July 24, 2024 • 25 mins
In this episode, we sit down with some of our talented Technical Sales Associates (TSAs) to explore their journeys from recent college graduates to key players in industrial automation.
Terry Busch interviews TSA alumnus and program leader, Andrew Jagger, along with current TSAs Adam Bohn, Cody Branch, and Mikal Hofstad. Discover how the program equips participants with the skills and confidence needed for customer-facing roles, combining technical training with real-world applications.
During the news segment, we cover NIS2 compliance and its implications for various sectors, including energy, transportation, banking, and more. Terry also breaks down the differences between Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and Deep Learning (DL), highlighting their applications in industrial automation.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Music.
(00:07):
Welcome to RunMode, an industrial automation podcast by Power/mation.
In today's episode, we've invited a panel of participants from the Technical
Sales Associate Program for a discussion on how Power/mation is reaching the
next generation of engineering-educated,
technically competent, and real-world-ready solution providers.
(00:31):
Let's talk about some industry news. Have you heard about NIS2,
and are you NIS2 compliant?
Do you need to be NIS2 compliant? And what is NIS2?
Those are some great questions. But before we get into NIS2,
let's talk about a parallel between cybersecurity and machine functional safety world.
Back in the 80s and 90s, when I was a controls engineer at a manufacturing plant,
(00:53):
they said, just don't put your hand in that machine.
And that's how we dealt with an unsafe environment. But as you can imagine,
a lot of people might have gotten hurt and a lot of companies might have gotten sued.
So OSHA mandated specific requirements related to PPE or personal protective
equipment in the workplace.
And according to this regulation, employers are required to have verified workplace
(01:15):
hazard assessments and conduct and document these assessments.
That documentation should include the workplace evaluated, who did the assessment,
the date of the assessment, and what the hazard was.
And the hazard assessment basically boils down to how often someone could would
get hurt and the severity of that hurt.
And that assessment should also include, you know, what to do to make sure that the machine is safe.
(01:38):
Back to the topic at hand. Network and Information Systems, or NIS,
is an EU directive from 2016.
NIS 2 is an update to that directive, providing the new EU-wide legislation on cybersecurity.
If your organization belongs to one of the following sectors, you must comply by 2024.
The sectors are grouped into essential entities and important entities.
(02:01):
Essential entities will be audited for compliance, while important entities
will be required to produce the documentation upon an incident happening.
So it's sort of a proactive versus reactive reaction.
However, both groups must be compliant. So both groups must go through this process.
(02:22):
The entities in this directive include, but are not limited to,
energy, transportation, banking, health services, water-wastewater,
digital infrastructure, public administration, aerospace,
postal services, waste management, digital providers, and research.
It also includes manufacture of medical devices, chemicals, electronics,
(02:43):
pharmaceuticals, motor vehicles, and on and on.
It might be easier to say who doesn't need to be compliant. line.
What exactly does NIS2 require you to do? Well, NIS2 requires your management
to be directly involved, you must implement cybersecurity measures,
and you must fulfill your reporting obligations.
In its basic form, it is cybersecurity equivalent of machine functional safety hazard assessment.
(03:07):
What happens if the authorities find out that you're not NIS2 compliant?
They can suspend your commercial activities, hold management personally liable
for breach of duty, prohibit management from exercising these functions.
Issue a fine up to 10 million euros per year or 2% of the total annual turnover,
whichever is higher. Now that's a big stick.
(03:29):
For more information on how Power/mation can help you with your machine functional
safety needs or your cybersecurity needs, please reach out to your Power/mation salesperson.
Now let's discuss the differences between AI, machine learning, and deep learning.
Artificial intelligence or AI is all over the press and there's a bunch of marketing
hype and speculation on what it can do for us in the future.
(03:51):
AI is a broad term encompassing any machine that can simulate human intelligence
and involves creating systems capable of performing tasks that typically require
human intelligence, such as reasoning, problem solving, and decision making.
AI can be rule-based using predefined rules or machine learning-based where it learns from data.
(04:12):
Some AI applications Applications include natural language processing for chatbots
and language translations, as well as image recognition with vision systems and robotics.
This is why AI is believed to be a good fit for automation.
Machine learning, on the other hand, or ML, is a subfield of AI.
It focuses on algorithms trained on data to produce adaptable models and enables
(04:36):
machines to learn from examples and improve their performance over time.
So ML models can perform a variety of complex tasks without explicit programming.
The key difference between AI and ML is that ML requires minimal human intervention.
It can train on smaller data sets, makes simpler, easier, more linear corrections.
(04:59):
It can run in traditional CPUs. Some machine learning applications include recommendation
systems for movies on Netflix, fraud detection on financial transactions,
medical diagnostics or diagnosis based on patient data, predictive maintenance for machinery.
Deep learning, or DL, is a subset of machine learning that uses artificial neural
(05:21):
networks, multiple layers, or what is known as deep architectures.
