How Tech And Talent Are Reshaping Sales | Lisa Cooley, VP of Sales at Paradigm

Lisa Cooley: 0:00

You have this younger generation coming up. You combine that with a severe labor shortage in the construction industry. And I think that's pushing many firms. They realize that it's almost part of their recruitment process. They need to offer technology tools if they want to recruit the next generation of talent.

Stefanie Couch: 0:16

And I also think that AI is gonna push that a lot faster than it has been because I mean the speed of which it's moving is incredible.

Lisa Cooley: 0:23

I think there's a real transformation in how homeowners are making buying decisions. They are much more empowered. They have AI tools at their disposal. And it's a generational shift that they don't want to be sold to. They want to research, they want to consider the options, they want to be empowered with information, and then they want sales there at the last mile.

John Wheeler: 0:51

Welcome to the Paradigm Industry Insiders Podcast, where real people share real stories about what's happening with doors, windows, millwork, and life. I'm John Wheeler, and along with my co-hosts, we sit down with your peers who are moving our industry forward. These are honest conversations packed with practical insights and lessons you can take and bring value to your team. Here's today's conversation.

Stefanie Couch: 1:16

Welcome to the Paradigm Industry Insiders Podcast, where we tell the stories of the people, products, and technology in the window and door industry. I'm here today with my guest, the VP of MDR Sales at Paradigm, Lisa Cooley. Welcome to the show. Thank you. I'm excited to be here. And we're actually in the house at Paradigm, so we're on site in Wisconsin. Big day today because it's the kickoff of the annual conference. And it is actually your first annual conference. It is. I'm very excited about it. Are you fired up? Yeah. It's gonna be a busy place in a few hours here. I've been here two years in a row and it's always fun. Great swag, great people, great food. I hope they have food trucks this year.

Lisa Cooley: 1:58

They do.

Stefanie Couch: 1:58

Well, I'm excited to talk to you about your long, amazing career in the industry because you actually were born into a family construction business. Tell me a little bit about your background. Sure.

Lisa Cooley: 2:11

I love this that we kind of had this in common that we grew up in in family businesses. I grew up in a general contracting family. Uh, my father and my mother uh ran that business. I learned uh at the dinner table growing up about, you know, negotiating with subcontractors and uh contract clauses and and running a site. I didn't really think I was going into construction. I did not go to school uh for construction or engineering, but found myself more and more drawn to it as I came uh through my twenties and as my father said, was trying to figure out how to support myself in the style to which I had become accustomed, realized I was actually going to have to uh earn a living. So um I worked for the family firm for a few years and then ultimately launched off and started my own general contracting firm. I ran that for about a half a dozen years in my late 20s.

Stefanie Couch: 3:04

What kind of construction were you doing?

Lisa Cooley: 3:05

Uh primarily uh public sector. Um so uh city, state, federal, um, so a little different than residential. Um it was a fantastic experience, if I'm honest. I was not very well prepared. It was very much a baptism by fire, but I was at a time in my life where I could just, you know, dedicate myself to it and learn every day. And it was a wonderful experience. Um and then around 2005, I had the opportunity. I was starting to have a family, and being an entrepreneur and running a company was a little bit of a challenge. I had the opportunity to go for to work for a national general contractor promoting a essentially a delivery methodology for expediting smaller projects, a methodology called job order contracting. Uh, it was very dependent on a commercial cost data catalog and a supporting technology stack. So that was kind of my entree into construction technology. It started by promoting uh a construction execution methodology. I did that for about seven years. And then I was recruited by the producer of this construction cost data, a company called RS Means, that is a brand name that some folks may know. That was about 2013. I went to work for RS Means. They were subsequently acquired. And so then I was on a very fun ride with multiple stages of private equity investment. And then ultimately uh we found our home. Uh, Gordian, the acquiring company, found its home in a publicly traded multinational conglomerate, a very, very large company. So so that was that was kind of the the context journey. And after that, I went to work for Procor uh for a bit, kind of a 500-pound gorilla of construction technology, at least in the commercial space. Um, so lots of similarities with uh costs, cost estimating, uh, cost and product catalogs. Um, but what's new here is really the residential side for me.

Stefanie Couch: 5:11

From that family dinner table, what's one of the lessons that no matter how different the private equity or the publicly traded or all those things are very different than dad's business? I know it is for me. What's one of the lessons that you've carried throughout, no matter what?

Lisa Cooley: 5:27

So it's something that I saw in my family's company, something that I embodied um as I ran my company, and something that you not only embody but actually named your company, right? Is is this idea of grit um and just being willing to roll up your sleeves and work very hard and problem solve and figure things out. Yeah. Um, and it's something that I see in our customers here at Paradigm, uh, especially some of the smaller companies, just that uh that that grit, that determination that leads to success in this.

