Strategies_Spring2024

HEART OF HARDWARE

Closing Deals, Opening Doors Meet Regional Sales Manager Janet Elias

R egional sales manager Janet Elias recently celebrated 50 years of service at Blish-Mize. During her time with the company, she has achieved many milestones and firsts. She was the company’s first woman sales representative, and today she manages a sales team of eight. Continue reading to learn more about Elias and how she got her start at Blish-Mize and in sales.

Regional sales manager Janet Elias was the company’s first female sales representative. In 2023, she celebrated 50 years with Blish-Mize.

From Fields to Forklifts When self-described farm girl Janet Elias graduated from high school in 1973, her family offered two options: go to school or get a job. Elias decided to pursue vocational-technical school and a career in drafting—but first, she needed a summer job. Her sister-in-law’s father worked at the Blish-Mize warehouse, and he told her they were hiring summer help. According to Elias, she was hired the same day she applied for a job. At the time, Blish-Mize was implementing a new computer system, so she spent her summer applying seven-digit SKU numbers to each item in the warehouse. The time-consuming project often required overtime, and Elias says she worked as many hours as she could, sometimes 10 to 12 hours a day and on weekends. “I was in tall cotton, making more money than I ever had in my life,” she says. “So at the end of the summer, when they offered me a full-time job, I decided to stay on.” Elias continued working in the warehouse for five years before she found herself knocking on the door of company president and

CEO John H. Mize Sr. The ensuing conversation would change the trajectory of her career. “I went in and sat down and told him, ‘I don’t want to spend the rest of my career punching a clock. I want to know what other opportunities I have with the company,’” she says. Elias says Mize Sr. offered her a role in customer service, which she accepted with the caveat that her real interest was in sales. “He was a little taken aback and told me, ‘You do know it’s a man’s world out there,’” she says. “Well, that was the wrong thing to say to a country girl who was raised with six brothers.” Elias says she saw the conversation as a challenge, and from then on, set out to prove both to herself and Mize Sr. that she could succeed in sales. First Lady of Sales Elias worked in customer service at Blish-Mize for a few years but was able to gain sales experience by filling in for the company’s sales representatives when they were out on vacation.

20 Spring 2024 • Hardlines Strategies