It mimics the learning process of the human brain by creating complex representations.
The key differences between ML and DL is that DL requires large amounts of data.
It learns on its own from the environment in past mistakes.
It achieves higher accuracy but requires longer training.
(05:45):
It makes non-linear complex correlations. It also needs specialized GPUs or
graphics processing units for training.
Some deep learning algorithms or applications include image classification like
identifying objects and photos, speech recognition,
virtual assistants like Siri or Alexa, a natural language understanding like
(06:07):
chatbots or sediment analysis to really understand the the feeling of the person
that is typing in the chat bot, and also autonomous vehicles and self-driving cars.
As technology advances, these fields continue to shape our world,
From personalized recommendations to groundbreaking medical discoveries,
whether you're a data scientist or just curious, understanding these concepts
(06:29):
is essential in today's AI-driven landscape.
You're here with Andrew Jagger and the TSA Group, and he wanted to tell us how
you started at Power/mation and how you got to be where you are now.
Sure. Thanks, Terry, for having us. so Andrew
Jagger and yeah I've been at Power/mation for 15
(06:50):
years and I started as a TSA so that's
what these three are in at Power/mation and
when I got to Power/mation I was kind of 2008 low economy and I didn't I had
just lost my job working at a robotic integrator only for a year right so just
out of school got a quick job and then the economy tank I started rebuilding the car engine.
(07:16):
And went to a neighborhood get-together,
and there was a guy there that said, hey, what are you up to?
I was like, ah, rebuilding a car engine, just lost my job.
He goes, oh, what did you do? And I was like, physics, but then I went into engineering,
robotics and and engineering and then he said
oh i know this place you should go check out Power/mation i
went and interviewed there for the tsa role
(07:37):
and i actually took a training class from you
the next week after i got the job so yeah i just kind of fell into Power/mation
as like a career path i didn't know what i was getting myself into but yeah
that's always the right it just has been 15 years are so i remember when we
were in that time and that's when the last recession was hitting.
(07:58):
We were looking for people that were in the organization that could do other roles.
And so one role is business development. Back then it might've been called application
engineering, but we were working towards trying to figure out who within an
organization could help support the sales team.
And so you didn't really raise your hand per se, but your skills shined a little
(08:19):
bit brighter than others.
Yeah. It was too smart to say no, right?
You were picked as somebody that could be part of that TSA program where you
could learn more technical things and get in front of the customers,
not just being an inside person, not that it's a bad role, but you don't get
out in front of customers as much as you would if you're a business development
(08:39):
or application engineer.
So why don't you talk a little bit about how that worked and how we worked together?
Maybe you're going to be too honest about how you're working with me in the past. No.
So at that time in 2008, the TSA role was really more along the lines of an
inside sales tech support role.
And our priority was to service customers via the phone or via email.
(09:06):
And I really loved servicing customers who had PLC questions.
And there was another TSA who I worked with, and he liked working with him on
motor control circuits.
So him and I would split those tech support roles and.
When I got to do the PLC programming questions, I worked with you.
(09:26):
And so you kind of really guided me down that path of taking those on deeper and deeper and deeper.
And that's when I think it was 2010, 2011, where we had the discussion,
hey, would you like to take this further?
And you and I started doing the training classes together and PLC programming
and kind of becoming a leader on that side of the product categories.
(09:47):
Yeah, in early stages of that, we thought about, you know, how do we get people to grow?
And so standing in front of a group, doing seminars, doing training classes.
Feeling comfortable with being in front of that group.
And those are some skills that we thought were important to be there.
Believe it or not, some people don't like to be standing in front of a presentation and delivering it.
So thinking about those things sort of loosely, then we turned out to what we
(10:11):
have today, which is sort of moving throughout the organization,
which talk a little bit about the different stages, I guess you call it,
or phases that they would work through. Yeah. For the TSA program? Yeah.
Yeah. So the, I became the TSA program leader back in January.
And what I've determined was that we needed to create a kind of a structure
(10:32):
around what our program looks like.
And we kind of put it into different phases of, of, I don't know,
education for that, for that time of the program.
And they kind of start off with an operations program.
(10:53):
So you figure out how boxes go out the door.
And then we start to talk about business development rotation where you're working on the technology.
And then the solutions part of the program is where you're working with our
engineers and doing larger projects.
And then we finally jump into the sales side of the program.
(11:14):
And that brings us to our special guest today. You guys have been in the program
much to introduce yourself, how long you've been in the program and maybe a
little of your background, what you went to school for and whatnot.
Absolutely. So my name is Adam Bone. I've been a technical sales associate since
last June, graduated from Iowa State.
I started studying mechanical engineering, graduated with a degree in industrial
(11:35):
engineering, as well as engineering sales minor and came to Power/mation because
I wanted to do a customer facing role with a technical organization.
