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Thank you for tuning into my podcast, “Snack Sized Sales,” where I focus on sharing three actionable tips on one topic that you can use to transform your sales. Today, my guest is David Presley, the President of Hydro-Chem Systems (HCS), a comprehensive washing solutions provider. Within the 24 years that he’s been with HCS, he has overseen the development of the automated division and is responsible for the overall design of an automated wash system. 

David will talk to us about the value of a salesperson getting hands-on experience in different areas of their preferred industry, why an educational approach to sales is very effective, and what it takes to build a strong sales team. His degree in electrical/electronic engineering and his technical background have instilled a quality-driven work ethic. His business management skills combined with his technical abilities have piloted HCS to the highest sales in the company’s 48-year history. David is very hands-on providing exceptional customer service.  

On Today’s Episode of Snack Sized Sales:

• Being entrepreneurial from a young age, going into sales and electronics, and growing truck washes into a thriving giant (02:08)
• Going up the ladder from different roles to the president of the company and growing it about 5X from $2.5 Million to $10 Million (05:00)
• Using an educational approach and a customized solution to differentiate (06:49)
• Why building a bridge to your sales team is essential to their performance (09:34)
• How the willingness to ask for the sale is necessary for technical sales success (10:56)
• Succeeding in sales for the last 10 years and 5Xing his company’s sales (13:25)
• A notable success story where they over-delivered on their customer’s expectations (18:14)

Connect with David Presley:

• David on LinkedIn
• Hydro-Chem Systems Website

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Thanks for tuning into the Snack Sized Sales podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and want to learn even more about what it takes to simplify and transform your company’s back-office and online customer journey. Don’t forget to tune into our other shows and share your favorite episodes on social media!

Join the community of Snack Sized Sales fans on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and visit my website for even more content, information, and resources about leveraging the media.

Are you tired of losing sales? Do you wish you

had proven strategies that would help you increase your sales

today? Not in three months, you could Google it. But Google is

in the information business and I am in the transformation

business. Welcome to the snack sized sales podcast, where we

will share three actionable sales strategies that you can

implement in your business today to increase your sales tomorrow.

This includes tactics, tips and techniques from industry

experts, influencers and sales pros to help you shorten your

learning curve and increase your bottom line. The more sales

strategies we simplify for you, the shorter your sales cycle and

the more money in the bank. Now your host, multi award winning

sales expert and international speaker Wesleyne Greer.

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Snack size sales

Podcast. Today I am so honored to have David Presley with me

from hydro CAM systems. How are you David?

I'm doing fantastic.

Awesome. Let me tell you guys a little bit about

him. He is the president of hydro Chem systems in 24 years

with HCS. He has overseen the development of the automated

division and he's responsible for the overall design of an

automated wash system. his degree in Electrical and

Electronic Engineering and his technical background has

instilled a quality driven work ethic. His business management

skills, combined with his technical abilities, has piloted

HCS to the highest sales in the company's 48 year history. David

is very hands on providing exceptional customer service. He

enjoys spending time with his grandkids and vacationing with

his family and golfing. Wow. So you've been doing this for 24

years. And it seems like you have done a lot within the

company. So tell us about how you got from graduating college.

So where you are now.

Well, I guess I like to roll it back even a

little bit further than when I was in high school. My father

wasn't around because he sailed on the Great Lakes. He was a

captain on the steamships. So I really had to kind of fend for

myself. So I was one that I liked being around boats. So I

kind of started my own business, I was doing engine work, teak,

cleaning, electrical, I was fixing the bottom of the boats,

I was painting them. And they're like, oh, who painted that boat

over there. Like oh, Presley's kid did that I had a special

formula for my paint, kind of entrepreneurial. So I was like a

jack of all trades. So it really kind of helped me I think

throughout my life, to actually be able to be well rounded. I

may not be a master of anything. But I know a little bit about

something. But I have fun, I have fun solving things and

making things work. So once I went into college, then, of

course my degree was in electronics, I was really

energetic about that. I like more of the hands on part of it.

