How to Win in Technical Sales with Andy Reimink

Wesleyne Greer: 00:00:00

As a sales manager, you are judged by the

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performance of your team, and you're praised when they do

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well. But one thing that you've not been able to figure out is

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how to get everyone on your team consistently hitting quota every

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single month. On the Snack size sales podcast, we discuss the

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science of selling stem sales leadership in the science,

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technology, engineering and manufacturing fields is

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difficult. You will learn from sales managers just like you

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that will give you actionable insights and tips on how to

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develop as a leader and achieve your revenue targets every

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single month. So pop your headphones in and get ready to

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listen to my guests today. They will give you information and

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inspiration to ensure that you have actionable insights that

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you can put into place today. Hello, and welcome to another

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episode of the snack sized sales podcast. today. My guest is Andy

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Reineke. With H O H water technology. How are you Andy?

Andy Relmink: 00:01:12

I'm doing well. Thank you for having me.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:01:13

Thanks so much for being here. Let me tell you

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a little bit more about Andy. He is the CEO of H O H water

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technology. This is a third generation family business

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serving customers in the industrial water treatment

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space. He grew up in West Michigan, and he's lived in

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Michigan, Florida and Illinois, since coming on board with H O H

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So a third generation water treatment facility. That's not

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something we hear about too often. Tell me about how you

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grew up in this business and how you got to where you are today.

Andy Relmink: 00:01:48

Yeah, so uh, watching the company, we are in

Andy Relmink: 00:01:51

the industrial water treatment space, which is basically we

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work with large industrial or commercial properties, treating

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the water that they use for heat transfer. And my wife's

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grandfather started HoH back in 1968, he was actually in the

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Navy. And a lot of people coming out of the Navy got their

Andy Relmink: 00:02:10

started water treatment, because back in the day, they powered

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these big naval ships with steam boilers. And so they would learn

Andy Relmink: 00:02:18

to do water treatment on the steam boilers come out of the

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Navy, and then find a career in water treatment in the private

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sector, treating a lot of steam boilers for heating and cooling

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or I guess heating, in this case of large commercial facilities

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or industrial complexes. So that's how he started it coming

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out of the Navy and started went off on his own and created Hoh,

Andy Relmink: 00:02:42

and then my father in law succeeded him. And I got into

Andy Relmink: 00:02:46

it. When I married my wife to some degree, we got married, and

Andy Relmink: 00:02:50

I didn't know really anything about what her dad was doing. I

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was in a real estate background. And in a small startup with some

Andy Relmink: 00:02:57

friends, I had no intention of joining the family business. And

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it was when my wife and I were about to have kids. And I

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thought that maybe a career change with something more

Andy Relmink: 00:03:09

stable would be a good idea that I approached my father in law to

Andy Relmink: 00:03:12

say, hey, I'm interested. And if you need someone to help grow a

Andy Relmink: 00:03:17

territory, I would love a conversation. And so at that

Andy Relmink: 00:03:20

time, he was interested in someone in West Michigan, where

Andy Relmink: 00:03:23

we were living, and that started the process.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:03:26

So you're so this is you're on your wife's

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side, right? So you got married, and you saw your father in law

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running this company. And when I think that one thing that's very

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commendable of you is you said, hey, I want to grow a territory,

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not hand me the keys to the kingdom, let me be the sea CFO

Wesleyne Greer: 00:03:47

or the CFO. It was really you being humble saying, let me

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learn the business. Right. So tell me about when you first

Wesleyne Greer: 00:03:55

started. And you started essentially working for your

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father in law. How was that? Yeah,

Andy Relmink: 00:04:00

I mean, it was good. I mean, he was the

Andy Relmink: 00:04:02

president and CEO at the time. So I knew I wasn't going to be

Andy Relmink: 00:04:05

working obviously directly for him or have a lot of day to day

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interaction with him. My process of getting hired was similar to

Andy Relmink: 00:04:12

probably anyone I had an interview schedule. And you

Andy Relmink: 00:04:14

know, a bunch of interviews that I went on, at some point, I did

Andy Relmink: 00:04:17

interview with my father in law, and it was his common practice

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to try to interview everyone that was hired into the company.

