Building Gurus: How to Make Your Company THE Place Where Top LBM Sales Reps Want to Work

The LBM industry is at a crossroads when it comes to sales talent. The aging workforce is retiring, and the number of Millennials and Gen Z professionals entering the industry over the past 20 years has been too low to replace them. This has created a serious shortage of qualified and experienced LBM salespeople, making it harder than ever for companies to find and hire the talent they need.

And here’s the real challenge: every company wants the same proven sales professionals—the ones who already understand lumber, engineered wood, and specialty building materials, who have strong industry relationships, and who know how to close deals. The competition for these top performers is fierce, and companies that fail to provide the right opportunities, culture, and compensation risk losing them to a competitor who will.

So how do you make your company the place where LBM sales reps want to build their careers? Here’s how.

1. Lumber and Building Materials Sales Reps Need to Be Engaged in Their Work

Great salespeople thrive when they believe in what they’re selling. Make sure your sales reps understand how your products help your customers, their customers, and maybe even the world in general.

How to Create Engagement:

Ensure sales reps have a strong understanding of how your lumber and building materials solve real customer problems.

Connect sales efforts to a bigger purpose—how does what they sell help builders, contractors, and developers complete projects faster and more efficiently?

Provide ongoing education on new industry trends, engineered wood products, specialty building materials, and supply chain shifts so reps stay ahead of the curve.

Pro Tip: Ask your LBM sales reps what excites them most about their role—then find ways to lean into that.

2. They Want to Be Challenged—But Not Buried

The best salespeople don’t want to be stuck in a rut. They thrive on competition, growth, and hitting the next goal—but if the challenge is unrealistic, they’ll check out.

How to Provide the Right Level of Challenge:

Set ambitious but achievable targets. Goals should push them without setting them up for failure. Be sure you understand the activities required to hit these goals and that they are realistic.

Eliminate busywork. Sales reps should spend their time selling, not wrestling with inefficient systems or internal bottlenecks.

Give them new opportunities. Whether it’s landing bigger accounts, expanding into a new territory, or handling custom orders, they need fresh challenges to stay engaged.

Pro Tip: If a top performer starts losing motivation, silence isn’t the answer. Have a one-on-one conversation to understand what’s happening. It could be frustration over a commission structure change, a pricing disadvantage against competitors, or even a shift in their personal life. Top-performing sales reps require personal attention to keep getting the best from them.

3. They Need to Feel Rewarded—Both Emotionally and Financially

Money matters. It’s not everything, but it is the easiest thing for people to quantify—and most top LBM sales reps are highly money-motivated. That means your compensation and commission plan are going to be critically important. If your plan is outdated, hard to understand, or unfairly capped, you’re giving your best people a reason to look elsewhere.

How to Reward LBM Sales Reps the Right Way:

Pay competitively (and keep commission structures fair and transparent).
Recognize wins publicly. A simple “great job” in a team meeting can go a long way.
Celebrate more than just the top rep. Make sure effort, improvement, and consistency are also rewarded.
Offer perks that matter. Incentives like trips, bonus structures, or flexible schedules can be just as motivating as a paycheck.

Pro Tip: Some sales reps are driven by recognition, some by financial rewards, and some by new challenges. Find out what makes each of your top performers tick and reward accordingly.

4. Growth Doesn’t Have to Mean Management

Not every sales rep wants to be a manager—and that’s okay. Some are wired to lead a team, but others just want to keep selling (and making great money doing it). The problem? Too many companies make leadership the only path to advancement.

How to Provide Growth for Non-Managerial LBM Sales Reps:

Expand their role – Give top performers bigger accounts, more strategic customers, or an opportunity to specialize in high-value product lines.
Increase their earning potential – Introduce higher commission tiers, bigger bonuses, or specialized incentive structures.
Make them product or market experts – Let them take ownership of a category, train new reps, or act as a subject matter expert.
Give them flexibility – High performers often value more control over their schedules, territories, or accounts.
Involve them in strategy – Let them help shape the sales process, provide feedback on product selection, or contribute to market expansion efforts.
Provide administrative and estimating support – Hire sales support specialists to handle order entry, take-offs, and pricing so your LBM sales reps can focus on selling instead of data entry.

Pro Tip: Want to keep a top-performing sales rep engaged long-term? Ask them what growth looks like to them—then find a way to make it happen.

5. Strong Leadership Makes All the Difference

Sales reps don’t leave jobs—they leave bad managers. A great leader will keep a team motivated and engaged, while a bad one will drive even top performers to the competition.

Signs Your Sales Leadership is Strong:

They remove obstacles instead of creating them.
They coach and support rather than micromanage.
They know what motivates salespeople and tap into it.
They hold the team accountable—without crushing morale.

Pro Tip: If you have high turnover, don’t just look at pay or hiring—look at leadership. If LBM sales reps don’t trust their managers, nothing else will keep them around.

Final Thoughts: Become the Employer Sales Stars WANT to Work For

The best LBM sales reps have options. If your company doesn’t provide engagement, challenge, reward, and growth, they’ll go somewhere that does.

The good news? Most companies aren’t doing these things well. If you do, you’ll attract, retain, and build a team of elite sales talent—without constantly battling turnover.

Want to Attract and Retain the Best LBM Sales Talent?

At Building Gurus, we help companies like yours find and hire top sales, management, and executive talent in the lumber and building materials industry—faster and more effectively than internal hiring.

Book a Discovery Session today: BuildingGurus.com/Discovery

Let’s find the sales talent that will drive your business forward.

Source: Building Gurus

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