The Solid Citizen

If you know Doug Sutton, you may have heard that before he took over the family home improvement business, putting it on a path for long-term success, and well before he worked his way through the ranks of local and state association offices, and before he served two terms as chairman of the NAHB Remodelers, that, early in his career, he was a bank examiner, far from home, in Oregon, Ill., where he successfully ran for mayor and defeated an incumbent by four votes.

The story goes that in 1970, Sutton and a friend decided they wanted to make a difference in their town, to improve its outlook. So, the two ran for office, Sutton for mayor and his friend for town commissioner. The campaign involved hard work. And Sutton says he rang just about every door bell in the town of 4,000 and, along the way, earned the endorsement of a popular local official.

At the end of the tightly contested race, the young Doug

Sutton called the defeated mayor, a local dentist who had served for 16 years in the post, and asked him if he would consider joining him at a conference of mayors in a show of unity that would help heal the post-election rift. When the two were photographed at the event, it made the front page of the local paper and Sutton was on his way to a successful term in office.

“At the time, I was just a young punk,” says Sutton.

“It was amazing. Opponents coming together — it was great. It was a great experience because I had to learn how to deal with people. We learned to do things in steps. You move to first base. You move to second, then third, then home. We did things in stages. And, most importantly, we had to think about how our actions would affect the community.”

Indeed, it was this type of leadership, combined with a knack for consensus building that would be the hallmark of Sutton’s career both in business as well as his work in the home builders association.

Learning home improvement

Those who know Doug Sutton may also know that long before he became a prolific educator at the state and national level, and before he earned the first of his many professional designations, he was new to the home improvement business and that, in searching out his own professional education, he eventually received much of his early training with Dave Yoho.
Armed with a degree in finance and 10 years’ experience in banking along with his political experience, Sutton returned to his hometown of Springfield, Ill., in 1973 to be the controller for a local law firm. Not long after, his parents Ed and Mayme Sutton, asked him to join the family home improvement business, Sutton Siding & Remodeling, Inc. At the time, the company was known as Sutton Roofing & Siding and nearly all of its work involved exterior jobs. To Sutton’s recollection, the firm, which was founded in 1946, billed $210,000 annually when he joined. Today it has revenues in the “$5 million to $7 million” range, says Sutton. And in 2009, a year in which virtually all remodeling and home improvement firms experienced lower revenues, Sutton Siding & Remodeling will grow by 2 percent.

Sutton had worked in the family business during high school and college. He drove a truck and delivered supplies to jobsites. At the same time he also marveled at the way his father Ed would go to a sales call and talk only about pheasant hunting and, yet, get the job. Upon returning to the business as a partner, Sutton’s goal was to learn the business as fast as he could, but in an industry that lacked professional education, the options were not as plentiful as he would have liked. It was then that Sutton accepted an opportunity from his siding supplier, Alsco Anaconda, to attend a training seminar titled “One-Day Closing” offered by Dave Yoho — who at the time was already a home improvement expert.