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And, you know, I was pretty direct with him at the beginning

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about my ambitions and my goals of wanting to be in leadership,

Andy Relmink: 00:04:31

whether it'd be the CEO one day, or just, you know, a position of

Andy Relmink: 00:04:35

leadership within the company. But I was also very willing to

Andy Relmink: 00:04:38

start wherever I had to, to kind of prove myself and so I was

Andy Relmink: 00:04:43

hired in a more of a sales role. But at the time, we had a

Andy Relmink: 00:04:47

technician that was leaving the territory and actually going out

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to Arizona to work for us. And so when I first started, I spent

Andy Relmink: 00:04:55

about a year doing technician work, and in the field, hands

Andy Relmink: 00:04:59

dirty. really grinding away. And then on the free days that I'd

Andy Relmink: 00:05:03

have, I'd go out cold calling and knocking on doors. So I

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really did start and bowed at the bottom of the company and

Andy Relmink: 00:05:10

slowly worked my way up over time, which I appreciate. I

Andy Relmink: 00:05:13

think that gives a lot of perspective for me, as I've kind

Andy Relmink: 00:05:16

of progressed within the company,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:05:18

you know, if I had a crystal ball, and all

Wesleyne Greer: 00:05:20

companies had the time to do exactly what you did, that is

Wesleyne Greer: 00:05:25

really what I think all new salespeople need to do. So as a

Wesleyne Greer: 00:05:28

chemist, I tell people, I worked on both sides of supply chain, I

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was the person processing the samples, figuring out the

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failure analysis, doing all those things. Then when I

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started selling into those same types of environments, I

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understood what they were doing. And so as a salesperson, when

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you understand what your technicians are going through

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what the installers are going through how difficult how

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unhappy customers can be, it gives you so much more empathy

Wesleyne Greer: 00:05:54

as a salesperson and you really learn the product, there's no

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better way to learn your product, your service that

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you're selling, than to touch it, feel it every single day.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:06:03

Right?

Andy Relmink: 00:06:03

Yeah, and I love all your podcasts specifically

Andy Relmink: 00:06:06

focused on STEM and sales, because stem sales are, I think,

Andy Relmink: 00:06:10

its own unique thing. And we've had different thought processes

Andy Relmink: 00:06:14

throughout our history of saying like, you know, what, if we

Andy Relmink: 00:06:17

could just find a really great salesperson, we can train them,

Andy Relmink: 00:06:20

you know, our core competencies and business models and what we

Andy Relmink: 00:06:23

do, and right now, and this could change, you know, six

Andy Relmink: 00:06:27

times over the next 20 years, but right now I sit here go, I

Andy Relmink: 00:06:31

don't know if we can do that, like, I need someone with some

Andy Relmink: 00:06:34

background and some technical skills to be able to go into

Andy Relmink: 00:06:37

that into the field, because it's just so technical, often

Andy Relmink: 00:06:42

that someone that just, you know, knows how to make a great

Andy Relmink: 00:06:45

sales presentation is going to struggle, not knowing how to

Andy Relmink: 00:06:48

talk the lingo and and know what a piece of equipment does or why

Andy Relmink: 00:06:51

it does it. So yeah, starting from the bottom, I think is a

Andy Relmink: 00:06:55

great funnel process to like, bring someone into sales

Andy Relmink: 00:06:58

eventually.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:06:59

Yes, and you're so right. It's I do think that

Wesleyne Greer: 00:07:03

from my standpoint, I don't think somebody has to

Wesleyne Greer: 00:07:05

necessarily be I call it an industry insider, or more

Wesleyne Greer: 00:07:09

eloquently, I say your competitors rejects. I don't

Wesleyne Greer: 00:07:13

think that they need to be that. But they do need to be technical

Wesleyne Greer: 00:07:16

in some way. Right. So again, I was a chemist, and I saw capital

Wesleyne Greer: 00:07:21

equipment. I was a chemist, and I still specialty chemicals.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:07:24

Yeah, I didn't know everything about these, you know,

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speciality chemicals, but I could learn it. And I was smart

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enough to know, okay, this plus this equals this, say this to a

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customer. So really ensuring that you're looking in the right

