Ron Romeo 44:50

Yep. Yeah. So, I want to try to be able to satisfy anyone that walks on the lot. What you know, when they say, you know, I'm here to look at a building, and you know, I have to throw the questions out. What are you going to store in it? How big are you thinking? You know, do you have a budget in your mind already? And you know, throw all those questions out at them. And I give them the, I said, you know, I'll give them the pros and cons. I'll just say everything has its, you know, pros and everything has its cons. It depends what'll fit your needs in your on your property, you know, that's that you're looking to get to do whatever you're doing inside of it. And it's a good balance. Um, you know, in sales, um they almost are equal in gross dollars, the metal industry versus the woodshed industry. So, you know, the amount of sales that I do are pretty much almost equal uh in in dollar volume, which shows me that there's a need for both. And uh, you know, the metal industry has a bad rap because for years, um I mean I've been through my things with it, and you know, there was a lot of negativity, you know. Uh I started selling sheds in the 2007, I started selling metal in 2008, and uh I've been through a lot of negative things happening in the in the metal business, but it's lucrative, and uh you just have to find the right manufacturer or manufacturers that are going to make your life a little bit easier, you know, because out of all those, from what I've heard, there's 160 online companies selling these metal pre-engineered carports and buildings. And and from what I see, out of the 160 dealers that are hustling these buildings, there's only 10 true manufacturers that are producing those buildings. So, you got to find the right one that's gonna satisfy your geographical market all year round. And that's a that's the tough thing to do. Once you sort that all out, and that's why now, you know, I'm representing two companies, because one company is good at certain things where the other one is not, and and I play the two manufacturers with the customer depending on what those customer needs are. Um, so you know, uh, one lends itself to be better on smaller buildings as far as pricing and turnaround time. Uh, extra labor charges are a lot less than what the larger company is, but the larger company covers a state that I need coverage, which is West Virginia. A lot of the companies won't go in with the metal buildings in West Virginia because the their laws there in West Virginia and the police are really hard on the immigrants that are you know building those buildings. So, uh there's only a few companies that will venture into West Virginia, and it's very close. That market is just 26 miles from my customer.

Shannon 48:17

The terrain has to be very difficult as well, too, uh from time to time.

Ron Romeo 48:23

Yeah, yeah, it is, it is, but uh most of my customers in that West Virginia market, truthfully, the uh there's a lot of large campgrounds down through there, so I do a lot of RV covers, you know, cover their RVs. Um and then, you know, my shed, my shed uh manufacturer, he gives a you know, they give us a good geographical, they give us a 30-mile uh free delivery radius, which uh it does extend beyond that, depending on the local zip code where they're at. But uh and they and they also they're uh JDM structures is my shed manufacturer, and very they are very strong with built on site. They they have a dedicated built-on-site crew that's just phenomenal, they're fantastic, and that's a whole niche there that you know that that puts you above most of the other normal shed companies out there. They either don't do built-on-site or they overcharge tremendously to do the built on site. And uh, and then once again, JDM, they have a baked-on paint process that they do at that factory. That I don't know of any other shed manufacturer that does that baked on paint. And, you know, especially for built-on sites, when that when that when that building's built and everything's pre-painted at the factory, overwrapped, you know, with a foam wrapper, when that shows up, it looked like that big building just walked out of a manufacturing plant and was set on the ground. It's it's pretty amazing, truthfully.

What Counts As A Big Building

Shannon 49:53

They make a phenomenal product. Uh, just from what looking over your Facebook page. And uh I've never been to your shed lot specifically, but looking over your website and looking over Facebook, I was a matter of fact, I was commenting on how jealous I am of some of the quality aspects that you guys get to uh take advantage of there in Pennsylvania that aren't always seen in in in uh all parts of the country. I wanted to ask you a question here. When you said earlier you focus on big buildings, uh sometimes that means something different whenever you're in that eastern corridor versus the Midwest or out west. What what do you consider uh a big building?

