A Typical GerrityStone Day, June 2008

On this day, as any other in the life of a stone guy, I awake at 4:45am, shower, and dress. My wife sleeps while I have my coffee and check out the News & Events, weather, and sports on television. I hop in my car and head to Martha's Bread Bakery in Danvers, my favorite local breakfast eatery, for my raisin scone and more coffee. I know that coffee will be an integral part of keeping pace with the hectic workday ahead at GerrityStone.

I am in the office by 6am ready to review the day's installs, sales schedules, and any pressing issues that need to be addressed. We have fourteen kitchens going in today throughout Massachusetts and New Hampshire. I run one of our driver's over to pick up a truck that is finished being serviced. We need all available rigs on the road today.

As the staff arrives this morning, I meet and greet and hopefully get everyone off to a smiling start. In my position as sales and marketing director, I revel in the fact that we have a terrific team here. I send off eight or nine emails, one of which to the staff with some inspirational thoughts for the day. We get so busy here at Gerrity, it is important to maintain a high level of morale and positive spirit among our players.

It's not long before the phones start ringing. At 8am, Jim Gerrity calls and asks me what I have sold today. I joke with him, “Sell? I am supposed to sell?” Thankfully, we've enjoyed record sales in recent months so I can afford to kid with the boss.

At around 8:30am, a call comes in from my production manager in the warehouse. Apparently, a foreign object fell through the 50 foot ceiling overnight. I go out to check on this and discover it could be a meteorite. It is much heavier than a normal rock of its size and had to have come "from above" since the warehouse ceiling height is extremely lofty. What a coincidence- an amazing stone landing in a warehouse filled amazing stone! I call the News & Events media and over the next few hours, WCVB-TV Channel 5 and WBZ Channel 7 report on this strange occurrence. I could not let this publicity story pass us by.

In the meantime, I need to meet with Nancy our office manager and Jeff our chief estimator. We set the meeting for 11am. Jeff needs to get two big orders out first and I need to meet with a return customer. Suffice it to say, our 11am meeting gets pushed back. I make a call to a few new job applicants who applied with us. We're forever in growth mode and are always looking for talented sales staff.

Kevin Moran, our company president, stops by my office to check the status of a particular order. I provide him with a concise update and I am off to meet with the return customer. Not before the phone rings again. It is Dawn Carroll who heads up our architectural division checking with me on some scheduling challenges. Walking and talking, a skill set I have perfected here at Gerrity, I provide the answers she needs.

As I head downstairs to greet my customer, I get a cell call from one of the many radio stations with whom we've been negotiating an advertising campaign. I explain I am on the fly but will get back to him soon.

Before I reach the stone design center, I call Oscar in the warehouse to make sure the black galaxy is all set for my customer to view. It is. Good News & Events because I actually should have checked earlier but things have been jumping.

My customer is just pulling in as I reach the stone design center downstairs. She is here to make final decisions and tag stone for her daughter's new condo at the Regatta in Cambridge.

One of the stones chosen is called Durango. When the customer sees it again, she decides this particular slab in stock is not the color she wants. She is looking for more of an iced coffee tone. I assure her we can find her "an iced coffee" slab and that I will make some calls. Easily done. The other stone she needs to see today is called black galaxy. We chat about the size of the sparkle flecks and how that varies with the number of flecks in a given slab. She decides to go with the medium fleck and we tag that slab.

We head back to the stone design center and write the order. While I write, I tell her how my wife and I are planning a long awaited get-away to Florida. We got a great deal at the Pink Shell resort. I am so looking forward to some rest and relaxation.

As we wrap up the sale, my customer has questions about various stones for some renovations in her place in New Hampshire. She is interested in black and gold for her fireplace which creates a classic 1920's look I love. We talked about Jurassic, one of my personal favorites, for the kitchen overlooking the water. Jurassic picks up the water tones beautifully and I marvel at the thought of it.

After my sales call, I head back upstairs to my office. I check email, voicemail and return a few calls. It's nearly time for my meeting with Nancy and Jeff. I run out to Café Sorelli for a sandwich to go.

With my sandwich in tow, I head back to the office and straight to the conference room to meet Jeff and Nancy. There we review material and issues to be presented at our next scheduled sales meeting. We discuss planned changes in protocol in order to streamline sales, scheduling and installs. We are interrupted at least three times by my cell phone and staff popping in with questions or concerns. Undaunted, we press on and the meeting lasts for about an hour.

Next on my list is marketing planning and budgeting. We are launching new branding campaigns in print, online, broadcast, direct mail and on location in our three stone design centers. We've been courted by myriad media outlets and I need to review proposals and associated cost versus value. Last fall, we hired a talented outside source for our branding and public relations efforts. I call her to discuss our program status. We have so many wonderful stories and case studies to share and no time to stop and collect the details. I am working on fixing that.

I have a templating scheduled with a new customer now and I call ahead to Oscar to make sure we're set with the slabs. We are. I run down to the warehouse and get the labeled wooden kitchen templates, set them near the slabs, and run back to the stone design center to greet my customers. They are a married couple and they brought a relative for her opinion. We laugh and joke as we head to the warehouse. I love what I do. People are always so excited to see their slabs and envision their new kitchen in their minds' eye.

We reach their tagged slabs and the oohs and ahs begin. We talk about matching for seams, picking up similar veining and tones, and the various ways we can layout the counters, sink and backsplash. I make my professional recommendations but we spend about one hour exploring the options. In the end, we pretty much return to, yes, my recommendations. Hey, it's their kitchen and I am happy to go through the motions until everyone is satisfied.

We head back to the office where we draw up the final paperwork. Next step for this customer is install. They are thrilled with their chosen stone. I am thrilled they are thrilled!

My day winds down with more phone calls, emails, scheduling and install challenges, team building, and an end-of-the-day meeting with Kevin to update him on the day's activities.

A long and fulfilling day, I am exhausted and exhilarated at once. As I head for home, I think about how this gorgeous natural stone arrives to us from across the globe and that we, as a team, market, sell, fabricate, and install this stone throughout the region creating priceless masterpieces with every project. Both demanding and rewarding, it's just a day in the life of a stone guy.

Think Stone.
Think Gerrity.