Wesleyne Greer: 00:07:35

niche. Right. So okay, do I need somebody with an engineering

Wesleyne Greer: 00:07:38

background? Do I need somebody who's a physicist, because if

Wesleyne Greer: 00:07:41

you get somebody off the street, like, who's selling cell phones,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:07:46

they don't have that technical know how, and it's really the

Wesleyne Greer: 00:07:49

fact that their sales process is quick. And so they don't have to

Wesleyne Greer: 00:07:52

be really in depth. They don't have to build that bridge. They

Wesleyne Greer: 00:07:54

don't have to be the customers consultant and walk lockstep

Wesleyne Greer: 00:07:58

with them. But so I do you think what you're saying has so much

Wesleyne Greer: 00:08:01

validity, and there's always that fine line, and I focus on

Wesleyne Greer: 00:08:06

STEM sales, because it's different, you know, everything,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:08:09

it's, you have to be a technical salesperson, you're not a

Wesleyne Greer: 00:08:12

salesperson, you're a technical salesperson. And that technical

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piece is so crucial.

Andy Relmink: 00:08:18

Yeah, and I don't, I don't think that, you know, I

Andy Relmink: 00:08:21

would ever stick to absolute like this will never work. But I

Andy Relmink: 00:08:23

think as sales managers, we need to be very cognizant of, if I'm

Andy Relmink: 00:08:27

going to choose someone outside of the industry, the learning

Andy Relmink: 00:08:30

curve is going to be longer. And I'm going to have to be more

Andy Relmink: 00:08:33

patient with that person, because it's just going to take

Andy Relmink: 00:08:36

time. So where someone coming from the industry, I could say,

Andy Relmink: 00:08:39

You know what, we could ramp them up in a year from now I

Andy Relmink: 00:08:41

expect them to be killing it crushing their quotas, whereas

Andy Relmink: 00:08:44

someone else I might have to really alter their quotas, and

Andy Relmink: 00:08:48

be patient with how they progress and grow

Wesleyne Greer: 00:08:50

patients. That is the key. Because when I go

Wesleyne Greer: 00:08:54

in, and I'm working with organizations, I always say they

Wesleyne Greer: 00:08:57

say so whistling, what do you think about this person or that

Wesleyne Greer: 00:08:59

person? And I'm like, I'm not gonna tell you to fire anybody.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:09:02

But I'm gonna say it's gonna take this long to get this

Wesleyne Greer: 00:09:04

person up to speed and this long and get that person up to speed.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:09:07

Do you have the bandwidth and the patience to know that this

Wesleyne Greer: 00:09:12

person you hired who doesn't have the skill set? And a lot of

Wesleyne Greer: 00:09:15

times for me, it's like, they have no sales experience and no

Wesleyne Greer: 00:09:17

technical experience. I'm like, Come on, guys. They need one or

Wesleyne Greer: 00:09:20

the other good. They have some sales experience or some

Wesleyne Greer: 00:09:22

technical experience. If you hire somebody who just seems

Wesleyne Greer: 00:09:25

good, that doesn't really work. And it's patient. So you went

Wesleyne Greer: 00:09:29

from your salesperson, and then you transition into sales

Wesleyne Greer: 00:09:33

leadership. So tell us about that. How that transition was

Wesleyne Greer: 00:09:36

for you. Yeah,

Andy Relmink: 00:09:37

it was a fairly natural step. I was I had

Andy Relmink: 00:09:40

started to have some success in West Michigan and growing that

Andy Relmink: 00:09:43

territory. And then we had a sales manager in Florida that

Andy Relmink: 00:09:48

was retiring. And so we're looking for replacement and I

Andy Relmink: 00:09:52

was approached to say would you have interest in uprooting your

Andy Relmink: 00:09:55

family moving down to Florida and running this division for us

Andy Relmink: 00:09:59

and so I saw it as a great opportunity to get experience in

Andy Relmink: 00:10:02

sales management where I hadn't had a ton of that before. And I

Andy Relmink: 00:10:07

think my wife is, you know, great that she's always willing

Andy Relmink: 00:10:11

to go take an adventure and move somewhere that, you know, we

Andy Relmink: 00:10:13

didn't really know anyone. And so we went down to Florida, and

Andy Relmink: 00:10:17

I managed a team down there for three years. And that that was a

Andy Relmink: 00:10:22

great experience. Overall, I've moved a handful of times in my

Andy Relmink: 00:10:26

life, and not one of them have I ever regretted, I think anyone

Andy Relmink: 00:10:29

who has a chance to move somewhere, especially away from

Andy Relmink: 00:10:31

like their hometown, even if it's for two or three years, I

Andy Relmink: 00:10:34

would seize that opportunity, because you just get so much

Andy Relmink: 00:10:38

from it, seeing a different perspective, a different place,

Andy Relmink: 00:10:40

something that you're kind of out of your comfort zone with.