Cool. Yeah. Cody Branch also went to Iowa State with mechanical engineering.
I started about a year ago, same time as Adam.
I really kind of just happened to walk by Power/mation and saw the signed sales engineering.
(11:57):
And I thought, well, that's different. And then I started talking to him and
here I am today. So I guess that's kind of how that happened.
Yeah. My name is Michael Hofstad. I've been with Power/mation since last January,
so about a year and four months. I as well went to Iowa State.
Background in mechanical engineering and was also in the sales engineering program.
(12:19):
Yeah, I knew an older TSA with Power/mation and she kind of introduced me to the company.
And so that's how I ended up here. And earlier, Adam, you were talking off screen
about how the TSA program sort of was attractive to you in that sales engineering role.
I want you to speak a little bit on that, why you picked Power/mation.
(12:39):
Absolutely. So I started out going to Iowa State really wanting to do product
development engineering.
And throughout the course of a couple of internships, I found out that that
wasn't quite the right role for me.
I really wanted to do something customer facing where there were different challenges
every day and a continuous drive to learn more and learn more about new technologies.
(13:00):
So about two years into my studies at Iowa State, I discovered sales engineering.
I got very lucky that Iowa State had a very strong sales engineering program.
And when I heard about Power/mation, I'd had one internship that was focused
on sales support engineering.
And one of the things I knew I was looking for was a technical sales first,
(13:21):
a company that really valued training their people on a wide variety of breadth of technologies.
So when I was talking to Adam Jackson at the career fair, and he said,
Power/mation is a technical sales force that really resonated with me.
When I spoke with some of my mentors in industrial automation at Iowa State,
they had a background in industrial automation distribution.
(13:45):
And they said Power/mation turns out some of the most technical,
most highly trained sales engineers, account representatives in the industry.
That was what really sold Power/mation for me. And the duration of the TSA program
being a 12, 18, 24-month program really gives you the skills that you need to
go out and be confident in your role as a sales engineer.
(14:06):
So in that 24 month program, where do each of you, where are you in what phase
and how much more, how much, how many hours and days or years have you been
into it and how many more do you have to go?
Yeah. So I've been, yeah, I'm
transitioning out of the BDM role
that Andrew was talking about kind of more into that learning
(14:28):
about accounts represented like representing accounts
and going into the sales side of things so my
role right now is to work with underserviced accounts
who don't necessarily have a rep tied to them and try and introduce them to
some new technologies some new ideas that could hopefully help them with their
manufacturing processes and i have let's see maybe a month or two left until
(14:52):
i am officially done with the tsa program And at that time,
we're transitioning you from a TSA into an official account rep where you'd
be working with commission and looking for your own partners or customers and partners to work with.
Yeah. So I am just finishing up solution, my time with the solutions group or engineering group.
(15:17):
I mean, then I'll be going into BDM, but with the solutions group,
you know, it's, you really are working a lot with the nitty gritty details of a project, right?
It's the, what exact component do we need here?
It's less about, you know, the overall technology.
Sometimes you really get to dive in into the nitty gritty of stuff.
And it's definitely something that you You need to know how to do and,
(15:40):
you know, what is needed when you're eventually out talking to customers.
And let's say there's a problem, you need to be able to know where that problem
is and how to sort of navigate that.
And I just now transitioning into the solutions role that Cody's been filling.
That's actually why I'm up in St. Paul this week with you guys.
But up until now, I've been doing the business development role.
(16:01):
So working with our BDMs like Terry and Andrew, as well as some of ours that were down in Milwaukee.
One of the focuses that I've had in the BDM role was working on demos for our
motion BDM, as well as some safety products.
One of the big projects I've had has been radar-based safety systems through
one of our vendors, Inspect, adding that to both our St.
(16:23):
Paul demos, as well as the standing demo that we have over in Milwaukee.
And the business development role is really where you get to dive into specific
technologies, some of the more innovative stuff that we have,
not the day-to-day and become more confident with all of our products.
Yeah, that's the nice thing about being in the solutions group is that you can
(16:44):
walk a mile in the customer's shoes.
As a salesperson, you might sell them the things that they would put together,
their successes on their shoulders or whether or not they commission it properly.
Solutions Group allows us to understand what it takes to make things go from beginning to end.
So you've got to be 100% complete with something. You can't just sell them the
(17:04):
parts and hope that somebody else is going to come along.
And that's a very important part of what we do at Power/mation over the last
20 years with the Solutions Group is making sure that we do things correctly all the way to the end.
We also do kitting and bundling and some of those types of things that are a
little bit more warehouse driven as opposed to actual engineering,
But it's a valuable part of what we do as an organization. So, yeah.
(17:55):
If they don't know the answer that they really need. really getting asked from
a customer. We don't want them to feel,
Like they're stuck having to say, oh, I'm not sure. And I'll get back to you right away.
