Sales Bit: The Character Behind the Company

A company’s character is built one interaction, one decision, and one relationship at a time. In this Sales Bit, Denny explores the qualities that shape strong character - trustworthiness, resilience, hard work, faith, and loyalty - and how they influence the way we serve customers and each other.

From Denny Vander Molen, President of Vermeer MidSouth and Founder and CEO of Jackson Endeavors:

Learning unashamedly propels our business forward.

"Being ignorant is not so much a shame as being unwilling to learn." — Benjamin Franklin

Learning is what got us here, and it is the secret sauce for how we will flourish going forward.

The Lagoon and the Fertilizer Spreader

I was reminded of my early days in construction on a recent trip to Iowa. As Vermeer grew, we needed an efficient, safe way to process wastewater. We constructed a sewage treatment lagoon on the property—a large, rectangular basin with sloped sides. However, we had to ensure that the wastewater wouldn't leach into the subsoil and contaminate the aquifers below.

The solution was Bentonite; a gray clay mined in Wyoming. To install it, we used a tool from a completely different world: Dad’s fertilizer spreader. It was the perfect machine to distribute a layer of Bentonite over the ground before we incorporated it into the soil to achieve a watertight seal. When it got wet the bentonite went to work.

From Sealing Basins to Drilling Holes

At the time, I was just working in the dirt. I had no idea that years later, when the HDD market began, that same "gray clay" would be the primary solution for drilling challenges.

Bentonite became the lifeblood of the drill hole—carrying cuttings out, providing lubrication, and stabilizing the walls. Today, we’ve evolved even further with easier-to-use products like ProAction to meet even tougher soil challenges. Because I was unashamedly eager to learn about that product in a lagoon in Iowa, I was ready to speak to its value when it became the solution for a whole new industry.

The "Why" Behind the Knowledge

Don’t take for granted what you can learn today. A "simple" product or a "minor" detail in a business process could be the very thing that impacts our future.

Ask yourself this week:

• What can we learn about someone, something, or somewhere today that could solve a problem later?

• How can we learn something new this week to make our impact even greater for the customer?

  
  

Our expertise isn't just about the machines we sell today; it’s about the accumulated wisdom we bring to the job site as well as the entire enterprise. From the manufacturer to the customer and then back again, there is wisdom to be gained.

"Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth." — II Timothy 2:15

Let’s be students of our craft this week so we can be better stewards for our customers.

Have a great sales week!