Andy Relmink: 00:10:43

And

Wesleyne Greer: 00:10:43

so as a brand new sales manager that took over

Wesleyne Greer: 00:10:47

an existing team, what were some of the challenges some of the

Wesleyne Greer: 00:10:50

things that you experienced? I mean,

Andy Relmink: 00:10:53

I think with sales management, at least in my

Andy Relmink: 00:10:55

experience, like it all comes down to people. And so I had to

Andy Relmink: 00:10:58

assess the people we had, obviously, there was going to be

Andy Relmink: 00:11:00

a different dynamic, I was thrust into a hard situation

Andy Relmink: 00:11:04

where I was a very young individual in a sales leadership

Andy Relmink: 00:11:08

role down there, where I had one of the sales persons working for

Andy Relmink: 00:11:12

me was in their lower 60s. So there's naturally going to be

Andy Relmink: 00:11:15

some tension with I've been doing this, you know, since you

Andy Relmink: 00:11:19

were in diapers, and you know, who do you think you are kind of

Andy Relmink: 00:11:22

a thing. So that was for sure tough and a lot of great

Andy Relmink: 00:11:25

learning experiences. And while we were down there, we acquired

Andy Relmink: 00:11:28

a company. So we brought on some new team members that we had to

Andy Relmink: 00:11:31

integrate into the company, but also the team, we had to assess

Andy Relmink: 00:11:35

those. And then a handful of them did not end up working out.

Andy Relmink: 00:11:38

And then we did some hiring. So we brought in some new people.

Andy Relmink: 00:11:41

So I have a great firsthand experience of going out to the

Andy Relmink: 00:11:45

field and finding a salesperson that did not have any technical

Andy Relmink: 00:11:51

background. And, you know, hiring them because of the

Andy Relmink: 00:11:54

potential I saw and working through what was especially in

Andy Relmink: 00:11:58

the beginning a very painful process, but ended up being a

Andy Relmink: 00:12:01

success story. And so now they're still in the in the

Andy Relmink: 00:12:04

field in the market, and they're doing a great job. But yeah, I

Andy Relmink: 00:12:07

dabbled in a lot of different issues. Well, at my time in

Andy Relmink: 00:12:12

Florida.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:12:13

So within three years, you had a established

Wesleyne Greer: 00:12:16

sales team with a lot of and you know, I think in this time that

Wesleyne Greer: 00:12:21

we're in, there are a lot of salespeople who've always

Wesleyne Greer: 00:12:25

they've never wanted to become go into management, their career

Wesleyne Greer: 00:12:28

comfortable being in sales, because I mean, I think we know

Wesleyne Greer: 00:12:31

that the dirty little secret becoming a sales manager, when

Wesleyne Greer: 00:12:34

you first start, you actually make a little bit less money

Wesleyne Greer: 00:12:36

than you did as a salesperson, right. And so a lot of

Wesleyne Greer: 00:12:39

salespeople know that. And so they're getting up there in age,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:12:42

right? So they're in their 50s and 60s. And then you know, you

Wesleyne Greer: 00:12:45

have this new tenacious, excited person coming in, like I'm

Wesleyne Greer: 00:12:48

managing you. Now, not only did you have that, but then you have

Wesleyne Greer: 00:12:52

to rebuild the team, you had to have some attrition let some

Wesleyne Greer: 00:12:56

people go. But it sounds like in three years after you did that

Wesleyne Greer: 00:13:01

your next step was where,

Andy Relmink: 00:13:03

so my next step, so we decided that we actually

Andy Relmink: 00:13:07

wanted to divest of our Florida Division. And so we sold it off.