Ron Romeo 50:33

You guys go up to uh 16 wide or 14 wide or so uh so we max out on most of the models at 14 wide being factory built, coming in the door. So, 16 and up, usually 16 up to 24 wide and up to 40 feet long is kind of the footprint uh uh of the sheds that we can do build on site. And then they then JDM also they have a separate actual uh garage uh building um design program. So, that's also another separate division. They actually have a garage division that's dedicated to just build-on-site garages. And in fact, I just uh actually they offer now um in certain geographical markets, they'll offer the concrete pad, uh, the block foundation, total turnkey. And I just sold my first package actually about three weeks ago.

Shannon 51:31

Oh, congrats!

Ron Romeo 51:32

Yeah, yeah.

Shannon 51:33

So that's awesome.

Ron Romeo 51:35

Yeah, that's an awesome thing to get involved with, it really is.

Shannon 51:38

And uh the diversification of these products is absolutely necessary. I feel like, you know, uh it's helpful. Maybe it's not necessary, but it's extremely helpful, not just to your dealer network, but even for the manufacturers who are looking to just work with products that complement what they're building already, which is ultimately storage.

Ron Romeo 52:01

Yes, yeah.

Subcontractors Permits And Faster Closes

Ron Romeo 52:02

And it's and it's also very important to partner yourself with local subcontractors that are capable and trustworthy to do the pads, uh, whether it's gravel, concrete. Um, also, you know, partner yourself with a good reputable electrician, a garage door company. Um I have on my desk when you come into my office, I have a little stand of business cards of all these subcontractors that that I know I can rely on recommending them to a customer. Uh I have a spray foam company, I have an electrician, I have an excavator, uh, garage door, I have a roofing company that that will do gutters, you know, because gutters is an option that we can't offer from either of the three companies that I represent. So, I have all these local contract subcontractors that I keep all their business cards in there. And when somebody, you know, what you want to do is you don't want that customer, so they're iffy about the shed, they go home, now they can't find somebody to do the pad, or nobody calls them back. Of course, that's the most common thing we hear about everything. I can't get anybody to call me back. But you know, if you have that all aligned, that that closes that sale so much faster. Because, you know, there's the old adage, think long, think wrong. And and if you let that customer think too long, you're probably going to lose that sale down the road. You know, or if they had somebody, you know, if you didn't have that excavator guy or that pad guy uh to get back to them right away, they may have got overpriced from a fly by night contractor, which now put the whole project over budget of what they wanted to spend. And you lost the shed sale or building sale because the wrong contractor quoted the pad or or the finished concrete and and it went over the customer's budget. And they just say, Oh, I can't afford the project. And they just don't call you back, you know. And uh, you know, so it's real, I think it's very important to have the alignment with with good good subcontractors to complete the whole project.

Shannon 54:27

I love it. I love what you do. Uh I I think it's it's awesome getting to know you more. And I'm gonna fire off just a couple of questions here. You're you're a pretty seasoned salesperson here, not just with uh food distribution, but even in sheds already coming up on 20 years. So congrats on that. Congrats on that new sale uh of that garage package. I think that's awesome. I really wish we had something uh like that ourselves, you know, uh uh available because I mean that need is there. So, uh and I love that you're taking you know the customer's concerns on the other sides of just selling a shed that matter, uh, particularly the padding. I was talking with Irvin Stutzman at Summit Portable Buildings, he's a builder in Farmington, Missouri, and he was just going over and over with me yesterday about how he is emphatic about making sure the customer understands like the site prep and what's necessary and like just being a resource, being educational for your consumer so that they understand where to get things, what they should cost. Because if you leave it up to them, they just don't know. And they'll get discouraged to your point and just walk away from it. So, selling isn't just that moment where you close the deal in the 15-minute of conversation that you have or 30-minute of conversation. Selling encompasses the whole day. That you that means your effort in finding an electrician, that means your effort in finding a site prep person, a concrete person, uh whatever their needs are, permitting. I hear that a lot, you know, especially from the Florida uh community, um, you know, or those that sell into more urban areas, they just they take that responsibility upon their self. So, you can't really say I make 10% or 15% or 20% on the sale, and so therefore I worked an hour and I made X amount of dollars an hour. It's spread out over all of these years of experience and these endeavors in reaching out to try and like benefit the customer by having an answer to whatever their question is.

