Salter Interview
We were fortunate to be able to spend some time with Brent Salter after his lecture. We asked him several questions that were relevant to our discussion on the design/build industry. First we asked Brent to give us a little more background on himself. He said that he had received a degree in Business Administration from Auburn University at Montgomery in 1996. He worked for one year for his family business, Salter Construction Co., and then entered the two year graduate program in the Department of Building Science.
Also, when asked about how his Masters Degree from
the Auburn Department of Building Science had helped him in his post school
life, he had several responses. First, he said that the degree had proven to be
invaluable and that he had “benefited in everything” because of it. It was
good for him to be able to learn how to work toward a goal and to experience the
satisfaction of accomplishing that goal. Also, Brent says that the degree
teaches you how to do something that it is very useful. In other words, the
degree gives you a large amount of practical knowledge that can be applied
throughout the many different facets of the construction industry, the largest
industry in the United States.
When Brent was asked to elaborate on the business end of
what he does, he had several interesting points to make. First, he said that his
company maintains a profit margin of between fifteen and twenty percent,
including overhead. This is a good margin of profit for a company this size.
Secondly, Brent commented on the strategic direction that his company has taken.
He said that mainly the company has plans to increase its light commercial
workload in the coming years. The Salters also own a material supply store. This
allows them to supply all of the material for the structures that they build.
Brent said that strategically, this has benefited them in numerous ways. When
asked about a contingency plan that could be used when the economy slows down,
Brent said that his company has invested in numerous rental properties in order
to subsidize income in case of a market downturn.
When asked about the how hard it is to run SoftPlan, the
software that he uses to do his design work, Brent said several things. First,
he said that he had taught himself to use the software and that it was not very
difficult. Brent further stated that the software was very “intuitive” and
easy to learn and operate. The software has obviously given Salter Construction
Co. a serious edge over another company that may not have the ability to utilize
such a tool.
Finally, when asked to elaborate on the problem that his company is having with retaining customers after the design work has been done, Brent had several points to make. First, he said that once he is through with the design of a specific project, he will usually give the customer a “hard bid” outlining the costs for construction of the project as he has estimated them. Several times, the customer has taken the bid and “shopped” it, and as a result Salter Construction Co. did not get the job. Brent feels that his company has the edge on the competition as far as quality goes. He believes that the customer is not getting the message in this respect, and is therefore sometimes settling for a cheaper, lower quality product with out having all of the facts. Brent’s challenge to the class is to come up with a way to more efficiently rein in the customer to the construction side of the business after the design work has been done.