Andy Relmink: 00:13:11

And so I went down there manager team, we acquired a company, and

Andy Relmink: 00:13:14

then we sold it off. And then I moved up to the Chicagoland area

Andy Relmink: 00:13:19

where our headquarters is out of. And so I came up here, and I

Andy Relmink: 00:13:22

actually took if you look at maybe a company hierarchy, I

Andy Relmink: 00:13:25

took a step down where I did not come into sales management, I

Andy Relmink: 00:13:29

came back into a sales role moving up into Chicagoland. And

Andy Relmink: 00:13:33

I did that for about a year. And then we had created a new role

Andy Relmink: 00:13:38

called a Channel Sales Manager, that I interviewed and accepted

Andy Relmink: 00:13:43

that role, and really worked at looking at different kinds of

Andy Relmink: 00:13:46

partnerships that we could make with other companies, different

Andy Relmink: 00:13:49

forms of how to get, you know, our product out into the space.

Andy Relmink: 00:13:53

And I did that for a while before becoming vice president

Andy Relmink: 00:13:56

of sales, which is a title that I also technically retained

Andy Relmink: 00:13:59

today.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:14:00

So tell me, how did you accept that, I have to

Wesleyne Greer: 00:14:07

take a step back in order to take a step forward, going from

Wesleyne Greer: 00:14:11

managing a sales team being kind of autonomous, going back into

Wesleyne Greer: 00:14:14

the individual contributor role.

Andy Relmink: 00:14:16

Yeah, and I think that's a really hard thing to do

Andy Relmink: 00:14:18

for anyone, it's, you know, going the opposite direction of

Andy Relmink: 00:14:21

where you're trying to go. And I'm a person that has always

Andy Relmink: 00:14:24

had, you know, pretty clear ambitions, and in taking a step

Andy Relmink: 00:14:28

away from that ultimate goal of where I'm trying to go, is hard

Andy Relmink: 00:14:32

to deal with. And so I tried to look at the big picture and what

Andy Relmink: 00:14:36

my ultimate goals were, and, you know, basically convinced myself

Andy Relmink: 00:14:40

that taking a step to the side or back does not change where

Andy Relmink: 00:14:43

I'm going, it's just altering the path of how I'm going to get

Andy Relmink: 00:14:46

there. And so if it takes a little longer, that's okay. If I

Andy Relmink: 00:14:49

have to, you know, do a little jog in the road, I'm fine with

Andy Relmink: 00:14:53

that, but it wasn't going to change, you know, my ultimate

Andy Relmink: 00:14:56

goal and where I was trying to reach

Wesleyne Greer: 00:14:57

and you know, I think that probably somewhere in

Wesleyne Greer: 00:14:59

the back If your mind you're like, Well, I'm going to

Wesleyne Greer: 00:15:01

headquarters. So maybe there'll be more visibility, maybe

Wesleyne Greer: 00:15:04

there'll be more opportunities for me, right. And I think that

Wesleyne Greer: 00:15:07

a lot of times, especially in sales, for those people who want

Wesleyne Greer: 00:15:11

to get into leadership or want to get into management, it's

Wesleyne Greer: 00:15:14

hard for them to take a step back, right? It's because it's

Wesleyne Greer: 00:15:17

like, I've been managing people. And now I have to be managed,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:15:20

I've been doing pipeline reviews, now my I have somebody

Wesleyne Greer: 00:15:23

who's going to be reviewing my pipeline. And so really, I would

Wesleyne Greer: 00:15:27

say, just having your ego in check to understand that, Hey,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:15:32

it's okay. I'm doing this because there's future growth.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:15:35

And it seems like after a year, you weren't in the right place,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:15:38

you became the General Sales Manager, and then you were able

Wesleyne Greer: 00:15:41

to move into this VP of sales role. So today, as you say, you

Wesleyne Greer: 00:15:46

manage you're the VP of sales, as well as the president of the

Wesleyne Greer: 00:15:50

company. So how are you able to balance those two things?

