Scott Russell

Wanting to re-establish myself back into B2B and B2C sales I took the position of sales manager at Norwich Aluminium, an £8m annual turnover business. Managing an estimating team consisting of 3 team members my daily duties consists of the following;

• Dealing with enquiries as they come in, filing these and placing them in the most suited position within the team to do pile to ensure they are submitted in a timely manner.
• Using BarbourAbi to generate fresh new leads.
• Reviewing the estimators quotations before submission.
• Following up the quotation with the customer on a regular basis, maintaining good contact to ensure securing the works. Currently I am achieving 100+ follow ups per week by email and telephone.
• Ensuring weekly targets are achieved and changing the teams to do pile or chasing select customers accordingly.
• Highlighting the close to securing sales and liaising with the customer, offering agreed discounts if required to ensure the order.
• Producing weekly S&E reports for the directors.
• Ensuring the team are maintaining the target turn around times and figures each week.

Since joining Norwich Aluminium I have transformed the work ethic and the way the team deals with enquiries. The team would have an ever growing pile of enquiries (we receive circa £3-5m per week of enquiries). I have implemented a system where quotations are produced more efficiently and we now consistently keep up with the work load, producing on average 12 quotations per week, ranging from $50k to £5m.

Since joining the business we have secured an additional £4m of orders for 2025, and continue to secure work, on average around £200k per week,

Cube Install Ltd specialise in the supply and installation of IPS (Integrated Plumbing Systems/Carpentry) and washrooms within the commercial sector with a majority of their works being in the new build schools around the UK. As their sole contracts manager I managed circa £6m per year (usually around 25 contracts at any one time) of projects for all major principal contractors as well as smaller contractors my roles and responsibilities included the following:-

• Working closely with all tier 1 principal contractors, across the country.
• Liaising with the customer to introduce myself once the contract has been secured by the sales team.
• Organising site visits to survey the works areas for site dim drawings.
• Attending pre-start meetings to run through programmes (GANT charts), targets and health and safety.
• Drafting site specific RAMS for the works.
• Organising, negotiating costs and booking labour to complete the works.
• As the installation date approached, ensuring sites are ready.
• Managing the installation to ensure all comes in on or under budget and dealing with accordingly, making sure the overlapping trades work together correctly as and when needed.
• Visiting sites during their installation to make sure the client is happy and all works are being completed to our standards.
• Ensuring all the works are carried out in accordance with HSE regulations and also completed to current building regulations.
• Dealing with any on site issues, be it labour or products and coming up with solutions.
• Dealing with snags if any and closing out in a satisfactory time and manner.
• Ensuring any post completion documentation is executed and sent to the customer as and when required.
• Dealing with any site uplifts.

In addition to all these duties I managed our database of sub contract workers, currently around 40 individuals, removing any when needed and introducing new to the company, ensuring they all meet the requirements on site for accreditations and training. I have also been working on a new sub contractor document to ensure all subcontractors work to our guidelines.

General operations management for the business also played a part of my day to day job; constantly reviewing and developing current procedures or employees/sub contractors and implementing changes when needed to improve the day to day running of the business.

I joined T C Garrett Roofing at the start of 2022, surveying, quoting and managing roofing contracts in and around Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex mainly for local authorities/housing associations on residential properties. My day to day routine would be as follows:

• Allocating tasks/projects to each team first thing in the morning, ensuring the operatives understand the works required and ensuring they have all they need to complete the task(s)
• Liaising with customers, both private and commercial and discussing their needs/surveying their property.
• Providing them with a full report, proposal and quotation for the works required and selling our company to the customer.
• Securing the works.
• Procuring the materials for the project and the best prices to maximise profits.
• Planning, organising and booking scaffolding teams, ensuring the correct system is erected to ensure the works are executed as efficiently as possible whilst ensuring the workers and public's safety.
• Ensuring all the works are carried out in accordance with HSE regulations and also completed to current building regulations.
• Seeing the projects through from start to completion, ensuring the customers satisfaction and signing off.
• Problem solving as and when they occur.

A key part of dealing with the customers is ensuring they have every confidence in us, this may be at the start when speaking with them, assuring them of your knowledge and professionalism. Answering their questions without hesitation and always making sure they understand as much as they can of the works we are providing them.

Set up and established Daylight Solutions Ltd, suppliers and installers of roof glazing systems, smoke ventilation products, access hatches, and flat roofing specialists. Within the first 4 years single I handed grew turnover from 32k in year one to 700k in year 4, without accruing any debts, becoming a very well known name within the industry and the largest supplier and installer of VELUX Modular Skylights by 2018. More or less every task within the day to day running of a business was undertaken, to highlight a few:

• Cold calling to generate leads B2C & B2B.
• Visiting Architects and small building contractors.
• Managing our database of customers to see if anything was coming up.
• Following up enquiries
• Marketing to generate interest/leads
• Reading plans for pricing/estimating
• Submitting quotations/estimates
• Following up quotations
• Negotiating to finalise sales
• Contract management
• Material procurement
• Budget management
• Sub contractor management
• Installation
• Invoicing
• Accounting
• Staffing
• Business management

I undertook every element of the business daily and was successful, focusing my efforts on a single element would result in a heightened performance .

Working as a self employed sub contract installer for national suppliers of roof glazing and AOV systems, including the weathering of the roof openings and/or the re-roofing of the entire roof, we offered liquid based roofing, single ply membranes, felting and traditional asphalting, my role ranged from attending sites pre install to carry out surveys, liaising with the client, managing and producing RAMS, carrying out the installation, running through any snags and signing off the project.

Taking time out from the construction industry and having grown up living in public houses from 5 years old (my parents had five public houses), working in their premises and also in my local public houses I decided to take on my own premises.

Taking on a long term failing premises on the Norfolk coast, within 9 months we were serving 250 meals per day and hosting popular live music nights most weekends. Many Norfolk coastal pubs only succeeded during the summer months, we defied this trend and consistently turned over large wet and dry sales, implementing various advertising campaigns through local press or social media to generate interest.

Daily tasks included the general day to day running of the premises including the production of menu's, staff management, payroll, cellar maintenance, stock control, promotions and marketing and liaising with and serving customers, and if needed I would be in the kitchen cooking and serving up the meals ordered.

I took a failing "wet" pub and introduced a family friendly food menu that created a very busy and popular award winning seaside pub. We won numerous awards and became a very well known establishment.

My time in the industry allowed my people skills to evolve to the highest level possible and I excel in dealing with all walks of life and can deal with any situation dealt to me.

From leaving school I started working for my fathers business, a third generation mastic asphalt/flat roofer, who were suppliers and installers of roof glazing products, offering Coxdome, Xtralite, Durabuild, and Brett Martin Daylight Systems. As well as offering roof glazing solutions we were also flat roofing specialists, offering Asphalt, Felt, Fibreglass and Single Ply membrane systems. I started working in the office, handling quotes, dealing with enquiries and arranging installation work. I also then started attending site to install either rooflights or roofing products. Duties as mentioned ranged from handling enquiries right through to signing off a project. In 1999 my father joined Asphaltic Contracts as Sales Director and we carried out mainly sub-contract work for them in and around London.