Paul has been a part of the MGF South West sales team now for 3 years, providing customers with support tailored to their needs across Devon, Somerset and Dorset.
Tell us a bit about your role
Day to day, this can be quite varied and involves me speaking to lots of different people. I regularly keep in contact with my customer base carrying out site visits, having meetings about existing projects whilst seeking out new opportunities in the area. I have regular meetings with customers, on a service level, to introduce them to new products that we’ve recently launched.
What do you enjoy about it the most?
I really enjoy the regular interaction I have with customers across my area, along with the variety of projects that I get involved in as each one differs with equipment requirements and ground conditions. I am heavily involved in Water and Utilities and AMP works, being based in the South West, so a lot of the projects I work on involve equipment requirements for tank installations and crane bases.
I communicate regularly with our Engineering team to ensure customer design briefs are completed and submitted correctly. I work closely with our depot and operations teams, at various stages, to make sure that equipment is available and delivered to site as required.
What was it that made you want to follow a career in technical sales?
I’ve always been a people person and could never imagine myself doing any other job! Over the years I’ve worked in a couple of different sales roles, I worked for a national company for 7 years who supplied temporary accommodation such as offices to construction sites. During this time, I was responsible for securing and managing some big accounts including Hinkley.
Describe your background and how you got into the industry
I started out working as a recruitment consultant, however as I started to do more work based out of the office, I realised that having a predominately office-based role wasn’t for me and that I wanted to be out on the road. I started to find out more about the kinds of skills companies were looking for within sales roles as I knew I lacked experience. I started to apply for a couple of sales roles and was given my first opportunity by a company who sold consumables such as resin and anchors to the construction industry.
What do you find to be the most interesting projects to work on?
The bigger and more complex projects tend to be the ones that you can really get your teeth into and can have lots of different elements which have different technical requirements depending on the type of works being carried out. A project that I worked on previously which I found interesting was at Livingston Academy in Bournemouth, the University building which consisted of many different elements needing support across the site including basement work, tank installations, trench runs, a crane-based excavation which all took place over a 12-month period.
What do you appreciate about having a strong working relationship with customers and how that benefits your job?
Over the last couple of years, I’ve built some great working relationships with customers in the Exeter area and being able to build their trust is something that’s important to me. As a technical sales representative you want to be the first point of call for your customers to come to when they have a problem and be able to understand what it is they need and provide them with the best solution and that they receive what it is that they asked for. To be successful in delivering this service to our customers as well as working closely with our Engineering and depot operations teams. It’s also important to have strong working relationships with the regional sales team as often there is cross over with territories and customers.
For help with your next project contact a member of our team!
