Like a lot of companies in a lot of different industries, Marco Supply Company had a profitable run in the mid-to-late '90s.

But then, like other companies and industries, things got a bit difficult in late 2000 and into 2001-02.

So what to do? Blame the election year? Rant about the economy? Well, who didn't? For that matter, who doesn't? Well, Marco Supply, for one. What did they do about it?

They went to the library.

Let's backtrack a bit. Founded in 1970, Marco Supply has 16 branches throughout the Southeastern U.S. The core of their construction supply business is the commercial niche, office buildings and retail centers, according to Marco's owner and president Marshall Jones. They are involved with some nursing homes and school construction, as well.

"We were fortunate to have very strong growth in the latter part of the '90s and into 2000," Jones says. "In a relatively short period of time, we doubled our business."

While this was happening, there naturally arose a need to add more positions and fill them. Rapidly. In hindsight, they were filled too rapidly, Jones concedes.

"Frankly, that rise in business had more to do with the overall strong economy than with the practices we had in place to hire our outside sales staff," he says. "So, as that economic tide was rising, all our boats went up with it dramatically."

However, as a rocky 2001 became a rockier 2002, many of those boats sank rapidly. In some cases, the people they hired who had shown promising signs of success in good times were floundering badly in bad times, particularly the outside salespeople. Jones saw this as especially vital because, as he put it, "When the outside sales dry up, then our inside people lose their jobs."

"Hiring salespeople is probably the number one factor in determining how you grow in declining times. And we decided we didn't have the right process in place to hire the best outside salespeople," he explained. "I think it is actually possible to grow in a declining economy — but it's impossible to do so if you have the wrong people. So we decided we had to throw out the way we had been hiring and find a way to get people who can be winners in any economic environment."

Looking back, it was in late-2002 that Marco Supply "hit the trough," says Jones, in terms of business bottoming out and his coming to a realization that they had to make some changes. How to go about doing that?

The library.

"Yeah, I challenged them to go to the library, of all places," Jones laughed. "One of my managers said, 'You know, I got into the business so I wouldn't have to go to places like this!' We basically set up something like an Oprah's Book Club."

At first, there was concern that Marco Supply would find themselves swimming through an information overload.

"We found a 400-page book on how to do a reference check!" Jones laughed.

For all the cracks about going to the library, the gesture symbolized the challenge that Jones was giving to his managers: develop a system that would enable Marco to hire "smarter than we did in the past," Jones explains. "We wanted to bring in people who could be winners in any environment, not just in rising tides. Essentially, we said 'Let's throw out the old way of doing things.'"

While doing their research, ideas were exchanged and compared between Jones and his various managers. Some had found interesting articles. Some had book titles suggested to them.

Eventually, a "winning" book selection emerged: How to Hire and Develop Your Next Top Performer, by Herb Greenberg, Patrick Sweeney, and Harold Weinstein, former staffers at Caliper Consulting, a human resource assessment and consulting firm.

So every three or four weeks, Jones and the Marco managers would get together via conference calls to circulate questions and generate feedback on issues such as job matching, personality testing, interview questions and references checks.

"Along the way, as they've had their hires to make the last several months, a lot of them have had practices and experiences to tap into," Jones said.

Earlier this year, his managers put together a hiring manual for the company based on the collective ideas and resulting conclusions.

While still in the early stages of this new approach, Jones says, "We get a strong sense that these changes are going to improve the quality of representation for our customers. We're very confident that the way we are hiring now is dramatically better than in the past."

Regardless of the hiring approach or philosophy, the most important criteria in an outside salesperson remain the same.

"The hardest quality to find in outside salespeople is the drive, motivation and overall work ethic, more so than the ability to learn [technically]," Jones explains. "We have some sophisticated products, but for the most part, we deal in relatively simple equipment. So it's typically not a question of new people not being able to learn. It's more that drive and motivation that are the hardest characteristics to find."

Jones feels that Marco is similar to most any organization in that its employees tend to fall into three general groups: one comprised of people who are outstanding performers; another group that turn out to be bad hires and are in the process of leaving or being told to leave; and a final group that lands somewhere in the middle. This third group is of prime interest to Jones.