They'll say, hey, I know that part. I know that part.
Not sure about that one. I'll get back to you. And then they have people because
they've worked in the industry for a year and a half to rely on.
(18:19):
They have those connections already.
So they're not starting off from scratch. They have that kind of background
already when they enter in the sales workforce or the,
you know, servicing our customers and calling on them, making sure that their processes are going.
And I think it's safe to say that Power Mission prides themselves on highly
(18:41):
technical salespeople.
So having them go through a two-year process to get trained,
and not that you're not adding value, but you're not part of the employee side of it, right?
Because you're in training. But we're investing a tremendous amount of money
and a tremendous amount of time so that when you do start touching those customers,
it's quality touch, very educated touch, and then we're adding that value so
(19:05):
that when you're leaving, we're not just kind of pushing you out of the nest,
so to speak, and having to go do your own things.
So how does the TSA program prepare you for a future customer-facing position?
Yeah, there are a lot of things that university teaches you about technical
field, but there's a lot of things that they don't. Some of the technologies
that we work with are something that Iowa State or really any university doesn't
(19:27):
touch on because it's specific to our industrial automation roles. rules.
An example that comes to mind is going to the Horner PLC training class and
learning how to program a Modbus TCP port, and then going back and relearning
that with Andrew and putting that into practice with business development managers,
and then go through your BDM role and doing it two, three more times for demos
(19:48):
so that when you get out and you're in front of a customer, it's not the first
time that you're doing something, it's the fifth or sixth time that you're doing
something. So you can truly be confident in that.
Yeah. Like, I don't know, all i'm a mechanical guy right
so i've kind of seen some of the actuators and
motors before like in school and for him but i
didn't know anything about electricity i thought it was magic until it showed
(20:09):
up and now i'm you know i can wire stuff i won't
know what to normally close normally open contact it like it's
you really just the baseline is so much higher than where an average engineer
i think comes in and it's it helps a lot i think yeah i would say another Another
important thing that we learned a lot throughout the TSA program is some of
(20:31):
those soft skills like coming in.
Cody and I kind of worked with Andrew to develop a program.
We kind of coined TSAs on the move where we can practice some of those soft
skills in a low risk environment.
So kind of going into accounts that.
Power/mation has never worked with before and walking in there and introducing
(20:52):
Power/mation to them and just learning how to have that initial conversation and how to,
yeah, just communicate with someone that you've never met before and feel comfortable
throughout that whole process of introducing yourself and your company to someone.
That also helped us like see some real world examples.
We're going into these companies, they're giving us a tour and we're seeing,
(21:15):
oh, that's what a printing press looks like. That's how they're converting the pay.
I mean, it's stuff that really cool experiences for sure.
Speaking of learning in a low-risk environment, the tech support side of things
that we get to do for some of our house accounts and for some of our senior
reps and their accounts, working with them, working with business development managers.
So if we do make a mistake, because everyone's going to make a mistake when
(21:38):
they're in a new industry learning new things,
we have the opportunity to make those mistakes in a controlled environment where
someone can come in and correct those so that we can bring the right solutions
to the customers and learn from it so that when we're out in the field,
we do bring those right solutions to the customers.
Yeah, you kind of have us looking over your shoulder all the time going.
Well, maybe we can, a little advice here, a little prod there,
(22:00):
making sure you're walking the path that is appropriate for the customer,
making sure it's the right answer or the appropriate solution, right?
We're looking at this program as trying to inspire you guys to want to be salespeople in the industry.
And we want you to have experience, have positive experience.
(22:21):
But we also want you to fail a little bit so that you're learning from those failures.
Not big failures, just small ones. Just so that you understand that business
is creating trust with our customers.
And with that trust, you will increase your relationship with that customer
(22:41):
and then with better relationships, usually become better business partners.
And so that's kind of a goal within Power/mation is to inspire you guys to work
with customers and gain that.
And when, when I look at the program at a whole, in a whole,
it's, it's to gain your, to,
(23:03):
to give you guys confidence to work with the entire team from our inside sales
team, our warehouse team.
Our engineers, our business development team, which is on the technical side.
And then with our 20 to 50 to 100 manufacturers that we work with and having
(23:23):
those relationships so that when you're in front of the customer,
it's not just Adam or Cody or Mikkel sitting in front of the customer.
It's Adam with 150 people behind him or her saying,
hey, I'm going to be Power/mation in front of that customer and really having
(23:45):
that confidence to have that with your training is kind of our goal. wall.
And it's a two-year investment that Power/mation is making into us so that we
can be confident when we get out there into the sales force.
And that's something that I don't think we can state too much how much we appreciate that.
And back in the early days when Andrew started, it was the technical role,
(24:08):
inside sales kind of technical role.
And the value of that role has morphed and increased over time.