But I'm not the guy that just likes to sit back in the office,

I'm more of a doer. So I didn't end up going into electronics

and kind of went more into the sales end. So I did sales in

electronics, I worked for a retail store at one time that I

worked up to be a manager of the store and then eventually worked

for another corporation that was in the medical device industry

in in managed a whole district of service people. So that's

where that hands on comes in. But at the same time I ended up

selling capital equipment doing that. So selling big, big

capital equipment. So that company ended up having a

separation, and they had to get rid of a division. And when that

happened, I got the call on January the third that said

Dave, you're no longer with this company. I'm like really. So at

that point, I look for someplace and and hydrocodone was the one

that I found is like truck washes. Like it's capital

equipment, I could sell truck washes, and they're looking for

somebody to sell them washes, they just had sold one that they

kind of developed a little bit because they'd sold other

people's systems in the past. And when he seen my background

with the service part of IT management, the Capitol sales,

they said, Dave, this is a great fit. Not only do I want you to

be my sales guy, but you could coordinate the projects and you

can do this and you can do this. So it's like it ends up in the

realm of working with hydro Chem I've been out there drilling the

holes in the floor, putting the equipment together doing the

programming, as well as you know, selling the system. So

kind of well rounded there. And so that that brings me to into

the company a little bit and then what happened is is our

previous founder, the company, and a company started in 1971.

So you'd mentioned 48 years, guess what this year is our 50th

anniversary 50 years of clean. Wow. We've been providing clean

since 1971. So he wanted to retire and be able to get that

retirement going. He could've went on the outside and just

sold it to anybody. And he seemed that, you know, we've got

good people working here, how can I definitely make sure I

take care of the people that we have here with good values that

he had, and transition that company out. So in doing so he

created an ESOP back in 2003. So an ESOP is an employee stock

ownership program. So for us, we call it a wealth building

program, you know, we are part of that company, part ownership

of that company, when that when we leave the company, we get

shares of our company, we get that back. So it makes everybody

within the company a vested owner. So that was really

exciting. But what this did is it allowed him to be able to

transition the company, to the employees, at the same time

mentoring somebody to actually take over the company. So in

2012, is when he named me president, the company, so kind

of went through a lot of different roles, until then just

selling, fixing, repairing sales management until I was the

president. And now we've actually gone from about two,

two and a half million dollar company to last year, just shy

of 10 million. So we've five times our size. So pretty proud

of that,

oh, you gave me lots of little jewels and

cookies that I want to drill into there. So I think the first

one that really struck me was the fact that you said when you

first started with your current company, you're willing to do

anything, right. And so as a salesperson, I know that's one

thing that I pride myself on. As a chemist, I always like to, I

would say, get my hands dirty. So I would be in the lab working

with people when I was selling capital equipment, or I would be

on the plant floor when I was selling chemicals doing plant

trials. So how do you think that real hands on experience really

set you up for what you're doing today as the president of the

company?

Well, I think it had a lot to do with it. And

it's a lot to do with our culture and how hydrocodone sets

themselves up in the market. Our uniques are is we come from an

educational approach. And then we have a customized solution

that works and then eventually have that low cost per wash. But

to be able to do that, you have to know how your product works

to be able to have that educational approach with a

customer. So I think some of the fun things are going out in the

field. So we have the automated equipment, but we also are the

soap manufacturer of the equipment. So we provide the

towel dispenser and the paper towel, we make the paper towel.

