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In this episode of the Science of Selling STEM, I’ll be having a chat with Andy Reimink, the CEO at HOH Water Technology, Inc., a third-generation family business serving customers in the industrial water treatment space. He is a strong sales professional with skills in customer relationship management, negotiation, budgeting, and water treatment. Andy will share his extensive sales wisdom and teach us how we can thrive as sales managers at different levels of the corporate ladder.

On Today’s Episode of the Science of Selling STEM:

• The HOH Water backstory: What the US Navy had to do with the foundation of the company (01:48)
• What it was like to be interviewed by his own father-in-law and how he worked his way up to CEO (04:00)
• Intricacies of STEM sales and why starting from the bottom is a good way to take someone into sales (06:04)
• His professional journey from salesperson to sales leader (09:37)
• The challenges he experienced being a brand new sales manager that took over an existing sales team (10:52)
• From managing a sales team to taking on an individual contributor role (14:15)
• How he balances holding two executive roles simultaneously (15:55)
• Bottom-Up: The core thing on the sales manager’s mind (20:00)

Connect with Pete Tonsager:

• Andy on LinkedIn

Connect with Wesleyne Greer:

• Wesleyne’s Website
• Wesleyne on LinkedIn
• Wesleyne on Facebook
• Wesleyne on Twitter

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Thanks for tuning into The Science of Selling STEM! If you enjoyed this episode and want to learn even more about what it takes to transform your sales, don’t forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favorite episodes on social media!

Join The Science of Selling STEM community on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and visit my website for even more content, information, and resources.

As a sales manager, you are judged by the

performance of your team, and you're praised when they do

well. But one thing that you've not been able to figure out is

how to get everyone on your team consistently hitting quota every

single month. On the Snack size sales podcast, we discuss the

science of selling stem sales leadership in the science,

technology, engineering and manufacturing fields is

difficult. You will learn from sales managers just like you

that will give you actionable insights and tips on how to

develop as a leader and achieve your revenue targets every

single month. So pop your headphones in and get ready to

listen to my guests today. They will give you information and

inspiration to ensure that you have actionable insights that

you can put into place today. Hello, and welcome to another

episode of the snack sized sales podcast. today. My guest is Andy

Reineke. With H O H water technology. How are you Andy?

I'm doing well. Thank you for having me.

Thanks so much for being here. Let me tell you

a little bit more about Andy. He is the CEO of H O H water

technology. This is a third generation family business

serving customers in the industrial water treatment

space. He grew up in West Michigan, and he's lived in

Michigan, Florida and Illinois, since coming on board with H O H

So a third generation water treatment facility. That's not

something we hear about too often. Tell me about how you

grew up in this business and how you got to where you are today.

Yeah, so uh, watching the company, we are in

the industrial water treatment space, which is basically we

work with large industrial or commercial properties, treating

the water that they use for heat transfer. And my wife's

grandfather started HoH back in 1968, he was actually in the

Navy. And a lot of people coming out of the Navy got their

started water treatment, because back in the day, they powered

these big naval ships with steam boilers. And so they would learn

to do water treatment on the steam boilers come out of the

Navy, and then find a career in water treatment in the private

sector, treating a lot of steam boilers for heating and cooling

or I guess heating, in this case of large commercial facilities

or industrial complexes. So that's how he started it coming

out of the Navy and started went off on his own and created Hoh,

and then my father in law succeeded him. And I got into

it. When I married my wife to some degree, we got married, and

I didn't know really anything about what her dad was doing. I

was in a real estate background. And in a small startup with some

friends, I had no intention of joining the family business. And

it was when my wife and I were about to have kids. And I

thought that maybe a career change with something more

stable would be a good idea that I approached my father in law to

say, hey, I'm interested. And if you need someone to help grow a

territory, I would love a conversation. And so at that

time, he was interested in someone in West Michigan, where

we were living, and that started the process.

So you're so this is you're on your wife's

side, right? So you got married, and you saw your father in law

running this company. And when I think that one thing that's very

commendable of you is you said, hey, I want to grow a territory,

not hand me the keys to the kingdom, let me be the sea CFO

or the CFO. It was really you being humble saying, let me

learn the business. Right. So tell me about when you first

started. And you started essentially working for your

father in law. How was that? Yeah,

I mean, it was good. I mean, he was the

president and CEO at the time. So I knew I wasn't going to be

working obviously directly for him or have a lot of day to day

interaction with him. My process of getting hired was similar to

probably anyone I had an interview schedule. And you

know, a bunch of interviews that I went on, at some point, I did

interview with my father in law, and it was his common practice

to try to interview everyone that was hired into the company.

