Tailored for success

Tory Gundersen's extensive knowledge helps him sell complex fluid power and automation equipment supplies to different types of customers

By -- Industrial Distribution, 9/1/2000

Tory Gundersen has just two years of sales experience under his belt, but with four months of comprehensive training at Womack Machine Supply Co. and a degree in industrial distribution he's the consummate professional.

Gundersen is Womack's outside sales representative in the northwest area of Dallas/Fort Worth for the Dallas-based fluid power and automation equipment distributorship. His expertise puts him on solid footing with customers ranging from defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. to niche OEM firms.

At the larger companies, Gundersen has a few dozen contacts spread across several departments. When visiting smaller firms, Gundersen's customer can range from the maintenance supervisor to the company owner. Gundersen varies his sales pitch with each visit to meet the objectives of each type of buyer. On the day Industrial Distribution spent with Gundersen, he visited three different categories of customers.

"Engineering wants a product that's high quality and fits the application from a functional standpoint," Gundersen explains. "Purchasing wants to get a competitive price and sometimes may not even know what exactly the component does. Maintenance is not necessarily concerned about price but may be primarily concerned with availability. They want something that will get their machine or their application up and running immediately."

A fact-finding mission

John Richardson, an engineer with Lockheed Martin in Grand Prairie, Texas, is impressed by the time and effort Gundersen puts into sales calls. Richardson is part of a team designing a prototype reconnaissance vehicle for a branch of the U.S. military.

The project is classified, so Gundersen can't see the equipment and would need a security clearance to get past the building's foyer. Some sales calls take place on a set of couches in the lobby. The room's main décor is a green U.S. Army PAC-3 missile, the successor to the Raytheon Patriot missile used in the Persian Gulf war. Mounted diagonally, the missile stretches from floor to ceiling and functions as a visual reminder of Lockheed's prowess in the defense sector.

Seemingly oblivious to the high-traffic entrance and exit area, Gundersen presents Richardson with a binder of select manufacturer's brochures. The front page is a customized datasheet that Gundersen developed for Richardson to easily record vehicle specifications such as weight and top speed. The datasheet instantly prompts a favorable reaction from Richardson.

"They're giving me a level of service maybe I didn't really expect," Richardson says. "So often I talk to vendors and they throw a catalog at you and say 'Call us when you're ready.' Tory has taken the time to customize [the datasheet] to our application."

Richardson was familiar with Womack by reputation, but his relationship with the distribution company began when he found Womack's Web site and called to inquire about hydraulics textbooks and motors.

"Tory came out almost immediately armed with catalogs," Richardson says. "Their response is very fast."

After working with Gundersen to select a hydraulic motor, Richardson feels comfortable consulting with him about other parts of the vehicle, such as vibration isolation components needed to protect sensitive parts.

From Gundersen's point of view, the value-added clichéapplies perfectly when serving a customer like Richardson. Sometimes Womack isn't the least expensive distributor, Gundersen says, so company reps strive to offer service and technical assistance.

"John knows what he wants to accomplish," Gundersen says. "He doesn't necessarily know all the options available in terms of products and technology changes. A project like this requires a lot of follow-up work and a high degree of communication with the customer."

Since Richardson's project is in the development stage, he's more concerned with support than price and availability of products. If the prototype is successful and the government places a large order, Gundersen's time and effort could lead to a high volume sale of parts. Yet even if the military doesn't fund production of the machine, Gundersen says his investment in time won't be lost.

"Any future project that that engineer works on, he's going to think of me first," Gundersen says. "It's a win-win deal for me."

Trained to troubleshoot

Gundersen earned his bachelor of science degree in industrial distribution from Texas A & M University in 1998. His studies included a couple of courses on hydraulic fluid power, but Gundersen says Womack's training-which begins with basic fluid power concepts and advances to transmission design-was much more intense.

The thought of learning so much in a short span of time was a little overwhelming at first, Gundersen says, but the pieces quickly fell together.