Andy Relmink: 00:15:54

Yeah, that's a tough question. I, you know,

Andy Relmink: 00:15:56

it's weeks, I think that probably 80% of my time is spent

Andy Relmink: 00:15:59

doing, you know, sales manager, VP of sales type work and 20%

Andy Relmink: 00:16:04

CEO stuff. And some weeks, it's, you know, flip flopped, so

Andy Relmink: 00:16:08

understanding is not going to be perfect. And we're intentionally

Andy Relmink: 00:16:11

running a little lean right now. So I'm okay with it, we know

Andy Relmink: 00:16:13

that eventually, we'll hire, you know, a sales manager

Andy Relmink: 00:16:16

replacement to fill that seat. But for the time being,

Andy Relmink: 00:16:19

especially in the climate that we're in with what's going on,

Andy Relmink: 00:16:21

we're okay, that, you know, I'm wearing a couple of different

Andy Relmink: 00:16:24

hats. Some of the jobs that I'm doing, I think, pair well

Andy Relmink: 00:16:29

together, you know, still doing some higher level selling with

Andy Relmink: 00:16:33

customers, which I would, you know, and we'll be doing as a

Andy Relmink: 00:16:36

CEO, even when we have a sales manager, still trying to

Andy Relmink: 00:16:39

interact with our sales teams, as much as I can, and kind of

Andy Relmink: 00:16:43

charting the course for where we're trying to go. So I think

Andy Relmink: 00:16:46

they pair well together. But I know it's not a long term

Andy Relmink: 00:16:50

solution that we're going to try to stay in

Wesleyne Greer: 00:16:52

that once a salesperson I was a salesperson,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:16:54

I mean, we asked I mean, if you're really truly a

Wesleyne Greer: 00:16:57

salesperson, it's hard to to let that go. So you saying that

Wesleyne Greer: 00:17:00

you'll be involved in some higher level deals, it's because

Wesleyne Greer: 00:17:03

you want to not because you have to.

Andy Relmink: 00:17:05

That's so true. And I went out with one of our

Andy Relmink: 00:17:08

salespeople two weeks ago, and we did some cold calling, and I

Andy Relmink: 00:17:11

haven't cold called in a while. And we did about a day and a

Andy Relmink: 00:17:15

half of it. And we walked in nor dock or door knocked, you know,

Andy Relmink: 00:17:19

30 different places. And I had so much fun. And we had a lot of

Andy Relmink: 00:17:24

success, like a much higher rate than I ever got, I think on my

Andy Relmink: 00:17:27

own. So I don't know, it might have been just like that day and

Andy Relmink: 00:17:30

the sun was shining, that people wanted to talk to us. But I came

Andy Relmink: 00:17:33

back up to the corporate office and my brother in law's the CEO

Andy Relmink: 00:17:37

was like, Man, you seem lively today. And he's like, is your

Andy Relmink: 00:17:40

bucket full right now, like it is kind of fall like I just had

Andy Relmink: 00:17:43

a blast cold calling. So yeah, there is something just, you

Andy Relmink: 00:17:46

know, inside a salesperson that kind of gets them going when

Andy Relmink: 00:17:49

they do certain activities,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:17:51

and that you know, inherent need that you

Wesleyne Greer: 00:17:54

have or that desire, I'm imagining that's what makes you

Wesleyne Greer: 00:17:57

really good and effective as a VP of sales. Because one thing

Wesleyne Greer: 00:18:01

that you know, a lot of salespeople say or think is if

Wesleyne Greer: 00:18:05

you haven't walked the day in my shoes, then you really can't

Wesleyne Greer: 00:18:07

give me advice. But you're like, I just want to have that cold

Wesleyne Greer: 00:18:10

calling. So if I can do that, you can do that. Right? So it's

Wesleyne Greer: 00:18:14

very, it's much easier for you to say that. So a lot of times,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:18:18

when you're in companies of your size, there's a battle between

Wesleyne Greer: 00:18:23

the CEO and the VP of sales in terms of what the CEO wants and

Wesleyne Greer: 00:18:28

what the VP of Sales wants. Right? So since you're operating

Wesleyne Greer: 00:18:31

in both of those modes, I'm curious as to when you have

Wesleyne Greer: 00:18:35

those battles of this is good for the sales organization, but

Wesleyne Greer: 00:18:38

maybe it's not good for the company, or vice versa. How do

Wesleyne Greer: 00:18:41

you get through those internal battles?