And, you know, I was pretty direct with him at the beginning

about my ambitions and my goals of wanting to be in leadership,

whether it'd be the CEO one day, or just, you know, a position of

leadership within the company. But I was also very willing to

start wherever I had to, to kind of prove myself and so I was

hired in a more of a sales role. But at the time, we had a

technician that was leaving the territory and actually going out

to Arizona to work for us. And so when I first started, I spent

about a year doing technician work, and in the field, hands

dirty. really grinding away. And then on the free days that I'd

have, I'd go out cold calling and knocking on doors. So I

really did start and bowed at the bottom of the company and

slowly worked my way up over time, which I appreciate. I

think that gives a lot of perspective for me, as I've kind

of progressed within the company,

you know, if I had a crystal ball, and all

companies had the time to do exactly what you did, that is

really what I think all new salespeople need to do. So as a

chemist, I tell people, I worked on both sides of supply chain, I

was the person processing the samples, figuring out the

failure analysis, doing all those things. Then when I

started selling into those same types of environments, I

understood what they were doing. And so as a salesperson, when

you understand what your technicians are going through

what the installers are going through how difficult how

unhappy customers can be, it gives you so much more empathy

as a salesperson and you really learn the product, there's no

better way to learn your product, your service that

you're selling, than to touch it, feel it every single day.

Right?

Yeah, and I love all your podcasts specifically

focused on STEM and sales, because stem sales are, I think,

its own unique thing. And we've had different thought processes

throughout our history of saying like, you know, what, if we

could just find a really great salesperson, we can train them,

you know, our core competencies and business models and what we

do, and right now, and this could change, you know, six

times over the next 20 years, but right now I sit here go, I

don't know if we can do that, like, I need someone with some

background and some technical skills to be able to go into

that into the field, because it's just so technical, often

that someone that just, you know, knows how to make a great

sales presentation is going to struggle, not knowing how to

talk the lingo and and know what a piece of equipment does or why

it does it. So yeah, starting from the bottom, I think is a

great funnel process to like, bring someone into sales

eventually.

Yes, and you're so right. It's I do think that

from my standpoint, I don't think somebody has to

necessarily be I call it an industry insider, or more

eloquently, I say your competitors rejects. I don't

think that they need to be that. But they do need to be technical

in some way. Right. So again, I was a chemist, and I saw capital

equipment. I was a chemist, and I still specialty chemicals.

Yeah, I didn't know everything about these, you know,

speciality chemicals, but I could learn it. And I was smart

enough to know, okay, this plus this equals this, say this to a

customer. So really ensuring that you're looking in the right

niche. Right. So okay, do I need somebody with an engineering

background? Do I need somebody who's a physicist, because if

you get somebody off the street, like, who's selling cell phones,

they don't have that technical know how, and it's really the

fact that their sales process is quick. And so they don't have to

be really in depth. They don't have to build that bridge. They

don't have to be the customers consultant and walk lockstep

with them. But so I do you think what you're saying has so much

validity, and there's always that fine line, and I focus on

STEM sales, because it's different, you know, everything,

it's, you have to be a technical salesperson, you're not a

salesperson, you're a technical salesperson. And that technical

piece is so crucial.

Yeah, and I don't, I don't think that, you know, I

would ever stick to absolute like this will never work. But I

think as sales managers, we need to be very cognizant of, if I'm

going to choose someone outside of the industry, the learning

curve is going to be longer. And I'm going to have to be more

patient with that person, because it's just going to take

time. So where someone coming from the industry, I could say,

You know what, we could ramp them up in a year from now I

expect them to be killing it crushing their quotas, whereas

someone else I might have to really alter their quotas, and

be patient with how they progress and grow

patients. That is the key. Because when I go

in, and I'm working with organizations, I always say they

say so whistling, what do you think about this person or that

person? And I'm like, I'm not gonna tell you to fire anybody.

But I'm gonna say it's gonna take this long to get this

person up to speed and this long and get that person up to speed.