And so now we're getting to the point where we actually have a structure,
we have a person in charge, we have flow, and we can get a lot more people through
the program so that they can know what they're getting themselves into.
And when they come out on the other end, they can add that value.
(24:30):
All right. Well, thanks a lot for joining us today and we'll be working together.
Thanks, Terry. Thanks very much, Terry.
(24:51):
Music.
Music.
(00:07):
Welcome to RunMode, an industrial automation podcast by Power/mation.
In today's episode, we've invited a panel of participants from the Technical
Sales Associate Program for a discussion on how Power/mation is reaching the
next generation of engineering-educated,
technically competent, and real-world-ready solution providers.
(00:31):
Let's talk about some industry news. Have you heard about NIS2,
and are you NIS2 compliant?
Do you need to be NIS2 compliant? And what is NIS2?
Those are some great questions. But before we get into NIS2,
let's talk about a parallel between cybersecurity and machine functional safety world.
Back in the 80s and 90s, when I was a controls engineer at a manufacturing plant,
(00:53):
they said, just don't put your hand in that machine.
And that's how we dealt with an unsafe environment. But as you can imagine,
a lot of people might have gotten hurt and a lot of companies might have gotten sued.
So OSHA mandated specific requirements related to PPE or personal protective
equipment in the workplace.
And according to this regulation, employers are required to have verified workplace
(01:15):
hazard assessments and conduct and document these assessments.
That documentation should include the workplace evaluated, who did the assessment,
the date of the assessment, and what the hazard was.
And the hazard assessment basically boils down to how often someone could would
get hurt and the severity of that hurt.
And that assessment should also include, you know, what to do to make sure that the machine is safe.
(01:38):
Back to the topic at hand. Network and Information Systems, or NIS,
is an EU directive from 2016.
NIS 2 is an update to that directive, providing the new EU-wide legislation on cybersecurity.
If your organization belongs to one of the following sectors, you must comply by 2024.
The sectors are grouped into essential entities and important entities.
(02:01):
Essential entities will be audited for compliance, while important entities
will be required to produce the documentation upon an incident happening.
So it's sort of a proactive versus reactive reaction.
However, both groups must be compliant. So both groups must go through this process.
(02:22):
The entities in this directive include, but are not limited to,
energy, transportation, banking, health services, water-wastewater,
digital infrastructure, public administration, aerospace,
postal services, waste management, digital providers, and research.
It also includes manufacture of medical devices, chemicals, electronics,
(02:43):
pharmaceuticals, motor vehicles, and on and on.
It might be easier to say who doesn't need to be compliant. line.
What exactly does NIS2 require you to do? Well, NIS2 requires your management
to be directly involved, you must implement cybersecurity measures,
and you must fulfill your reporting obligations.
In its basic form, it is cybersecurity equivalent of machine functional safety hazard assessment.
(03:07):
What happens if the authorities find out that you're not NIS2 compliant?
They can suspend your commercial activities, hold management personally liable
for breach of duty, prohibit management from exercising these functions.
Issue a fine up to 10 million euros per year or 2% of the total annual turnover,
whichever is higher. Now that's a big stick.
(03:29):
For more information on how Power/mation can help you with your machine functional
safety needs or your cybersecurity needs, please reach out to your Power/mation salesperson.
Now let's discuss the differences between AI, machine learning, and deep learning.
Artificial intelligence or AI is all over the press and there's a bunch of marketing
hype and speculation on what it can do for us in the future.
(03:51):
AI is a broad term encompassing any machine that can simulate human intelligence
and involves creating systems capable of performing tasks that typically require
human intelligence, such as reasoning, problem solving, and decision making.
AI can be rule-based using predefined rules or machine learning-based where it learns from data.
(04:12):
Some AI applications Applications include natural language processing for chatbots
and language translations, as well as image recognition with vision systems and robotics.
This is why AI is believed to be a good fit for automation.
Machine learning, on the other hand, or ML, is a subfield of AI.
It focuses on algorithms trained on data to produce adaptable models and enables
(04:36):
machines to learn from examples and improve their performance over time.
So ML models can perform a variety of complex tasks without explicit programming.
The key difference between AI and ML is that ML requires minimal human intervention.
It can train on smaller data sets, makes simpler, easier, more linear corrections.
(04:59):
It can run in traditional CPUs. Some machine learning applications include recommendation
systems for movies on Netflix, fraud detection on financial transactions,
medical diagnostics or diagnosis based on patient data, predictive maintenance for machinery.
Deep learning, or DL, is a subset of machine learning that uses artificial neural
(05:21):
networks, multiple layers, or what is known as deep architectures.
It mimics the learning process of the human brain by creating complex representations.
The key differences between ML and DL is that DL requires large amounts of data.
It learns on its own from the environment in past mistakes.
It achieves higher accuracy but requires longer training.
