A Team-Building Session to Help Protect the World From Lightning

By: Avram Saunders

Once every year Lightning Eliminators & Consultants’ domestic and international team of representatives and staff gathers at our headquarters office in Boulder, CO for a three-day all-minds-on-deck conference. This year, we had a diverse group of sales representatives attend from such far-reaching locales as Russia, Scandinavia, Nigeria, Senegal and from various regions of the United States. It was a great opportunity for the finance and marketing teams to connect with both our international and domestic sales teams, create personal relationships and share market trends and new ideas.

This year’s conference consisted of informational sessions in which our staff educated our colleagues on the state of the business, engineering experts demonstrated products and all the teams discussed our strategic service offerings. Part of our 2013 strategy includes making a push to grow the consulting side of our business. From Smart Ground™ and site evaluations to the need for surge protection devices and systems, LEC is adding more value to customers by helping them evaluate their current state versus their desired state of lightning protection and related issues.

An open strategy session was presented so that everyone could learn about specific market conditions and needs around the world and we could gain the benefit of the broad experience of our representatives and staff in an interactive way. This session was particularly useful for planning and understanding market growth opportunities and product needs. One important realization which we confirmed was that there is a continuing and growing need for lightning protection within the storage tank industry, particularly with floating roof storage tanks. We all agreed that making a push on the Retractable Ground Assembly™ (RGA) is the correct approach, and we are looking forward to increasing sales around that product in the coming year. As part of an educational session, Nate Mascarenas, Manager of International Solutions at LEC, demonstrated the RGA and gave a detailed overview of the award-winning product. Watch the video.

Another session was dedicated to discussing marketing efforts and the importance of interlinks between lightningprotection.com and our sales reps’ individual websites. Because marketing is a two-way street, the group discussed many ways these independent manufacturer reps and our marketing team can support one another.

Since many of the international sales reps did not previously know one another, time was set aside for everyone to share stories, connections and insights. These talented representatives have an incredible drive to help one another. For instance, the rep from Senegal is fairly new and still learning the ins and outs of the products and services.  The Nigerian rep, who has been with the team for many years, now has planned a trip to Senegal to help our Senegalese colleague get comfortable with giving presentations.

Wrapping up the three-day conference were the one-on-one sessions. These sessions were used to help reps perfect a sales approach based on the unique features of their markets. This individualized training also helped the sales reps feel more comfortable with presentations and specific products and service offerings that they had questions about.

As CEO, I am incredibly grateful to have a strong team of sales representatives as part of the LEC’s front lines. They are smart, committed and savvy with our complex lightning protection products and services. With many out-of-the box points of view, they are an ongoing and integral part of the success of our company.