"It lays a really good foundation," Gundersen explains. "In going out with other salespeople you're able to see applications and how the things you've learned will apply to your customers."

Womack's investment in satellite dishes and video conferencing equipment is evidence of its commitment to provide consistent training to employees at all five locations. The company also uses the equipment to receive frequent product updates from the Bethlehem, Pa., office of its top supplier, Mannesman Rexroth Corp., which is headquartered in Chicago, Ill.

"We're not selling things [that] people grow up knowing how they function," explains Mark Squires, one of Womack's regional sales managers. "But once you learn to apply products, there's opportunity in just about any manufacturing facility."

Womack sells to industries as diverse as energy, construction and mining as well as semiconductor and pharmaceutical firms, so sales reps must be able to quickly analyze applications. Womack outside sales reps eventually gain enough expertise to conduct training classes for customers at the Dallas/Fort-Worth distribution center.

Timely delivery

For customers like Robert Wilson, a supervisor at a Trinity Industries, Inc. railcar manufacturing plant in Fort Worth, getting products quickly is key. Headquartered in Dallas, Trinity Industries manufactures transportation, construction and industrial products. Womack provides valves for the Fort Worth facility. Womack Systems L.C., a sister division of Womack Supply, designed and manufactured the electrical control panels and power units to Trinity's specifications.

"When they call you, they can't wait a day or two," Gundersen says. "They need it now. I've had to go there on a Saturday. When you're willing, that differentiates you from the next guy."

Wilson recalls Gundersen making an early morning visit as recently as this spring to bring a problem power unit back to Womack. Workers at the 24-hour Fort Worth plant build four or five train cars a day and Wilson says each hour of downtime costs the company between $100,000 and $120,000.

"If he doesn't come out that day, he comes back at 6 a.m.," Wilson says.

A mix of product availability, interchangeability and a competitive price is important to Trench-Tech International, Inc. in Roanoke. Trench-Tech leases and manufactures large machines, such as chain and wheel trenchers, rocksaws and canal excavators, that dig through rock on construction sites.

Womack holds dedicated inventory for Trench-Tech, which makes the manufacturer a typical customer. A large portion of Womack's approximately $7 million inventory base is customer-specific, but sales reps can work out arrangements with management to sell extra parts kept on hand for customer emergencies.

Gundersen makes frequent check-up calls and visits Trench-Tech's shop floor every two weeks or so to help the family-owned business size, evaluate and select components like cartridge valves, cylinders and hydraulic motors.

"One little thing, such as a different size port on a pump, can make the difference between 12 weeks to deliver or on the shelf," Gundersen says.

Randy Lennard, Trench-Tech's production manager, says Gundersen's and Womack's support is particularly important when the machines are used in projects halfway around the globe. Contractors often face penalty clauses designed to curb project delays, so keeping the equipment up and running is critical.

"You don't appreciate how companies like Womack can act and react when you need something until you go to Thailand," Lennard says.

Trench-Tech is building a prototype machine this year, and Gundersen is working with John Gilbert, Trench-Tech's vice president and an engineer, at each step in the process. The machine is designed to be both heavy-duty and operator friendly and will mesh a computerized hydraulic system with the motor.

"Womack's working on a sophisticated hydraulic system [with us]," Gilbert says. "[The machine] now has a plain vanilla system."

Between each sales call, Gundersen uses his cell phone to pick up messages and interact with regional sales manager Tom Livesay about other customers' needs and projects.

In one case, it takes several phone calls to get permission to sell a pump from the dedicated inventory of another salesperson in Tulsa. Gundersen arranges to have the part shipped to the Dallas office in time for him to hand-deliver it the following week. The complex negotiation is all part of a day's work for Gundersen.

"Every customer is different as well as every application," Gundersen says. "That's part of what makes it interesting. Some customers require a lot more attention than others. Some you see every couple of months. Others require the technical assistance and the constant relationship and exchange of information."

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