1. To Whom It May Concern,
I have known Tom Richard since he started with Lord Corporation in 1997. He was part of the
second wave of sales managers hired for a new division the company formed to service the
automotive aftermarket, and at the time, I owned an agency that represented Lord in that
segment of the industry.
Tom’s coming on board meant that I was losing one of the original sales managers in this
division, and I admit that I wasn’t happy to lose a more experienced contact for someone who
lacked specific industry knowledge. He had a high bar to clear, and I have never been a patient
person.
Tom became competent pretty quickly. I still missed my original sales manager, so it took a
while to warm up to Tom. Although Tom performed well in this position, he had not yet gained
my respect.
The main responsibility I held for Lord was to convert auto body repair shops to Lord from
competitive products. This was accomplished primarily by conducting trade seminars.
Although this approach was successful, the seminar format provided by Lord was tired and I
wanted a fresher presentation. During this timeframe, I had convinced a holdout distributor to
take on our product line. One stipulation from the distributor was to include the new advances,
specifically a new lifetime warranty, from Lord into a seminar for 30 shops he serviced.
Tom asked Lord’s marketing department for a new seminar, but we’d be lucky to see something
from them in six months. We had two weeks. Tom got permission to put a presentation
together and submit it for approval. I didn’t like the odds of seeing anything I’d like – he was
still doing his full-time job and we didn’t have much time. Plus, I had no idea if he was up to the
task.
The night of the seminar came and for the first time I, along with my partners, my distributor
and the owners and employees of the thirty shops, saw Tom’s new presentation. The original
Lord seminar was good – Tom’s was spectacular. His PowerPoint presentation blew everyone
away, and he had the audience in the palm of his hand.
Before that night, a typical seminar would convert 50% of the shops in attendance. That night,
we signed up 29 out of 30 shops. I’m not kidding when I said it was spectacular.

2. Tom figured out that the new lifetime warranty was the first time that an aftermarket repair
carried a better warranty than the OEM vehicle. The lawyers, the marketing department, upper
management – nobody figured that out. A performance like that is something you never forget.
Please believe me; you want to talk to Tom Richard.
Sincerely,
Glen Bresnahan
National Sales manager
Hutchins Mfg Co
Pasadena, CA.