Stefanie Couch: 6:04

That's my favorite thing about this industry. The people are so awesome and they do work really hard. And not that people don't work really hard in other industries, but there's something about, you know, especially on the side where you see people actually out in the field, you know, a roofer that's roofing on a hundred degree day in Texas, that takes a lot of grit. And there are a lot of people out here that are tough as nails, literally. And so they have done a lot to get where they are, and I love that spirit.

Lisa Cooley: 6:30

True story, my first construction project with my own company, I was superintending by day and project managing by night. And uh, we had concrete forms open and ready to pour. And an early unexpected storm came in. And I was out by the lights of my my Jeep Grand Cherokee headlight by myself, like rolling out this queen um over the forms to protect it so that we could pour the next day. Wow. Yeah.

Stefanie Couch: 7:00

Well, you got to do what it takes, especially when it's your own business. There is no one coming. That's right. You you're your own best ally. There's no one to save you. I love that spirit though. Well, how did you come to know that a traditional industry that sometimes hasn't loved technology should be and needs to embrace technology to really take it to the next level? And because you obviously started working for technology companies in the construction world. When did you have that kind of light bulb moment, or was there a light bulb moment where you said, hey, this is the way of the future and people need to embrace this?

Lisa Cooley: 7:34

For me, I'm not quite digital native, but uh, you know, I grew up in the Atari generation. And even in um in my company, my my parents' company was actually kind of at the forefront in terms of technology. Now it was DOS technology, but they they very much embraced technology to run their business. And when I started my business, it was actually my mom came out and helped me implement an accounting and job costing system, um, like Windows 95, right? But um, so technology was actually always part of my construction uh journey. It's really quite accidental that I landed in. I didn't say I want to go into the technology sector. It really was kind of a natural seg from being a general contractor to promoting a methodology that relied on data and technology and then ending up in a technology firm. It was quite accidental. Um, I will say that my appreciation coming through is I think that the younger generation is pushing us to get there. Um, you know, many people would say that the construction industry is, you know, kind of kind of laggards on this front. I think there are two things. I think that if you can show people in the field how the technology benefits them, I mean, even you know, fairly long in the two, you know, superintendents out there, if they see how it's going to help them be more efficient, they will embrace it. We saw that early on, even with like digital cameras and you know, and and being able to email documents. Now there's something else interesting that's happening, that you have this younger generation coming up. You combine that with a severe labor shortage in the construction industry. And I think that's pushing many firms, they realize that it's almost part of their recruitment process. They need to offer technology tools if they want to recruit the next generation of talent.

Stefanie Couch: 9:28

I couldn't agree more. And I also think that AI is going to push that a lot faster than it has been because there is just, I mean, the speed of which it's moving is in it's incredible.

Lisa Cooley: 9:38

It is. It is every week.

Stefanie Couch: 9:39

I wake up and there's some like major announcement that changes the face of what's happening. We have a team of people and we were on a call this morning, and they were talking about one of our creative directors was talking about Nano Banana, which is a new Google image AI. And then she was using another one as well. And she showed me some of the things she was doing with photography editing, and it would have there, it was pretty much impossible to do without that technology. But even if she could have done it in Photoshop, it would have taken hours and hours and hours, and it was an instant change.

Lisa Cooley: 10:12

It's incredible. I I started at Paradigm in January, and there were uh things that I was trying to tackle in my first couple of months here, and you know, trying to use different tools that were available to me, even AI tools. And then by April or May, suddenly the AI tools that were available were so different. Like what I was able to accomplish, you know, from January, you know, then then coming back around and trying it again in, you know, May, June with the release of Chat GPT-5.

Stefanie Couch: 10:44

It's just incredible. Yeah, it's really cool. And I love being able to use them for sure. Well, let's talk a little bit about Paradigm because you are here, you're leading a sales team. That's right. And as you mentioned, a lot of residential customers on this side. What do you think actually makes a great salesperson and how do you motivate a sales team to be successful?

Lisa Cooley: 11:03

Ooh, good one. So as a leader, I always say, like, I always say the best salesperson shuts up and listens well. I actually asks the right questions, shuts up and listens well. And I say a good sales leader understands her people and what motivates them and and keeps the work meaningful. And meaning comes in different ways to different people. For some people, it's about putting food on the table, paying the mortgage, supporting their family. Um, others are much more mission-driven and and you know, it's it's how they're moving the industry forward. So really getting to know your people, which I've had the opportunity to do over the last six months or so, um, and and making sure that you are helping to keep the work meaningful for them.

Stefanie Couch: 11:52

What are some of the big challenges that you see in our residential space and the window and door space and with the customers that you're working with now? What are some of the biggest challenges that you see here in this industry?