"We now focus on that group in the middle," he explains. "We now test them to pick areas of their personality to work on and to improve and accentuate their positives."

He gives an example of how this approach recently proved beneficial to all at Marco. One of their outside salesmen had "good, but not great" productivity, as Jones describes it. Yet the man had done enough and was well liked — someone they wanted to keep, even though Marco managers felt his area's overall sales numbers could be improved.

After doing some personality testing, "we discovered he hated the type of work he was doing," Jones said. "He didn't even realize he hated it as much as he did. The rejection that is common in any sales field was a real problem for him. It tore at him. At the same time, though, he loved customer service."

Another position, one that emphasized customer service, was open at Marco. This was a position where this man's experience and talents could be better tapped.

"He's a bright guy with four years of experience and a lot of energy. He's not like someone in whom we haven't made investments. So he's going to fit right in with our organization in a position we needed to fill anyway," Jones says.

The result is a win-win situation for all involved — one that may well not have been reached a year ago. "He's now doing very well in a customer service role and that, in turn, opened the door for someone who really matches the sales personality type better," Jones says.

Jones has been associated with Marco Supply ever since he was old enough to be associated with anything. His father, Dave Jones, founded the company and, growing up, as well as while in school, Jones worked in virtually every aspect of the company.

These days, Jones estimates that he spends about half his time as a combination sales and branch manager at three Marco locations (Greenville and Charleston, S.C.; and Charlotte, N.C.). In that role, he has eight salespeople and three operations managers report directly to him. Jones participates in pricing and administrative tasks, developing quotes for customers and helping with some training issues.

Roughly, the other half of his work week is split between corporate management issues (budgets and financial reports) and being on the road for a couple of nights as he visits other Marco branches.

While Jones is a man who hires good people and lets them do their jobs, he also is a hands-on owner. He admits that keeping his distance can be a challenge. Knowing when to step back — even being able to step back — can be difficult for some owners.

"It can be quite difficult, at times," he admits. "As in the case of many of the owners in STAFDA (Specialty Tools & Fasteners Distributors Association) companies, for instance, there's so much of a 'do' mentality. Many of us grew up in the family business or started our own businesses. And you can get accustomed to doing as opposed to having it done by someone else."

But Jones — having worked at virtually every task throughout the company — came to the realization fairly early that he could not do everything, with Marco having more than 120 employees.

"The only way I can make sure the necessary things get done is to put the people in place who can be responsible for those actions," he says. "I've had to let my people take the ball and run with it if we're going to get anything accomplished."

He is more comfortable delegating these days. In his experience, "I've seen it done effectively and seen the destructive force of not doing it effectively," when working with colleagues.

He recalls a sales meeting in his earlier years when he was a young sales manager. In addressing a sales representative, "I stepped all over his feet. His residual hard feelings from me butting in were a lesson to me."

These days, two of the more important and profitable products that Marco distributes are in the powder-actuated and track fast tools categories. (Track fast tools are gas-operated fastening tools for drywall and interior connections, and can be used to attach metal track to concrete, steel and masonry blocks.)

"Those tools have been a core of our business for some time now. Our salespeople are very well trained on that product category," he says.

He's especially enthused about a product that is new this year: "The M-150 that Marco has helped launch in the southeast region," says Jones. "It is geared more toward the mechanical and electrical trades."

The M-150 is made by ITW Ramset, an Illinois-based manufacturer with whom Marco has been associated for most of its 32-plus years.

Dave Simoncini, national sales manager for Ramset, feels fortunate to have Marco carrying the ball in the southeast, as far as spreading the word on the M-150.

"Marco has really taken off with it," he said. "At Ramset, we test the products with the contractors themselves and demonstrate the product before getting it to distributors. And when we did so, the distributor that the contractors would often ask for was Marco."

He praises Jones as "a real innovator." Simoncini also praised Jones' work ethic that sees him personally calling on contractors at their job sites.

Marco is a very modern company, Simoncini says, "but at the same time they use a very traditional approach in terms of going to job sites, calling on the contractors and doing the essential legwork."

The newly designed hiring approach at Marco would seem to show their modern bent. While acknowledging this approach is still in its early stage, Jones says, "We get a strong sense that these changes in the hiring process will dramatically improve the quality of sales representation for our customers."