Business Administration grad gets all wrapped up in his work
Chris Lee used to think he’d never want to be in sales. But when he was offered a job marketing building envelope systems, Lee took a risk – and now he’s all wrapped up in his work.
Lee has spent the past seven years as Western Territory Manager for Henry Company Canada, which supplies air and vapour barrier, roofing and waterproofing products for residential and commercial buildings, such as the Canadian Museum for Human Rights opening this fall in Winnipeg. The sales and marketing job came to him unexpectedly.
“It was kind of a fluke,” says Lee, whose aversion to sales was based on the pushy, quota-driven world he witnessed while working in an auto dealership’s service department several years ago.
“I was working for a golf course in Winnipeg and my brother was living in Toronto. A guy he played hockey with told him he needed to hire someone out west. It was fall and the golf course was getting ready to close, so my brother called me up. I had no background in the building industry whatsoever, but I researched the company and their products, and discovered that they were well-known and respected within the industry.”
He took the job, that hockey buddy became his boss, and Lee hasn’t looked back. He now handles sales and marketing for Henry Company Canada’s residential construction side, covering a vast territory from Thunder Bay, Ont., all the way west to Vancouver Island. During the busy spring and summer building season, he spends about half his time on the road, selling building envelope systems to stores including Home Hardware, TruServ Canada and McMunn & Yates. Read More →