Ron Romeo 56:34

Yes, yes. In fact, permitting is something brand new with JDM structures, they now offer that service, and it's it's a $250 upcharge, but they'll they'll initiate all the permitting uh information. Um they'll get they'll get it to the point to where to where the customer then you know at least knows what they're getting into. Uh JDM won't apply for the permit, of course, because most permitting offices want the uh homeowner you know to do all that that application and payment process, but they'll do all the preliminary work, and it's a just a flat $250 upcharge.

Shannon 57:22

I love it. I think it's uh it's great.

Losing Deals Without Losing Momentum

Shannon 57:25

So, I'm gonna ask you a couple questions here before we wrap up, just as a seasoned salesperson, um, for those who are getting into the industry, especially those who are trying to figure things out, uh learning their way, so to speak, uh, what do you do when you lose a deal? What does your mind go through when you lose a deal? They either don't buy or they buy from someone else.

Ron Romeo 57:48

So, it happens every day. Um I try to I try to just I'm a real personal, you know, kind of guy. So, I take everything personal. And I at first I you know I get a little dejected, but then you know, I learned a many, many, many, many years ago from an old Italian guy. He there was like if you uh if you fail at something, or if you lose X amount of dollars trying to do something that somebody did to you, don't backtrack yourself to try to get that money from that person. Look forward and just work harder to make that up of what you lost. So, um I look at it that and I you know, I always say, you know, God's got my plan all in focus. Um if I lose a deal, it's it just seems like a larger one replaced it, not long after that. And as long as that keeps happening, and that's how I look. I I've always taught my kids, you never look in the rear view mirror in life, you'll get nowhere driving in reverse. You always have to go forward, and you know, do not expound on what happened because it already happened. Expound on what you can do to overcome what happened. So, you know, that's just my focus in life. I went through a lot of major health issues in 2020, back to back. Uh, there was a I was laid up for about a five-month period through, and I didn't think I was coming back, truthfully. And that's where God's plan started with me, I think. And uh He brought me through, He gave me three chances to come back and you know, do something with myself. So, truthfully, that's my main motivator. Every day I get up. Um God gave me the He gave me the chance to be healthier, He gave me the chance to perform. Now I have to do that every day because that was given to me, you know, and I'm taking it and I'm running with it. And that's since uh since 2020, truthfully, I have a total different outlook on life. I really do. And uh I put it to use every day. But yeah, losing a sale, it's not the end of the world because there's always something better walking in the door, you know, always have your door open and always, you know, make the people feel wanted. And I'm telling you, it's just gonna come back, you know, down the road. It's just like if you personally give or donate to a cause or whatever, um you're not expecting anything to come back, you know, because you're doing that out of the goodness of your heart. But down the road, it does come back to use in other ways, and sales is the same way, you know. Um my father always used the old example uh Heinz ketchup, okay. That's the most reputable ketchup, of course. You know, it was eventually first based out of Pittsburgh. And he always told our sales reps, he goes, We can't be the least expensive distributor with Heinz ketchup, just because we're not the largest distributor. But the sales rep that can go out and sell that Heinz ketchup at a higher price versus their competition is the better sales rep. And that did prove a point. And he and he'd and he'd tell them, I tell you what, today go out and sell Heinz Ketchup for $16 a case, which normally would sell for 32. Go ahead and see, tell me how many cases you sold new at $16 a case. Well, none of them would come back and just say, I just sold a trailer load of Heinz Ketchup, because it all gets back to the salesperson. How good are you? You know, and that was all that always rang out, you know, with the sales rep that can sell the same exact item at a higher price, obviously sold himself to that customer because sales is it's it is about selling a product, but if you don't sell yourself first, it doesn't matter what that product is or what it costs.

Shannon 1:02:30

I've been for a lot of years we've said uh an A plus salesperson in a uh C minus location will outperform an A plus location and a C minus salesperson. They make so much of a difference in the in the in the manufacturer's world more than people even realize. Uh a good salesperson will really change things, and a network of good salespeople will really move the needle for you as a company and as a manufacturer. So, there should be more investment put into uh those salespeople, which leads me to my last question, and I'll let you off

Improving Sales Through Smarter Marketing

Shannon 1:03:11

the hook here today. You've been gracious with your time, and I love your stories and storytelling. I like your glasses, and I even like your barber, just by the way, Ron. Um, how do you improve as a salesperson?