This is the chemical but the chemical itself is so second to

none. It really is I can spray on a low pH pre soak detergent,

then spray on a second detergent over top of that new actually

neutralize that vehicle surface and have that dirt fall off. And

it's a lot of times people say that's magic. It really is

almost looks like magic. I've been out on several demos,

that's getting your hands dirty. You go out there you got a guy

with a dirty truck. And he's been washing trucks with a scrub

brush for years only waiting get this thing clean as to wash it

with a scrub brush. Like, let me just try some stuff. Spray on

one spray on to rinse it is it all wait till this thing dries,

there's going to be a film on I'm like, okay, yeah, let's

wait, sit back talk, you know, a little bit, fishing, golf,

whatever the weather thing dries, and it's got a shine on

it. And they're like, Wow, that was magic. Send me a couple of

drums of that. So So you have to get your hands dirty. I think

that, especially in the automation side, it's

understanding the system being there doing it, that the

educational approach is sometimes in a sale, you could

maybe say too much. And probably a lot of times I do. But I think

that the customer feels much more comfortable when they're

talking with somebody that actually knows what they're

talking about. They're just not the slick Willie out there

selling something. And I've been there done that I know what I'm

talking about. I've seen it and I can prove it. So I think

that's where it is real important that you are able to

get in there and do all

this. I think that you know, when we think

about working in these more technical type sales industries,

that a lot of times there's that disconnect between the sales

leader and the salesperson. So the salesperson is like, well,

you don't know what's happening in the field. You don't actually

experience this. But what I love that you said is I've been on

demos with my team, I can sit there and I'm still talking to

the actual customer, right? And so we're chopping it up with

phishing or golf or whatever. You're not just sitting back and

on your phone, checking emails, you're actually ingrained in it.

So would you say that as a sales leader, as a president of a

company that you find that bridge is essential to build a

strong sales team?

It does. I think that they give you a little more

respect to that. You're not just somebody sitting back behind the

desk saying do these numbers, you know how to get the numbers.

You've been there done that. I mean, as a president just a

couple of weeks ago, I was out in Nebraska for a week with the

rest of the team, a few other guys doing training, because

that's the only way to see how this stuff works is to actually

be in the field, touch it, see it, feel it, do it. And that is

the way that we train. It's not just books We need to probably

write more books, more processes, procedures, but it's

really real life experiences. And that's what really creates

the picture for the salesman so that he can then take that and

have the excitement when he sees the claim, transfer that

excitement to the customer, so that they purchased that.

I mean, what you're saying is so powerful. I

know when I was going through my sales training process, and I

would see it, it's like, oh, this actually produces this

result, like, it gives you so much more excitement. And how as

a salesperson, having that technical knowledge is so key.

And one thing that I tell people and people don't agree with me,

maybe you won't agree with me is when we're hiring salespeople,

we need strong sales skills, we can teach them the technology,

if our product if our services as good as we say it is we can

teach it to a strong salesperson. So would you agree

or disagree with that?

Yeah. Well, they have to be wired for it. I think

what you're saying is, is that person wired for it? Are they

willing to ask for the sale, you know, if they're just willing to

say, Hey, I create great relationships, I could show my

stuff, well, that doesn't get the sale close, at the end of

the day, you're going to have a product that are times that your

product is so good. And if you show that you have that

relationship, they're gonna say, Yes, I want to purchase it. But

at the other token, you have to have a guy that walks them

through the process, you know, the process is maybe not giving

as much information out there as what you could give right up

front, so that the customer is ingrained to ask you questions.

But also, you have to be good at asking questions. Because when I

say we have customized solutions, I don't just have

this widget that I sell everybody, I want to find out

what they need. And that is what our soaps as well, we've got

like four different or five different number one pre soaps,

we got five or six different number two detergents, not all

of them work the same together, we need to know what type of

dirt it is what type of climate it is, you know, do they have

salt? Do they have hard water? Do they have soft water? Do they

have warm water, cold water? All our different soaps work

differently based on the situation? So it's asking the

questions, having somebody's not afraid to do that, to walk the

customer down the path that they say yes, that's the one I want

to purchase, because that's the one that's going to work for me.

And you get out there, do the demo and show him. I gotta tell

you, we spray on one spray on two, we do the demo. The soap

sells itself. So so we do make it easy. I think sometimes for

the sales guy. But the thing is, we want to think of it as our

sales guys are educated enough that they know all these

circumstances they know what questions to ask. They're not I

call this way the slick Willie's out there. Hey, here you go.

Here's a bucket. Try it. No, you can't just let them go try it,

you need to see what it does see what their circumstances are.

But that's having that education getting your

hands dirty. And like you said, it's really about

them understanding the product that they're selling, and the

problems that their customers need to solve, right? Like you

said, is it hot? Is it cold? Like, what are the limitations?

What are what's the problem? Everybody? Yes, at the end of

the day, everybody wants to have a clean traffic clean vehicle.

But there's so many other factors and really helping the

salesperson build their own process or their roadmap process

of elimination. It sounds like that's how you've been able to

5x your sales. So I want to drill a little bit deeper into

what would you attribute your success in the past 10 years to?