Lisa Cooley: 12:04

So certainly how AI is is impacting uh the business. I I think there's a real transformation in how people are, how how homeowners are making buying decisions. They are much more empowered. They have AI tools at their disposal. Yeah. And it's a generational shift that they don't want to be sold to. They want to research, they want to consider the options, they want to be empowered with information. And then they want they want sales there at the you know the last mile. And so it's it's interesting. There's kind of a multi-layered. I am leading a sales team that is responsible for selling Paradigm's products, but we support our customers in selling and and promoting their products as well. So there's kind of a multi-layered piece to this, but buying behavior is definitely changing. And we have empowered, educated buyers that have tools at their disposal. They want to be able to visualize, they want to know what the pricing is going to be, they want, they want to have that information before they engage with sales. And then they want sales to be on point, like ready to, you know, they want they want sales to come in understanding their concerns, all of the information that they've provided and helping them to make that final decision.

Stefanie Couch: 13:26

Yeah. And you're talking about the same buyer group now that is using all of these tools in their everyday life. So they're no longer searching doors near me or windows near me. They're searching where can I find a door that is black on the outside and white on the inside that won't rot when it gets rained on in Georgia at the lake. You know, they're long tail searches. And so that's the interesting part is how you actually need to sell to them and create content and visibility around that is very different and it's rapidly changing even more.

Lisa Cooley: 13:55

Yeah. And even the visual piece. Here's a picture of a door that I like. Help me find, help me find one like this. Or here's a house that I like the facade of. How would I transform my home?

Stefanie Couch: 14:05

Yeah, some of the interior design stuff and exterior design tools I've seen with some of this technology is really cool because you can remodel your kitchen in one second on AI, where some of those other uh diagrams used to take forever and they didn't really look quite real. So it's incredible. And I think it's going to help people be able to sell in a more educated way, like you said. And so people do really understand what they're getting. There's less guesswork into that. So I think it will be a really powerful tool if we all use it the correct way.

Lisa Cooley: 14:33

There's there's a lot of opportunity to transform the way that uh that our customers are going to market.

Stefanie Couch: 14:39

Well, you were a big part of having this actually happen here at Paradigm This Podcast. And we've talked a lot about telling the stories of the people in this industry because there are such amazing stories and incredible people and technology and products that go with it. What excites you the most about this new Paradigm Industry Insiders podcast?

Lisa Cooley: 15:00

First of all, um, I want to give the credit to John Wheeler because this is the other uh part of a good sales leader, like, you know, like harnesses her people's passion and gets it directed and funded and supported internally. So it was John Wheeler that came with this uh with this idea. I saw a need for, I saw both a need for more content on our website. Um, I also really saw that we have a tremendous amount of domain expertise at Paradigm. I'm like bewildered by the complexity of the industry and how our people can cut through that, how they really understand, you know, they really understand our manufacturers and what they need. So I just saw an opportunity to leverage that. It was John that, you know, kind of had the idea raised his hand. And I I just went and helped him get the budget and uh helped get you get you engaged. We knew that we needed a little help with that. Um so all I did was was harness the talent of of you know somebody on my team that I'm lucky to have. I'm excited about again, it just about about the content, about the thought leadership. Um back to the the educated buyer. Um people don't want to be sold to, they want to be educated, they want information, they want to um they want to turn things over and and and you know understand what the options are. I see paradigm, you know, industry insiders as a way to kind of harness and share the insight of not just so many smart people at Paradigm, but also our customers.

Stefanie Couch: 16:33

Well, if we sat down in five years and we talked about how the industry is in five years and what's going well, what's not, what do you hope that we say is true?

Lisa Cooley: 16:43

I hope that we get our manufacturers, our dealers, and their ultimate customers more deeply connected. If if paradigm can be a conduit, can help connect all of those elements of the industry, we will have succeeded.

Stefanie Couch: 17:03

Sounds amazing.

Lisa Cooley: 17:03

Get them a little a little closer to each other, understanding, providing data insights. I think I think data is the is the core of the insights, but it really is it comes down to human understanding and you know, like how our manufacturers understand their customers and how we can help with that.

Stefanie Couch: 17:20

Yeah, data and having it is really important because it's hard to make decisions without it. And I do think that we are always gonna need the people to be in this industry, but with the technology and the data combined, it becomes a more powerful thing. Well, I'm excited about this podcast. I'm excited for you to enjoy this amazing first annual conference. It's gonna be a great week. And I thank you for joining me on the Paradigm Industry Insiders Podcast. Stephanie, thank you so much.

Lisa Cooley: 17:48

Thank you for your help in uh really initiating uh this podcast and thanks for the great conversation today.

Stefanie Couch: 17:55

Absolutely. And we will see you on our next episode.

John Wheeler: 18:00

Thanks for joining us on the Paradigm Industry Insiders Podcast. If you enjoyed today's conversation, be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast platforms and follow Paradigm on LinkedIn and YouTube to catch more stories, insights, and ideas from your peers across our industry. See y'all.