Based in Carrollton, Texas, the Evergreen Marketing Group has been among the leading activists in state-of-the-art training for those in the construction business.

Be it sales or technical developments, the "focus of the group, pretty much from day one, was to drive the training and development of the distributor employees, particularly the outside and inside salespeople," says Kevin Higginbotham, Evergreen's executive director.

That's the driving force behind Evergreen's Certified Tool Specialist program.

Evergreen runs 12 to 15 educational programs each year, Higginbotham explains. Since 1997, it has been based in Carrollton, in an 11,000-square-foot training center consisting of classrooms and hands-on areas.

"We can replicate pretty much any application you'd find on a commercial construction job site," Higginbotham says.

The training programs cover product and application knowledge, selling skills, and business process knowledge. The latter might delve into accounts receivable, for instance, running a tool repair operation or managing the warehouse more efficiently.

Once "Evergreen University" began to grow, as did its educational reputation, Higginbotham wanted to see it taken to the next step—the certification concept that Evergreen Marketing Group graduates strive toward.

"It always struck me as odd that our industry didn't have that sort of [certification] requirement," Higginbotham said. "Many of the people entering our industry have two or four years of college. That's great, but it doesn't really tell you how well trained they are in the industry itself. And that's what Evergreen is hoping to get at with this."

A class description shows an intense and driven learning process. A typical program will see students check in for Thursday evening welcoming remarks and dinner. Full-day classroom sessions follow on both Friday and Saturday, concluding with a final examination late Saturday afternoon. Both attendees and their employers are investing considerable time.

"It's intense and has very little downtime," Higginbotham admits. "You're asking the individual to give up a weekend. At the same time, you're asking the company to give up that person's productivity in the field for at least a day and a half."

A recent class that met with success was "Phases of Construction." That session looked at a commercial job site from the point of view of the general contractor, a mechanical contractor and an electrical contractor. It was taught by various distributors who work with these contractors. As experienced salespeople, they showed students what they talk about and, more importantly, when in the construction project timeline they talk to contractors.

"That can be invaluable from a sales perspective, especially if you're new to the industry," explains Higginbotham. "For example, the time to talk to a drywall contractor about screw guns is not when he's loading the drywall into the project."

For someone to become an Evergreen Certified Tool Specialist, they will attend 137 ½ hours of continuing education that involves product application and selling skills training. This consists of: 70 hours of product and applications training, 35 hours of selling skills training, and 32 ½ hours of supplier-sponsored product training.

Students then must take and pass five of Evergreen's online training modules as well as participate as a teacher—either back at their own company in a sales training session, or, in some cases, teaching one of Evergreen's classes.

Attendees must have at least a few years of industry experience to attend. Most Evergreen classes consist of people with three to five years of experience, Higginbotham estimates, although it is not uncommon to find students there with 15 years of background in construction. Others may have construction experience but have not spent much time selling for a distributor. Still others have been behind a counter for a while and may be about to make their first foray into outside sales.

Higginbotham realizes that the popularity and growing reputation of these intense and time-consuming training sessions is a favorable reflection of what Evergreen is doing. But at the same time, it also shows the understanding that training is a virtual non-stop process these days. He cites the interest on the part of the ownership of construction distributorships as vital in keeping the training ongoing.

"I think when ownership finds that it's important, and puts a premium on it, the salespeople ultimately get behind it," Higginbotham says.

One such owner whose company has sent employees to Evergreen is Shannon Worthington, president of Dixie Construction in Atlanta. Last year, Dixie sent four employees to Evergreen, ranging in experience from seven to 18 years.

"One of the more valuable things is being able to expose your people to other ideas from all over the country," he says. "They get different ideas from different parts of the country. It works very well."

He concedes that it is a lot of time to invest, but is convinced the training is vital these days.

"You never stop training. And you never stop learning," Worthington says. "I go to the programs. I certainly don't have to anymore but I enjoy them. And, besides, how am I going to learn anything new if I don't go to some of those things?"

Feedback from customers of Evergreen alumni has also been favorable as the graduates have a wider menu of ideas to choose from, and they've become better-trained and educated problem solvers.

"What a well-trained, certified outside salesperson will do for a contractor is save him a ton of time," Higginbotham says. "He'll know that application and be able to bring in experience from all over the country because he mixes with folks from other parts of the country. And the biggest cost factor for most construction jobs is time."