Well, I'm going to put that in a couple

different categories. So it's maybe not just personally I'll

put a little bit personally personally, I think I have a

pretty high drive always going in. And you can ask anybody at

the company that you know, Dave's the guy that will spend

the extra hour out on the road to get something done. If I'm

coming back from somewhere, it's like, oh, this place is only 100

miles away, it's kind of on the way back, I'll go and I'll do

it, I'll stop by it. Because I want to while the customer and

have that customer service. So I think customer service is really

important, are passionate the company is to while the customer

I mean that is our passion. And it's it's doing that little bit

extra. So that drive I think is what's got me to a good point of

it. But then it was also making a decision that as you come up

in a company I just see sometimes people think that all

this guy's been here, he was one of our peers. Now he's my boss.

Now I gotta listen to what he's saying. And it's always Dave's

way. Well, I wanted to make it our way. And being an ESOP

company, it should be our way because we're all part owners in

a sense, we're hiring a fellow employee owner when we're out

there hiring somebody, but I found a system called EOS. So

maybe it's a little plug for them the Entrepreneurial

Operating System, and it's a way that you run your business. And

that was in 2015. So I had been president for a couple of years.

And I tried to push buttons with this little method and that

little method and psyche. You know, I just got that little bit

of a roadblock because it's, Hey, it's Dave's way. And

previously, our company was kind of more some people it's a

dictatorship. It's the way the owner wanted to do it. And being

an ESOP. I'm an owner, but I'm the President still runs like a

corporation. So I'm not the one that gets all the money at the

end of the day when they sell the company. I'm an employee of

that company. So I want everybody Due to work for me as

an employee, so with e os, what it does is you, you make a

decision with a leadership team. So we have five people total on

the leadership team, and sales operations, HR, finance and

myself. And now, this is our way of doing business, not Dave's

way of doing business, empowering people to actually do

good for themselves, versus dictating how to do something.

So with Eos, we have certain processes we do, which is the

HCS. way. So I think EOS really helped us be more efficient with

a repeatable process as we're going down this path to

greatness. So that'd be the one thing the last five years, I

think that really helped out, is just being able to have a good

vision, that big B hag, where are we going to be in the year

2025? We set that up when we were back in 2015? What's our 10

year goal? And, and then what do we do? So

I really love that, you know, you, you started

with, yeah, I have a lot of energy. And I am willing to say,

ah, that's only 50 100 miles away, I might as well I'm

already here, go see this customer, go check on them, see

how things are going. But then you also realize that you can't

run a company as a dictatorship. And so really having that team

and making decisions as a team. So even though you're the

president, and you know, operations, sales, finance, they

report to you, this is a team decision. And the team has one

air to management and one air to the employees, right. So they're

actually able to say, Hey, this is what I'm hearing. And I

really love companies such as yours that are employee owned,

because everybody feels like they're coming to work every

day. And they feel like I own a part of this company. So what I

do matters, and it's not just going and checking a box or

making sure this is done. It's really like you said it boils

down to the customer wow factor. We want to wow our customers,

because at the end of the day, we own a part of a company. I

love that.

Yep, it's empowering others, you know,

letting them drive it forward. They may make some mistakes, but

they make mistakes. I just say don't make them another time. I

had a boss one time that said, You know what, if you're not

making at least a couple of mistakes a year, you're not

working hard enough. So so it's like, Hey, you make a mistake,

that's fine. still make it again, let's figure it out.

Let's IDs it, identify, discover and solve.

