Tom Cyr leaves lasting sales legacy in his 36-year career with Team Hancock. Please join us in celebrating Tom Cyr’s career at Hancock Lumber. Read more about this 36-years at the company from colleagues, friends, and customers below!
“For well over 30 years Tom Cyr was one of the most successful, competitive, and innovative sellers at our company. He was largely responsible for establishing Hancock Lumber’s first sustained sales presence in the Portland market in the late 1980’s and was also the first to position our company as a leading supplier of Maine’s top commercial general contractors. I haven’t added his career sales totals up, but it’s highly likely Tom retires as the top seller in the history of our company. I have a great deal of respect and appreciation for Tom and his legacy. He’s a friend and an important leader in Hancock Lumber’s modern growth story.”
–Kevin Hancock, Hancock Lumber CEO
A note from a long-time customer and friend, Bob Maguire.
We reached out to one of Tom’s long-standing customers and friends, Bob Maguire of Maguire Construction. He shared a couple stories we’d like to highlight below. Thanks for contributing to Tom’s retirement celebration, Bob!
- The first time Tom met Rob Millard—who had been a job super for me for 30+/- years—was on the Parker/Klein residence job site in New Castle, New Hampshire back in 1994. After Tom had gone over his material order with him, he said, “Now you can have quality, price or service—pick two.” That set the stage for the next three and a half decades!
- I own an old hunting and fishing lodge up north which Tom helped me bring back from the dea (which, by the way there’s 24,000 bf of Hancock’s white pine covering the walls and ceilings of it)! Every year I have the same group of guys up there for a week or 10 days of hunting—a group of real hunting and fishing nuts. Well, one night the whiskey was flowing pretty well and Tom had had a snoop full and he decided he would argue with the group that it was very, very unsportsmanlike to shoot bears over bait. All of the guys there hunt bear over bait. The discussion got quite heated—and, to my surprise, Tom talked himself right out of trouble. It shouldn’t have been too big of surprise to me as his gift of gab has got him out of trouble with my job supers for years!
- Learn more about Bob, his family, and his business on his website: https://www.maguireconstruction.com/the-company
A few thoughts from former manager and retired Hancock leader, John Yazwinski.
I can remember the day Tom came to us looking to work for Hancock Lumber, leaving behind his position with a quality local wholesaler. Funny, as most moves would be from retail to wholesale…not the other way. Tom was one of our first sale people more interested in large commercial work. We were strong with residential builders and light commercial accounts. Tom, along with some others, were instrumental in building up Hancock Lumber as the place to go for the large GCs—Tom was possibly the best at looking at the specs in these jobs and going after alternates to make the pricing and products work for his accounts. Windows have always been big tickets and a large part of commercial projects; Tom saw that and became a window expert all on his own. Tom leaves behind a great sales legacy at Hancock Lumber, and I’m glad we got to work together for many of those years.
Hancock Lumber Yarmouth General Manager, Harland Storey, shared a few words about Tom’s impact:
There are three words I think of that describe Tom Cyr to me—honest, fearless, and loyal.
When I began my career at Hancock Lumber in 1993, Tom was already a well-established seller on the team. Regularly he was the top seller year-after-year. He focused on commercial sales—and, at the time, he was our only seller handling commercial accounts. In fact, almost all of the commercial accounts we have today Tom Cyr introduced to Hancock Lumber. He had an office all to himself in the corner and was pretty much left on his own to go after large orders from commercial customers, negotiating with suppliers and customers to make the sale. To me, just starting out, he was like the wizard behind the curtain.
Over the many years since then, I have come to know and respect Tom for the reasons below:
- Tom is a straight shooter and will tell you exactly what he thinks. He has never held back on speaking his mind. In the commercial sales world this has served him well. Often with commercial business the sales are large, but the margins are slim. I remember hearing him tell his customer, “I can offer price, quality, and service—you need to pick two out of three.” It was this honest, direct, to the point communication that contributed to his long-standing success at Hancock Lumber.
- There were never a transaction or job that Tom was afraid to go after. The bigger the sale, the more he wanted it. He would tell his customers, “Give me the PO and I will go back to my vendors and get a couple points. I can negotiate better if I have the PO.” He was a master at getting the orders on a very slim margin and then going back and getting concessions from the vendors—often playing one vendor against another.
- Tom has been tremendously loyal to Hancock Lumber over the years. I guess you don’t work at the same place for 36 years without having a sense of loyalty. I remember when he first started talking about wanting to do something different before he gets too old, and he was very adamant that it would not be in the building material supply business in Maine. He could never imagine selling against Hancock Lumber.
There is no doubt that Tom’s contributions have contributed greatly to where Hancock Lumber is today, and I wish him well as he enters the next chapter in his life.
A note from Wendy Scribner, Chief People Person, and 37-year Hancock veteran:
Tom has been an integral part of Hancock Lumber for so many years and has contributed on many levels. His sales abilities and record over the years has been phenomenal and has brought tremendous value to the company overall. It was my pleasure to work with Tom as an Account Manager and as the Eagle Window General Manager. From the beginning of his career, he has been committed to the sales process and has set the bar for sales standards.Thank you, Tom, for all you have done and for your friendship over the years!