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With the flick of a blinker, Tampa, Fla.-based ASI Building Products just expanded one of its 13 distribution centers with a showroom, sales and product training classroom, and a hands-on product installation clinic. Over the next several days, the 137-employee supplier of siding, vinyl decking and railing, shutters, exterior trim, and metal roofing will update four or five more facilities as well. While contractors stream into their locations for classes on perfecting vinyl siding installation, ASI will conduct employee training on product upselling. It's not a value-added daydream. ASI vice president of sales Cookie Brinkman sees it all happening as 53 gleaming feet of supply chain collaboration pulls into the company's parking lot.

Fasten your seat belts. Rolling in on 18 wheels, the next stage in LBM partnerships is Pittsburgh-based Alcoa's HouseWorkx Mobile classroom. The idea is a relatively simple one: a semi-trailer truck outfitted with the latest in computer and video training accessories, showroom-quality models of Alcoa products, and mock wall panels that pull out from the trailer bed for outdoor clinics in product application and installation. Alcoa can take the classroom on the road to pro dealers and specialty distributors--even a builder's jobsite--basically anywhere training is in demand.

"Our culture mirrors Alcoa," Brinkman says. "We want to be the best specialty building products distributor in the Southeast by helping our customers and our employees grow." He explains that a lack of installation training on the contractor side and not enough sales training on the employee side are the primary challenges racing the supplier as it aims to be first in markets from Biloxi, Miss., through the Florida panhandle. "The HouseWorkx truck answers that challenge," he says. "The best thing about the truck is that you can bring it to the customer and to your locations. But the second best thing is that there are different types of training--you can do installation training on the outside while you're conducting sales and product classes on the inside--you can offer two or three classes in a single day."

Training flexibility and adaptability were the demands of the day when Alcoa began development of the HouseWorkx truck in February 2002. "Contractors and pro dealers don't have six hours to sit through a presentation, including the time it takes to drive to a classroom somewhere," says Alcoa director of training Larry Banas. "With the HouseWorkx truck, classroom time comes to them, and moving from an education module to an outdoor, hands-on installation tutorial is just a matter of stepping off the truck."

Indeed, from a 25-inch flat screen video monitor to classroom seating for 10 construction worker-sized trainees, the interior of the HouseWorkx truck resembles more of an executive boardroom than a piggyback trailer. Various Alcoa products in a showroom-type setting offer trainers the option of teaching by example and give dealer-distributors the point-and-upsell possibility when the classes are over. Underneath the truck, panels swing out for installation demos and application clinics for the entire Alcoa building products suite.

Freewheeling and Dealing

At Ft. Thomas, Ky.-based Marsh Building Products, the training features of the truck have been a welcome upshift from typical vendor visits and coop training offerings. "Our experiences with the truck and Alcoa's commitment to training have been very positive," says Marsh's building products manager Tom Bolt, who admits to a certain amount of skepticism when it comes to collaborating with vendors, particularly in the area of training. With nine locations in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana, the pro dealer has always faced a logistical challenge in keeping employees up-to-date on the latest and greatest training opportunities.

"So far we have used the truck exclusively to invest in the training of our own people," Bolt says. "The biggest difference is that we have been able to involve everyone, including all of our internal people who would not normally be able to leave for a class." Bolt says stealing three hours from an inside salesman's day for training is a big difference from paying the time and dollars for off-site education, and he thinks his knowledge-hungry contractors will agree. "The next step we want to take is to involve our customers," Bolt says. "That's the beauty of the truck. Without the time and expense issues, our contractors come right to our place of business, get comprehensive training, and never leave town."

ASI has experienced the same in-house training success with the HouseWorkx truck as Marsh and reports that feedback from its contractors has been equally impressive. "Internally, there is more interest on product attributes and upselling techniques," Brinkman says. "The contractors are looking for information on how to install product correctly, because the home buyer will pay money for a quality installation. Of course, if ASI can train more installers, we are also growing our customer base at the same time."

According to Banas, the HouseWorkx truck is an example of Alcoa's commitment to training, but also is an attempt to differentiate both the vendor and its dealers in what can often be a commodity-mentality market. "It's not just about Alcoa," Banas explains. "It's about our distributors and our company working together. If we can solve a contractor problem through collaborating, then when contractors start searching for solutions, they think of not only our name, but our distributors' names as well."

Alcoa dealers don't need guidance to recognize a co-branding, value-added training solution when they see it. "It's like any other tool in pro sales," Brinkman says. "You've just got to use it to benefit from it. We're going to park the truck up at our biggest jobsite during our week this spring," he adds.

Brinkman reports that spots on the truck tour are going fast, and ASI grabbed their week as soon as they could. "It creates a curiosity factor," agrees Bolt, who has some customer truck time of his own in the works. "Just the vehicle sitting there in and of itself is a draw."

As the air brakes hiss and the chain-horn sounds, Alcoa pro dealers and their customers know to expect something beyond the typical delivery: Truck-stop training finally has come to town.