(05:45):
It makes non-linear complex correlations. It also needs specialized GPUs or
graphics processing units for training.
Some deep learning algorithms or applications include image classification like
identifying objects and photos, speech recognition,
virtual assistants like Siri or Alexa, a natural language understanding like
(06:07):
chatbots or sediment analysis to really understand the the feeling of the person
that is typing in the chat bot, and also autonomous vehicles and self-driving cars.
As technology advances, these fields continue to shape our world,
From personalized recommendations to groundbreaking medical discoveries,
whether you're a data scientist or just curious, understanding these concepts
(06:29):
is essential in today's AI-driven landscape.
You're here with Andrew Jagger and the TSA Group, and he wanted to tell us how
you started at Power/mation and how you got to be where you are now.
Sure. Thanks, Terry, for having us. so Andrew
Jagger and yeah I've been at Power/mation for 15
(06:50):
years and I started as a TSA so that's
what these three are in at Power/mation and
when I got to Power/mation I was kind of 2008 low economy and I didn't I had
just lost my job working at a robotic integrator only for a year right so just
out of school got a quick job and then the economy tank I started rebuilding the car engine.
(07:16):
And went to a neighborhood get-together,
and there was a guy there that said, hey, what are you up to?
I was like, ah, rebuilding a car engine, just lost my job.
He goes, oh, what did you do? And I was like, physics, but then I went into engineering,
robotics and and engineering and then he said
oh i know this place you should go check out Power/mation i
went and interviewed there for the tsa role
(07:37):
and i actually took a training class from you
the next week after i got the job so yeah i just kind of fell into Power/mation
as like a career path i didn't know what i was getting myself into but yeah
that's always the right it just has been 15 years are so i remember when we
were in that time and that's when the last recession was hitting.
(07:58):
We were looking for people that were in the organization that could do other roles.
And so one role is business development. Back then it might've been called application
engineering, but we were working towards trying to figure out who within an
organization could help support the sales team.
And so you didn't really raise your hand per se, but your skills shined a little
(08:19):
bit brighter than others.
Yeah. It was too smart to say no, right?
You were picked as somebody that could be part of that TSA program where you
could learn more technical things and get in front of the customers,
not just being an inside person, not that it's a bad role, but you don't get
out in front of customers as much as you would if you're a business development
(08:39):
or application engineer.
So why don't you talk a little bit about how that worked and how we worked together?
Maybe you're going to be too honest about how you're working with me in the past. No.
So at that time in 2008, the TSA role was really more along the lines of an
inside sales tech support role.
And our priority was to service customers via the phone or via email.
(09:06):
And I really loved servicing customers who had PLC questions.
And there was another TSA who I worked with, and he liked working with him on
motor control circuits.
So him and I would split those tech support roles and.
When I got to do the PLC programming questions, I worked with you.
(09:26):
And so you kind of really guided me down that path of taking those on deeper and deeper and deeper.
And that's when I think it was 2010, 2011, where we had the discussion,
hey, would you like to take this further?
And you and I started doing the training classes together and PLC programming
and kind of becoming a leader on that side of the product categories.
(09:47):
Yeah, in early stages of that, we thought about, you know, how do we get people to grow?
And so standing in front of a group, doing seminars, doing training classes.
Feeling comfortable with being in front of that group.
And those are some skills that we thought were important to be there.
Believe it or not, some people don't like to be standing in front of a presentation and delivering it.
So thinking about those things sort of loosely, then we turned out to what we
(10:11):
have today, which is sort of moving throughout the organization,
which talk a little bit about the different stages, I guess you call it,
or phases that they would work through. Yeah. For the TSA program? Yeah.
Yeah. So the, I became the TSA program leader back in January.
And what I've determined was that we needed to create a kind of a structure
(10:32):
around what our program looks like.
And we kind of put it into different phases of, of, I don't know,
education for that, for that time of the program.
And they kind of start off with an operations program.
(10:53):
So you figure out how boxes go out the door.
And then we start to talk about business development rotation where you're working on the technology.
And then the solutions part of the program is where you're working with our
engineers and doing larger projects.
And then we finally jump into the sales side of the program.
(11:14):
And that brings us to our special guest today. You guys have been in the program
much to introduce yourself, how long you've been in the program and maybe a
little of your background, what you went to school for and whatnot.
Absolutely. So my name is Adam Bone. I've been a technical sales associate since
last June, graduated from Iowa State.
I started studying mechanical engineering, graduated with a degree in industrial
(11:35):
engineering, as well as engineering sales minor and came to Power/mation because
I wanted to do a customer facing role with a technical organization.
Cool. Yeah. Cody Branch also went to Iowa State with mechanical engineering.
I started about a year ago, same time as Adam.
I really kind of just happened to walk by Power/mation and saw the signed sales engineering.
(11:57):
And I thought, well, that's different. And then I started talking to him and
here I am today. So I guess that's kind of how that happened.
