Why We Call the Customer Who Orders a $50 Check Valve (with Gil Welsford)

Someone buying a pneumatically actuated ball valve doesn't need it in their house, so ValveMan calls to ask what else they need.

Gil Welsford launched ValveMan to sell industrial valves online without ever having to talk to a customer. On this episode of Pipeline, Joseph Lewin talks with Gil Welsford, Founder and CEO at ValveMan, about why that changed. The website was bringing in one-off sales. In 2022, Gil and his brother started calling the customers who order on it and asking if they need anything else. The idea came from the relationship model behind the company his grandfather started in 1965, which his father kept. Even a $50 check valve order gets a call. Gil also explains how he built the new site with Claude as a self-described non-tech guy. He also explains why he wants AI to free up his team's time so they can talk with people.

What you can use by Monday:

Call the customers who place orders on your website and ask if they need anything else.

Call on small orders too: ValveMan calls the customer who places a $50 check valve order.

Write down your top five customers right now and call each one with nothing to sell, just to build the relationship.

When someone comes to mind, listen to the nudge and send the text or make the call instead of letting it go.

Chapters:

00:00 AI in service of human relationships

01:19 A new website built with Claude

05:16 Three generations of valves and why ValveMan started calling customers

10:56 Why relationships outsell transactional selling over time

13:46 Using AI to free up time for conversations

16:34 Getting out of the quarterly-profit mindset

22:27 What to do Monday: call your top five customers

Pipeline is short conversations with GTM peers who are actually filling pipeline right now, so you leave with something you can use by Monday. New episodes weekly on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you listen. Produced by Podcast 2 Pipeline.