And you know, when you make mistakes, that

means that you're taking risk, you're trying to buck the status

quo, you're not just doing what you're being asked to do. You're

like, Okay, can I try this? Or can I try that? And really, if

leaders step back and said, Okay, when they're making

mistakes, that is they're learning something. And my model

for mistakes is it's okay to lose, it's okay to not do

something the right way. But it's not okay to lose the same

way twice, right? We have to learn from our mistakes and the

things that we've done. So you gave me a lot of success

stories. But I want to ask you, if you can think about a

specific client that you were able to help, or a specific

person on your team, a success story that hydro CAM systems is

especially proud of, I guess,

there has to be really several of them. When I

think of some of the customers out there in the wow factor. One

story I tell to some of our customers, it was at a school

local school in Michigan, where they purchased the bus wash and

I was there was it was a cold day, I think it was probably

November or something like that there had already been a little

bit of snow on the ground. And they were there for training. I

was trained on how to use the bus wash. And I've got 3040

drivers around male, female, old young, they're all watching this

wash. And I say okay, this does this function. And this does

this function. And here's your rants. And then all sudden they

seen this rear blast, turn on blast the back of the bus. And

that bus just came out sparkling. And when that wash

was done, all of a sudden, they all come running over to me. Big

hugs, Dave Oh, thank you, thank you so much for putting this

wash in. And it's like, I mean, I every time I tell this story,

I just get the chills. And there's several stories like

that. I mean, we had a customer that was really hard to read. He

was out in Oklahoma and and he had these trucks that there are

white trucks but they had chips in them. It was a gypsum mining

truck and were washed and like wash after wash in these trucks

are going through and I'm thinking I got these things look

really good. And the owner of the company is not saying

anything, nothing at all. And finally I asked him, I said so.

So what do you think of the wash? Trying to get some

feedback from it? Because I'll tell you what, Dave, what your

wash did in two minutes. Two of my guys couldn't do in two

hours. I think it's fantastic. So again, it's them wow factors

and and we get we have mobile washers all across the country

now. Kind of the story we they've been washing trucks for

20 years with a scrub brush. And now all of a sudden they're

going to Facebook forum you and they read hydrocodone, Scott,

this magical soap, supersonic and grizzly, you know, it's a

couple of our new soaps that are just really game changers.

They'll try them, and they'll spray it on, spray it off and

rinse. And they're like, where you guys been all these years,

I've been doing this for 20 years, you've just

revolutionized my business. And they'll go from four guys

washing the truck to to get it done in half the time, take the

other two guys and be washed in another fleet and make twice as

much money. And at the same time, we get a few bucks because

we're selling them a soap. So it's a win win. I love it. So

just several success stories in a they happen every day.

And you know, I think what I really like about

your whole business model is that it's not just about We're

selling a product, you guys are helping improve somebody's

workflow, their quality of life, right? So if they're able to cut

the time that they're washing a vehicle down by 75%, it was what

it sounds like to me, then it's helping them become more

efficient, right? And so it's helping them make more money.

And then the people who are driving the buses, right? Or the

trucks or whatever they're driving, they feel more

confident, because they have this nice, clean, shiny vehicle.

And then the business owner is like, whoa, what's happening?

Where have you been? I'm ready to invest. How much does it

cost? I don't care how much it costs I'm ready to buy.

Exactly. Yeah, well, and that that brings up

unique thing, sometimes people don't have the money to invest.

We came up with a new program this last year is called our

elite fleet program that if you've got to beta put our

Washington, we'll put in a standard two step wash, which is

about $150,000 Wash, we'll do that for nothing. All you have

to do is buy soap from us for five years, and we've got a

certain certain number of dollars that we need to obtain

that net pays basically the rent on that system, as well as pays

for that soap. And they'll end up having a cost per wash

anywhere between six and $12. A wash to wash a full sized

tractor trailer, you probably can barely get your car wash for

12 bucks, I can wash a full

man only are you guys 100% focused on the

customer employee owned focus on a hands on training for everyone

within the company. You're also innovative in the way that

you're looking to serve your customers. I just love that. I

think that everything that you guys are doing within the 50

years, you're definitely waves and bounds above anyone out

there who even dares to consider themselves a competitor. Because

I don't feel like we have competitors because we're all

great in our own right. And it's about carving our space out. I

have enjoyed this talk immensely with you, Dave.

Thank you. I've enjoyed it as well.

What is the one best way for people to get in

contact with you if they have questions or they want to get

their own fleet,

you can go to our website, hydro comm systems.com

or H CS clean.com. And we'll be more than happy to take care.

There's links there to either our distributor page or North

America page for chemicals or truck washes. Also email at

sales at HCS clean.com will work as well.

Awesome. Awesome. I am so grateful that

you took some time out to chat with me today. And I learned all

about HDS and happy 50th anniversary I think wonderful,

wonderful time in the history of your company. And again, thank

you. That was another episode of the Snack size sales podcast Be

sure to subscribe, leave us a review. And if you want some

snack sized strategy delivered weekly, check out the link

below. I'm your host Wesleyne and remember in everything you

do transform your sales.

Thank you for joining us today on the snack sized sales

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