Yeah. My name is Michael Hofstad. I've been with Power/mation since last January,
so about a year and four months. I as well went to Iowa State.
Background in mechanical engineering and was also in the sales engineering program.
(12:19):
Yeah, I knew an older TSA with Power/mation and she kind of introduced me to the company.
And so that's how I ended up here. And earlier, Adam, you were talking off screen
about how the TSA program sort of was attractive to you in that sales engineering role.
I want you to speak a little bit on that, why you picked Power/mation.
(12:39):
Absolutely. So I started out going to Iowa State really wanting to do product
development engineering.
And throughout the course of a couple of internships, I found out that that
wasn't quite the right role for me.
I really wanted to do something customer facing where there were different challenges
every day and a continuous drive to learn more and learn more about new technologies.
(13:00):
So about two years into my studies at Iowa State, I discovered sales engineering.
I got very lucky that Iowa State had a very strong sales engineering program.
And when I heard about Power/mation, I'd had one internship that was focused
on sales support engineering.
And one of the things I knew I was looking for was a technical sales first,
(13:21):
a company that really valued training their people on a wide variety of breadth of technologies.
So when I was talking to Adam Jackson at the career fair, and he said,
Power/mation is a technical sales force that really resonated with me.
When I spoke with some of my mentors in industrial automation at Iowa State,
they had a background in industrial automation distribution.
(13:45):
And they said Power/mation turns out some of the most technical,
most highly trained sales engineers, account representatives in the industry.
That was what really sold Power/mation for me. And the duration of the TSA program
being a 12, 18, 24-month program really gives you the skills that you need to
go out and be confident in your role as a sales engineer.
(14:06):
So in that 24 month program, where do each of you, where are you in what phase
and how much more, how much, how many hours and days or years have you been
into it and how many more do you have to go?
Yeah. So I've been, yeah, I'm
transitioning out of the BDM role
that Andrew was talking about kind of more into that learning
(14:28):
about accounts represented like representing accounts
and going into the sales side of things so my
role right now is to work with underserviced accounts
who don't necessarily have a rep tied to them and try and introduce them to
some new technologies some new ideas that could hopefully help them with their
manufacturing processes and i have let's see maybe a month or two left until
(14:52):
i am officially done with the tsa program And at that time,
we're transitioning you from a TSA into an official account rep where you'd
be working with commission and looking for your own partners or customers and partners to work with.
Yeah. So I am just finishing up solution, my time with the solutions group or engineering group.
(15:17):
I mean, then I'll be going into BDM, but with the solutions group,
you know, it's, you really are working a lot with the nitty gritty details of a project, right?
It's the, what exact component do we need here?
It's less about, you know, the overall technology.
Sometimes you really get to dive in into the nitty gritty of stuff.
And it's definitely something that you You need to know how to do and,
(15:40):
you know, what is needed when you're eventually out talking to customers.
And let's say there's a problem, you need to be able to know where that problem
is and how to sort of navigate that.
And I just now transitioning into the solutions role that Cody's been filling.
That's actually why I'm up in St. Paul this week with you guys.
But up until now, I've been doing the business development role.
(16:01):
So working with our BDMs like Terry and Andrew, as well as some of ours that were down in Milwaukee.
One of the focuses that I've had in the BDM role was working on demos for our
motion BDM, as well as some safety products.
One of the big projects I've had has been radar-based safety systems through
one of our vendors, Inspect, adding that to both our St.
(16:23):
Paul demos, as well as the standing demo that we have over in Milwaukee.
And the business development role is really where you get to dive into specific
technologies, some of the more innovative stuff that we have,
not the day-to-day and become more confident with all of our products.
Yeah, that's the nice thing about being in the solutions group is that you can
(16:44):
walk a mile in the customer's shoes.
As a salesperson, you might sell them the things that they would put together,
their successes on their shoulders or whether or not they commission it properly.
Solutions Group allows us to understand what it takes to make things go from beginning to end.
So you've got to be 100% complete with something. You can't just sell them the
(17:04):
parts and hope that somebody else is going to come along.
And that's a very important part of what we do at Power/mation over the last
20 years with the Solutions Group is making sure that we do things correctly all the way to the end.
We also do kitting and bundling and some of those types of things that are a
little bit more warehouse driven as opposed to actual engineering,
But it's a valuable part of what we do as an organization. So, yeah.
(17:55):
If they don't know the answer that they really need. really getting asked from
a customer. We don't want them to feel,
Like they're stuck having to say, oh, I'm not sure. And I'll get back to you right away.
They'll say, hey, I know that part. I know that part.
Not sure about that one. I'll get back to you. And then they have people because
they've worked in the industry for a year and a half to rely on.
(18:19):
They have those connections already.
So they're not starting off from scratch. They have that kind of background
already when they enter in the sales workforce or the,
you know, servicing our customers and calling on them, making sure that their processes are going.