Andy Relmink: 00:18:43

Yeah, I think it's actually, to me, it's easy,

Andy Relmink: 00:18:46

because I'm having the conversation myself. So a lot of

Andy Relmink: 00:18:49

the battles that we might see as a sales leader, you know, VP of

Andy Relmink: 00:18:52

sales, saying, I need more salespeople, I need to take them

Andy Relmink: 00:18:54

here and here because we need to have these growth targets. And

Andy Relmink: 00:18:57

then the VB going well, we got budgets, and we can't do

Andy Relmink: 00:19:00

everything. And so I'm aware of both sides of those coins. And

Andy Relmink: 00:19:04

so at some level, it's not me alone, we have a great

Andy Relmink: 00:19:08

leadership team that we work with, but at some level, we're

Andy Relmink: 00:19:10

making that decision together and saying, all right, is it

Andy Relmink: 00:19:13

worth the risk to go maybe outside the budget to stick

Andy Relmink: 00:19:16

someone here with the expectation that sales are going

Andy Relmink: 00:19:19

to do X. And so it is a very fluid process that we're kind

Andy Relmink: 00:19:23

of, you know, toiling through what's in the best interest of

Andy Relmink: 00:19:26

the company, but also in hitting sales targets. So I'm fairly

Andy Relmink: 00:19:31

pragmatic about it. Like I'm not interested in hitting sales

Andy Relmink: 00:19:33

targets for the fun of hitting sales targets. If we're gonna

Andy Relmink: 00:19:36

hit sales targets, I want them to affect the bottom line and

Andy Relmink: 00:19:39

actually progress some of the company goals too. So

Wesleyne Greer: 00:19:42

so you don't have that VP of sales hat that

Wesleyne Greer: 00:19:45

says we'll win by any means necessary because the CEO hacks

Wesleyne Greer: 00:19:49

because we still gotta make money.

Andy Relmink: 00:19:51

Yeah, exactly. Yes. I'm very aware of the

Andy Relmink: 00:19:55

bottom line of it all. And I guess that probably helps to in

Andy Relmink: 00:19:58

some capacity with the team And so our sales team probably knows

Andy Relmink: 00:20:02

more about what's going on with the company than say a lot of

Andy Relmink: 00:20:05

sales teams that just have a top line quota. So our team has a

Andy Relmink: 00:20:09

fairy, they have a top line quarter, they know what we're

Andy Relmink: 00:20:11

going for. But they also understand some of the cogs that

Andy Relmink: 00:20:15

are involved. And some of the overhead that we have. And, you

Andy Relmink: 00:20:19

know, what fun is it to, you know, do 20 more million dollars

Andy Relmink: 00:20:23

worth of sales, if we're gonna make the same profit? Like, we

Andy Relmink: 00:20:26

all feel good, but we actually were very inefficient in what we

Andy Relmink: 00:20:29

were doing.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:20:30

Yeah. So I always say that, you know, as a

Wesleyne Greer: 00:20:33

middle middle management, sales manager, even as a salesperson,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:20:36

when you think about discount, you always think about top down,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:20:39

how much can I discount? What can I discount? And that's a

Wesleyne Greer: 00:20:41

good sales leader, you think about bottom up? What's my

Wesleyne Greer: 00:20:44

margin? What's the lowest? How was the lowest margin that I can

Wesleyne Greer: 00:20:47

sell for them? Right? And so again, since you have that view,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:20:51

you're able to tell the team that so instead of that top down

Wesleyne Greer: 00:20:54

view, they're looking at bottom up, right? So they think about

Wesleyne Greer: 00:20:57

things in terms of that bottom up, and then help them be better

Wesleyne Greer: 00:21:00

salespeople? Because they understand hey, no, it doesn't

Wesleyne Greer: 00:21:04

make sense. Yeah, I need to walk away from this deal. Or maybe I

Wesleyne Greer: 00:21:07

shouldn't do this now. Because it doesn't make sense for the

Wesleyne Greer: 00:21:09

company.

Andy Relmink: 00:21:10

Yep. And our team is getting better at that every

Andy Relmink: 00:21:12

single day. But it's a learning process, right? We're all kind

Andy Relmink: 00:21:15

of figuring it out as we go.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:21:17

Awesome. So you kind of mentioned the success

Wesleyne Greer: 00:21:19

story in there a little bit. But as you look back at your career

Wesleyne Greer: 00:21:23

as a sales manager, or VP of sales, what is a who's a person,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:21:27

a team, a situation that you're really proud of today?

