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Women in Lighting

A new column by Denis Caldora. This month’s guest: Susan Boothe, founder of a successful rep agency based in Florida

I never expected to earn a living selling lighting. I always knew I wanted to be in sales, but lighting was never considered. Yet all of my learning experiences and jobs have groomed me perfectly for my current occupation, owner of a sales rep agency. My undergraduate degree is in English Literature. It became apparent soon after graduation that I was not destined to become “the great American author” and I knew I was not meant to be a teacher.
      I went to work at St. Louis University while pursuing a JD/MBA, eventually rising to the spot of assistant dean of the School of Business Administration. That was a fancy job title for recruiter of MBA students and raising money for the business school, both definitely sales-oriented tasks. I joined Sterling Drug after graduation as an account executive selling products as diverse as Bayer Aspirin, Lysol, and Mop n’ Glo to customers like Walgreens, Target, Wal-mart, and Kmart. My first taste of lighting was in 1979 when I was recruited by Stiffel Lamp where I worked in a variety of sales positions until 1988.
     I moved to Florida from St. Louis when I met and married my husband Bill, who resided in Boca Raton. Two years later I became national sales manager for Bauer Lamp and in 1991 formed The Boothe Group, an agency representing portable lamp manufacturers and accessory companies.
     When Kichler introduced the Minoff Lamp line, our agency was hired to represent it in Florida. We did a good job and were asked to carry the entire Kichler line. Thus, my “love affair” with lighting fixtures began. In 1994, I gave Liz Tshupp and the other agency sub-reps all of the home accessory and portable lamp lines except Minoff, and hired new personnel to focus on residential and commercial lighting accounts. Kichler was the agency’s first full-line lighting account.
     I do not believe that being a female has ever presented any obstacles to success in the lighting industry. Distributors want knowledgeable reps who take care of them, train their employees, protect their distribution areas, help them manage their inventories as if they were ordering with their own money, and most importantly, tell the truth. Neither gender has an advantage with respect to that work ethic or integrity.
     Some of the electrical contractors and architects, however, like to “test” women and expect female reps to know things they would forgive male counterparts for not knowing. That has actually worked to my advantage because I spend a lot of time learning about the manufacturers and products we represent. My most recent commercial project was helping design the lighting for the Trump Ocean Grande Resort in Sunny Isles, Florida. I spent a lot of time working with their electrical contractors and building superintendents. All of them were male and were astounded that I had so much technical knowledge. It was fun to be able to teach them some new tricks.
     I do hire women in my agency, especially those who had previously practiced law. I find they are more detail oriented than most other people and their timing is exceptional. They really know how to read people.
     Unfortunately, there are very few other female lighting representatives in Florida, Also, I only deal with two female buyers: Kathy Held, vice president of South Dade Lighting in Miami, and Patricia Mizell from Capitol Lighting in Lake Park. I am glad to have one female manufacturer sales manager: Janine Soper from Angelo/Westinghouse. Decorative lighting is a fashion business, and I am surprised by how few women work in the industry. Even selling a bath strip requires some fashion sense to steer customers to designs that coordinate with items in the rest of the room. Hopefully, this will change in the future.
     Selling lighting fixtures is much different than selling portable lamps and accessories. As lighting reps, we are really “partners” with our customers. We take pride in what we do and are very much involved with our dealers. I make sure that all of our agency reps understand that our dealers’ sales associates are also very important. An owner or buyer may purchase a line, but it is the sales associate who sells the merchandise and gets a line reordered. Accordingly, we spend a lot of time with retail sales associates.
     Some may say that this nurturing is part of what women do, but it really is what reps in general do. If anything, I may be accused of acting more like a “big sister” toward some of my accounts. As an agency, we do spend a lot of time with the retail sales associates and even the warehouse people, but we consider it good business. For example, if a fixture comes back to the store broken, a warehouse person may choose to fix it or merely throw it on the scrap pile. If we have spent time explaining the fixture to the warehouse man, he may take it upon himself to make what he knows to be a simple repair. Some may call it a mothering instinct; I say it is good business.
     I like people and have an innate sense about them. In our agency, the customer always comes first. We will unpack merchandise, hang it, tag it, and simply make our dealers’ jobs as easy as possible. Looking back on some accounts I’ve had in other industries, what we do for our customers is only normal.
     My husband travels incessantly as a business consultant with The Highland Group and my youngest child is 32, so I have a lot of free nights. I generally have dinner at least three nights a week with sales associates from lighting showrooms. I learn a lot from them and we always have fun.
     I am an only child, as were both of my parents, so I have always considered my friends as my family. Since most of my time is spent working, my friends are almost all from the lighting industry. When Kichler founder Sam Minoff once asked me to describe my job, I said I went out every day and talked to my friends.

The Boothe Group is one of the largest residential and light commercial agencies in South Florida. The company represents American Fluorescent, Angelo/Westinghouse, Elco, Ellington/Litex, Illuminating Experiences, Kichler, LEDS/Grok, Leviton, and Zaneen.
     The agency includes Monica Fonseca, assistant to the president; Joan Doss and Jan Simon, sales representatives; Ester Saler, office manager; and Tina DiMichele in customer service. David Sestrich is the agency’s part-time electrician; Matt May and Toney Patfield are independent contractors who help with merchandising and display. Tom Schaeffer supports the agency as the landscape lighting specialist. JC Gonzalez and Jamie LaSala are independent sub-reps. Jamie handles hospitality and contract accounts and JC covers central Florida for selected lines.