A Flare For Jan/san Sales

Part two of this four-part article focuses on Mercer Stanfield's rise through the company.

Stanfield found himself at Brame Specialty Company after a brief, two-year stint with Georgia-Pacific Building Products upon graduating in 1994 from Hampden-Sydney College, a small liberal arts school in Farmville, Virginia. The second of three kids, Stanfield followed his older brother Will to the school from their hometown of Wilmington.

“I visited and just fell in love with it,” says Stanfield.

Stanfield’s father, William, who was known as “Oogie” to most, owned a public warehouse in Wilmington that performed shipping, receiving and storage for the port authority. After graduating from Hampden-Sydney, Stanfield’s brother Will eventually joined their father’s business. Stanfield’s younger brother, Taylor, develops real estate and manages the family’s two restaurants in Wilmington.

But Stanfield forged a different path. Starting with the Georgia-Pacific job, he took a liking to sales that he would carry throughout his career.

It wasn’t long after Stanfield joined Brame Specialty Company in 1996 that he also took a liking to Amy Brame, who was doing a medical school rotation in Wilmington at the time. Stanfield invited her out to drinks one evening, and by 1999 the two were married.

“If you’ve got a daughter or a son and they get to be the age that they’re serious about somebody, one thing you have to do is get to know the future in-laws or potential future in-laws,” says Jim. “And we already knew him and thought the world of him.”

A medical residency then took Amy to Charlotte, and it just so happened that Brame Specialty Company had an office there, so in 1999 Stanfield joined his then-fiancée in the Queen City and opened up a new sales territory.

The young couple had always planned to move closer to Amy’s parents and start a family, so when she became pregnant with twins, the first two of the couple’s four kids, she took a private practice physician job in Durham. Stanfield, excelling in his sales role in Charlotte, took a position at Brame’s corporate office as director of purchasing in 2002.

“We needed to fill a void there, and I was willing to do that,” he says. “I was really excited to do something else for the company. I love sales, still do. I still sell. But I knew there was a need, and I was really, really happy to fulfill that role for however long I was needed to do that. It was a great way to get other experience within the company. I pretty quickly learned that it just wasn’t my calling.”

Despite knowing his future wasn’t in purchasing, Stanfield was positive his future was still at Brame. He never considered leaving, nor does Randy ever remember hearing that purchasing wasn’t Stanfield’s preferred department. Not one to make waves, Stanfield viewed the director of purchasing job as an opportunity to expand his breadth of knowledge within the company and the distribution business.

“I thought things would take care of themselves,” says Stanfield.

Stanfield stuck it out for four years until he transitioned to director of sales in 2006, with the prior director of sales moving into Stanfield’s old director of purchasing role. There was no lobbying by Stanfield. Instead, the switch was made to provide Stanfield with a well-rounded résumé.

“If you’re trying to create a college curriculum for an industrial distribution president, this was a good way to do it,” says Randy.

Stanfield took advantage of the educational opportunity, not just within the company, but also within the industry. He began attending industry seminars and networking events, learning as much as he could about jan/san distribution. He also earned certification from the University of Innovative Distribution, an educational program through Purdue University that focused on the wholesale distribution industry.

Best of all, Stanfield was back in sales.

“I just really like engaging with customers. … I think there’s nothing better than analyzing a customer’s needs, fulfilling those needs and closing the sale. I just think that’s a thrill,” says Stanfield. “We’re a very sales-focused company.”