Andy Relmink: 00:21:30

Yeah, if I look back over the career, I would

Andy Relmink: 00:21:32

probably echo the one that I started on, which was down in

Andy Relmink: 00:21:36

Florida. And I mean, that was that was such a hard time we

Andy Relmink: 00:21:40

hired this individual. And they were struggling in the

Andy Relmink: 00:21:43

beginning. And I had a sales manager at the time, who was the

Andy Relmink: 00:21:47

the former former VP of Sales for our company. And I was going

Andy Relmink: 00:21:50

to him saying, like, what do I do here, like, the person is

Andy Relmink: 00:21:53

just not getting the job. I don't know what to do. It's

Andy Relmink: 00:21:55

early on, but I'm nervous. And he was very quick to be like,

Andy Relmink: 00:21:59

cut them, you're done. Like, let them go. And I was like, and I

Andy Relmink: 00:22:03

just couldn't, I'm like, this is our fault. Like, we hired him.

Andy Relmink: 00:22:06

And we should have done a better job on the front end, knowing

Andy Relmink: 00:22:09

what we were getting. And you know, to take this individual

Andy Relmink: 00:22:12

from the job that they're doing, bring them in house and just

Andy Relmink: 00:22:14

say, Oh, you're not really what I'm looking for. Like, I just I

Andy Relmink: 00:22:17

couldn't handle that. And so I went against what our VP of

Andy Relmink: 00:22:21

Sales said I should do. And I said, I'm not gonna cut on like,

Andy Relmink: 00:22:25

this is on me just as much as it is on him. And so I just worked

Andy Relmink: 00:22:28

more with them and what had more patients. And, you know, like I

Andy Relmink: 00:22:32

said, we divested of that area, but the company we sold to, he

Andy Relmink: 00:22:35

still works for this day. And he's doing great. And he's

Andy Relmink: 00:22:40

progressed along, and he's a key member of their team now. And I

Andy Relmink: 00:22:43

take a lot of pride in the fact that I stuck with them. And, you

Andy Relmink: 00:22:48

know, didn't give up.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:22:50

That's powerful. I love that story. Because so

Wesleyne Greer: 00:22:53

many times, that's the answer I just cut off. And I often ask

Wesleyne Greer: 00:22:59

sales managers, sales leaders, when they have that low

Wesleyne Greer: 00:23:03

performing person, I asked them to be introspective. And I say,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:23:06

have you given that person? The best of you? Have you invested?

Wesleyne Greer: 00:23:10

Have you coached them to the best of your ability? And most

Wesleyne Greer: 00:23:12

times they say no. And so I'm like, it's on you. It's not on

Wesleyne Greer: 00:23:15

them. Right. And I think you realize that you said it's on

Wesleyne Greer: 00:23:18

me, it's not on him. Let me invest more and your investment

Wesleyne Greer: 00:23:22

paid off dividends. Yeah, that's awesome. Andy, I've enjoyed our

Wesleyne Greer: 00:23:27

time together. If somebody wants to reach out to you, or get in

Wesleyne Greer: 00:23:30

contact with you, what is the one best way? One best

Andy Relmink: 00:23:33

way is probably LinkedIn. Obviously, they can

Andy Relmink: 00:23:34

search me at Andy Ryan MC, and you'll find me and send a

Andy Relmink: 00:23:37

message. I'm pretty accessible. So they could also just google

Andy Relmink: 00:23:41

search HHR technology and call our office and say I want to

Andy Relmink: 00:23:44

talk to Andy and you'll get through at some point in time.

Andy Relmink: 00:23:46

And so yeah, I'm pretty accessible. But yeah, LinkedIn

Andy Relmink: 00:23:51

is a very easy way.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:23:53

Awesome, LinkedIn. And I'm just gonna

Wesleyne Greer: 00:23:54

give people another little tip there. Hey, all you cold callers

Wesleyne Greer: 00:23:58

out there. Sometimes you you don't think that you can access

Wesleyne Greer: 00:24:00

the decision maker. But have you ever thought about just Googling

Wesleyne Greer: 00:24:03

them picking up the phone and asking me bachelor tenacity that

Wesleyne Greer: 00:24:07

like you said, at some point, they'll get patched through

Wesleyne Greer: 00:24:09

tenacity go. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, guys. Make

Wesleyne Greer: 00:24:15

sure you check out Andy on LinkedIn. And thanks again so

Wesleyne Greer: 00:24:19

much for joining me for this episode of the snack sized sales

Wesleyne Greer: 00:24:23

podcast and remember in everything that you do transform

Wesleyne Greer: 00:24:27

your sales until next time,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:24:29

thank you for joining us today on the snack sized sales

Wesleyne Greer: 00:24:33

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Wesleyne Greer: 00:24:37

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