Ron Romeo 1:03:25

That's a good question. Um I just once again, I think you have to stay razor sharp with your surroundings, with your competition. Uh you know, I've seen so many show, you know, there's been so many shed locations open up in my backyard that weren't there when I started. I probably have six new competitors, you know, in my marketing area. But I all I do is just keep focused on myself. If you overdwell on your competition, once again, it's like looking in the rearview mirror. You waste more of your time. You have to constantly create a better company. I constantly look at my marketing dollars spent. I spent more marketing dollars last year than the history of my company. In fact, my accountant even she says, Oh, my Ron, you like really went crazy with your advertising and you know, last year. And I says, Yeah, I kind of did overdo it. But I tried some different things. I tried on uh some highway billboards. Um, I got engaged into a local AM radio station that's right here in Uniontown that has been in Uniontown probably for almost a hundred years, you know, on the air. Um, I you know, I I positioned myself there that I just want the local market to know that I'm the local guy. And uh, and then I hired a um uh a marketing company to manage my website and my social media because I'm a one-man show. And so, I can't do all of that. But you know, now I'm analyzing, you know, my marketing dollars a little bit, and truthfully, I just uh actually canceled my billboard advertising because I think I can take that money possibly and utilize it somewhere else. Um so yeah, I think I think you I think marketing is the key now to whether you know to expose a dealership to be better than the other guys out there. Social media is a monster, and truthfully, I'm not a real techie kind of guy. So um, but I see it. I mean I know I'm missing the boat on some of it, but. But you really, I think you really have to analyze your marketing dollars and they'll take care of you as long as you take care of the leads as they come in.

Shannon 1:06:12

So, important and probably worthy of a an entire other podcast just going down those avenues of that conversation. But um, no, I agree with you. It is it is it is a abundantly clear that people are going to be at least educating themselves or shopping online. And like if we can do our part to maybe be in front of a camera or increase our social awareness or social presence, either through you know, these different channels, YouTube and Facebook, and Instagram and TikTok. And I know that's not everybody's, you know, thing. So, I understand that too. Some folks want to be good at that, some folks want to be good at building sheds, some at hauling sheds. And like we all kind of need each other, really, to some extent. And I think that if you can find long-term partners that you really want to stick with and you see results, and it's not, I don't even look at it as a spend as more as it's an investment. The same way you invest in a board and nails uh to put together a shed, you know, uh, and ultimately sell that for a profit. It's the same way with marketing or things like that, is you invest into them uh and they should be making you more money than they're costing you. They shouldn't just be a line item cost on your uh, you know, at the end of the day. I think that the purpose of them is to benefit you more, whether that's more traditional ad placement like a billboard, or maybe that's SEO and optimizing your website.

Ron Romeo 1:07:43

Well, and as we discussed our you know, last week, I'm still looking for that spinner display.

Shannon 1:07:51

Yeah, I know. And I'll tell you what, I got I got some thoughts on that that I want to share with you, but I'll tell you what, I'll go ahead and wrap up today.

Closing Thoughts And How To Reach Us

Shannon 1:07:59

Uh and we can chat afterwards. Ron, I do I do appreciate you. I love your story, I love the roots, I love how you got started in food. I love how it's family-oriented, local community guy just doing what you do. Uh, I think you're a great representation for the industry. Uh, I know I appreciate getting to meet you. Hopefully, one of these days, whenever I get up in your neck of the woods, I can swing in and uh and uh meet you face to face and buy you lunch or something.

Ron Romeo 1:08:32

So, really well that to happen. That'd be great.

Shannon 1:08:35

Well, it's much appreciated. Thank you guys for listening to the Shed Geek podcast and uh Ron Romeo for Ultimate Structures. Uh I really appreciate you joining us today. Wish you nothing but success in all of your endeavors, sir. Thank you so much.

OUTRO 1:08:52

Thanks again, Shed Pro, for being the Shed Geek's studio sponsor. If you need any more information about Shed Pro or about Shed Geek, just reach out. You can reach us by email at info@shedgeek.com or just go to our website, www.shedgeek.com, and submit a form with your information, and we'll be in contact right away. Thank you again for listening, as always, to today's episode of the Shed Geek Podcast. Thank you and have a blessed day.