Knowing “How to Win Friends and Influence People” is more than a slogan for Vito DiMaio, who manages the North Coast Electric Company’s Central Oregon service center, teaches Dale Carnegie inspirational seminars and sits on the board of directors for Grandma’s House women’s shelter.

“It’s a positive approach that helps you in every aspect of life, from your family and personal relationships to running a business,” DiMaio said.

North Coast Electric, based in Seattle, was founded in 1913 and operates 33 service centers across the Northwest, including the one managed by DiMaio in Bend.

“We distribute electrical parts and equipment to commercial contractors throughout Central Oregon,” DiMaio said. “We warehouse parts and equipment here in Bend and sell it to the contractors and others who install it,” DiMaio said.

DiMaio, 45, grew up Philadelphia. He graduated with a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Dayton in Ohio in 1987. He took his first Dale Carnegie course in 1988 in Milwaukee and started his electrical distribution career in 1989 in Hawaii for a company called Alpha Electric Supply.

In 2001 DiMaio and his wife, Jennifer, moved to Bend so he could take the job managing the North Coast Electrical Company’s Central Oregon distribution center, which he said the company calls a service center because it services the region’s electrical contractors. The couple have three daughters, Alyssa, 15; Samantha, 11; Cassie, 9; and Tia, 7.

DiMaio took a second Dale Carnegie training class in 1998 and has been teaching ever since, including more than a decade as the organization’s Central Oregon trainer.

At the high point of the region’s construction boom in 2006, DiMaio said North Coast Electric employed 11 people at the warehouse and service center.

At the low point of the 2008-09 recession, during the winter of 2009, DiMaio said sales of electrical parts and equipment had fallen by 25 to 30 percent, and the staff at the Central Oregon service center was cut almost in half to six full-time employees.

But instead of giving up and closing the doors, DiMaio said he and his staff kept a positive attitude and looked for ways to increase sales despite the collapse of the construction industry.

“My Carnegie background gave me the confidence to become involved in the National Association of Electrical Distributors,” where he said he learned how electrical distributors and contractors in Chicago, New York and other large metropolitan areas were moving into distribution of green energy products to boost sales during the difficult economic times.

“I brought ideas from a national level back to our company,” DiMaio said.

One of the most important messages the Dale Carnegie program teaches is to become genuinely interested in other people, and from a business standpoint, DiMaio said, that means taking a genuine interest in your employees, and in your customers.

“Become genuinely interested in what your customer needs, and what’s in it for them,” he said.

While networking is an important aspect of building business clients and customers, DiMaio said net-weaving, where you help connect other people who you believe can help each other or exchange business services, is the most rewarding experience.

“To me it is rewarding to put people together,” he said. “I find enjoyment in helping other people succeed.”

“We found people are really interested in saving energy. Solar systems and LED lighting are two of the best ways to do that. We decided to branch out into parts for solar systems, parts for electric vehicle charging stations and the more efficient LED lighting technology,” DiMaio said.

In talking with employees about what was most important to them, it was clear that having a sense of control and input, and seeing opportunities for a brighter future ahead were very important. So DiMaio said the company continued to pay professional wages to those employees who remained on the job, but they were asked for suggestions on how the company could get more done with fewer employees.

After adding the lineup of energy-saving parts and getting the staff to find ways to get the job done with less, DiMaio said sales began rebounding last year.

“In the second half of 2010 sales have come back very strong, and for the first four months of 2011 we are double last year as far as sales,” he said.

Q: What is the biggest challenge the company faces today?

A: The biggest challenge we face in the new business reality is how to do more, better, faster with fewer resources.

Q: Are green energy products entirely responsible for the doubling of sales during the first four months of this year?

A: No, energy-efficient products helped, but a lot of the sales growth was in government-type jobs, such as the expansion going on at Central Oregon Community College, and at the electric vehicle charging station project at the Bend-La Pine (school district’s) administration building.

Q: Why did you volunteer to serve on the Grandma’s House board of directors?

A: Grandma’s House is a shelter home and outreach organization for teen moms. I was lucky in life and had parents who made a difference in my life. I wanted to give something back to the community.

Q: What’s most important to you?

A: My role as a father and a husband.

Q: What are 10 tips you teach business people and others taking Dale Carnegie courses that you teach?

A: • Don’t criticize, condemn or complain.

• Give honest, sincere appreciation.

• Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.

• Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.

• Praise the slightest improvement and praise every improvement.

• The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.

• Try to honestly to see things from the other person’s point of view.

• Get all the facts and weigh them, then act when you come to a decision

• Clear your desk of all papers except those relating to the immediate problem at hand.

• Do things in the order of their importance.

The basics

Who: Vito DiMaio

Position: Manager, Central Oregon service center

Company: North Coast Electric Company

Address: 1260 N.E. First St., Bend

Phone: 541-382-6211

Website: www.northcoastelectric.com

Coming up: Power Networking for Business Success

When: Tuesday, June 28, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Where: Bend Golf & Country Club

Speaker: Vito DiMaio

Coming up

What: Power Networking for Business Success

When: Tuesday, June 28, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Where: Bend Golf & Country Club

Speaker: Vito DiMaio