And I think it's safe to say that Power Mission prides themselves on highly
(18:41):
technical salespeople.
So having them go through a two-year process to get trained,
and not that you're not adding value, but you're not part of the employee side of it, right?
Because you're in training. But we're investing a tremendous amount of money
and a tremendous amount of time so that when you do start touching those customers,
it's quality touch, very educated touch, and then we're adding that value so
(19:05):
that when you're leaving, we're not just kind of pushing you out of the nest,
so to speak, and having to go do your own things.
So how does the TSA program prepare you for a future customer-facing position?
Yeah, there are a lot of things that university teaches you about technical
field, but there's a lot of things that they don't. Some of the technologies
that we work with are something that Iowa State or really any university doesn't
(19:27):
touch on because it's specific to our industrial automation roles. rules.
An example that comes to mind is going to the Horner PLC training class and
learning how to program a Modbus TCP port, and then going back and relearning
that with Andrew and putting that into practice with business development managers,
and then go through your BDM role and doing it two, three more times for demos
(19:48):
so that when you get out and you're in front of a customer, it's not the first
time that you're doing something, it's the fifth or sixth time that you're doing
something. So you can truly be confident in that.
Yeah. Like, I don't know, all i'm a mechanical guy right
so i've kind of seen some of the actuators and
motors before like in school and for him but i
didn't know anything about electricity i thought it was magic until it showed
(20:09):
up and now i'm you know i can wire stuff i won't
know what to normally close normally open contact it like it's
you really just the baseline is so much higher than where an average engineer
i think comes in and it's it helps a lot i think yeah i would say another Another
important thing that we learned a lot throughout the TSA program is some of
(20:31):
those soft skills like coming in.
Cody and I kind of worked with Andrew to develop a program.
We kind of coined TSAs on the move where we can practice some of those soft
skills in a low risk environment.
So kind of going into accounts that.
Power/mation has never worked with before and walking in there and introducing
(20:52):
Power/mation to them and just learning how to have that initial conversation and how to,
yeah, just communicate with someone that you've never met before and feel comfortable
throughout that whole process of introducing yourself and your company to someone.
That also helped us like see some real world examples.
We're going into these companies, they're giving us a tour and we're seeing,
(21:15):
oh, that's what a printing press looks like. That's how they're converting the pay.
I mean, it's stuff that really cool experiences for sure.
Speaking of learning in a low-risk environment, the tech support side of things
that we get to do for some of our house accounts and for some of our senior
reps and their accounts, working with them, working with business development managers.
So if we do make a mistake, because everyone's going to make a mistake when
(21:38):
they're in a new industry learning new things,
we have the opportunity to make those mistakes in a controlled environment where
someone can come in and correct those so that we can bring the right solutions
to the customers and learn from it so that when we're out in the field,
we do bring those right solutions to the customers.
Yeah, you kind of have us looking over your shoulder all the time going.
Well, maybe we can, a little advice here, a little prod there,
(22:00):
making sure you're walking the path that is appropriate for the customer,
making sure it's the right answer or the appropriate solution, right?
We're looking at this program as trying to inspire you guys to want to be salespeople in the industry.
And we want you to have experience, have positive experience.
(22:21):
But we also want you to fail a little bit so that you're learning from those failures.
Not big failures, just small ones. Just so that you understand that business
is creating trust with our customers.
And with that trust, you will increase your relationship with that customer
(22:41):
and then with better relationships, usually become better business partners.
And so that's kind of a goal within Power/mation is to inspire you guys to work
with customers and gain that.
And when, when I look at the program at a whole, in a whole,
it's, it's to gain your, to,
(23:03):
to give you guys confidence to work with the entire team from our inside sales
team, our warehouse team.
Our engineers, our business development team, which is on the technical side.
And then with our 20 to 50 to 100 manufacturers that we work with and having
(23:23):
those relationships so that when you're in front of the customer,
it's not just Adam or Cody or Mikkel sitting in front of the customer.
It's Adam with 150 people behind him or her saying,
hey, I'm going to be Power/mation in front of that customer and really having
(23:45):
that confidence to have that with your training is kind of our goal. wall.
And it's a two-year investment that Power/mation is making into us so that we
can be confident when we get out there into the sales force.
And that's something that I don't think we can state too much how much we appreciate that.
And back in the early days when Andrew started, it was the technical role,
(24:08):
inside sales kind of technical role.
And the value of that role has morphed and increased over time.
And so now we're getting to the point where we actually have a structure,
we have a person in charge, we have flow, and we can get a lot more people through
the program so that they can know what they're getting themselves into.
And when they come out on the other end, they can add that value.
(24:30):
All right. Well, thanks a lot for joining us today and we'll be working together.
Thanks, Terry. Thanks very much, Terry.
(24:51):
Music.
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