Do you have the bandwidth and the patience to know that this

person you hired who doesn't have the skill set? And a lot of

times for me, it's like, they have no sales experience and no

technical experience. I'm like, Come on, guys. They need one or

the other good. They have some sales experience or some

technical experience. If you hire somebody who just seems

good, that doesn't really work. And it's patient. So you went

from your salesperson, and then you transition into sales

leadership. So tell us about that. How that transition was

for you. Yeah,

it was a fairly natural step. I was I had

started to have some success in West Michigan and growing that

territory. And then we had a sales manager in Florida that

was retiring. And so we're looking for replacement and I

was approached to say would you have interest in uprooting your

family moving down to Florida and running this division for us

and so I saw it as a great opportunity to get experience in

sales management where I hadn't had a ton of that before. And I

think my wife is, you know, great that she's always willing

to go take an adventure and move somewhere that, you know, we

didn't really know anyone. And so we went down to Florida, and

I managed a team down there for three years. And that that was a

great experience. Overall, I've moved a handful of times in my

life, and not one of them have I ever regretted, I think anyone

who has a chance to move somewhere, especially away from

like their hometown, even if it's for two or three years, I

would seize that opportunity, because you just get so much

from it, seeing a different perspective, a different place,

something that you're kind of out of your comfort zone with.

And

so as a brand new sales manager that took over

an existing team, what were some of the challenges some of the

things that you experienced? I mean,

I think with sales management, at least in my

experience, like it all comes down to people. And so I had to

assess the people we had, obviously, there was going to be

a different dynamic, I was thrust into a hard situation

where I was a very young individual in a sales leadership

role down there, where I had one of the sales persons working for

me was in their lower 60s. So there's naturally going to be

some tension with I've been doing this, you know, since you

were in diapers, and you know, who do you think you are kind of

a thing. So that was for sure tough and a lot of great

learning experiences. And while we were down there, we acquired

a company. So we brought on some new team members that we had to

integrate into the company, but also the team, we had to assess

those. And then a handful of them did not end up working out.

And then we did some hiring. So we brought in some new people.

So I have a great firsthand experience of going out to the

field and finding a salesperson that did not have any technical

background. And, you know, hiring them because of the

potential I saw and working through what was especially in

the beginning a very painful process, but ended up being a

success story. And so now they're still in the in the

field in the market, and they're doing a great job. But yeah, I

dabbled in a lot of different issues. Well, at my time in

Florida.

So within three years, you had a established

sales team with a lot of and you know, I think in this time that

we're in, there are a lot of salespeople who've always

they've never wanted to become go into management, their career

comfortable being in sales, because I mean, I think we know

that the dirty little secret becoming a sales manager, when

you first start, you actually make a little bit less money

than you did as a salesperson, right. And so a lot of

salespeople know that. And so they're getting up there in age,

right? So they're in their 50s and 60s. And then you know, you

have this new tenacious, excited person coming in, like I'm

managing you. Now, not only did you have that, but then you have

to rebuild the team, you had to have some attrition let some

people go. But it sounds like in three years after you did that

your next step was where,

so my next step, so we decided that we actually

wanted to divest of our Florida Division. And so we sold it off.

And so I went down there manager team, we acquired a company, and

then we sold it off. And then I moved up to the Chicagoland area

where our headquarters is out of. And so I came up here, and I

actually took if you look at maybe a company hierarchy, I

took a step down where I did not come into sales management, I

came back into a sales role moving up into Chicagoland. And

I did that for about a year. And then we had created a new role

called a Channel Sales Manager, that I interviewed and accepted

that role, and really worked at looking at different kinds of

partnerships that we could make with other companies, different

forms of how to get, you know, our product out into the space.

And I did that for a while before becoming vice president

of sales, which is a title that I also technically retained

today.

So tell me, how did you accept that, I have to

take a step back in order to take a step forward, going from

managing a sales team being kind of autonomous, going back into

the individual contributor role.

Yeah, and I think that's a really hard thing to do

for anyone, it's, you know, going the opposite direction of

where you're trying to go. And I'm a person that has always

had, you know, pretty clear ambitions, and in taking a step

away from that ultimate goal of where I'm trying to go, is hard

to deal with. And so I tried to look at the big picture and what

my ultimate goals were, and, you know, basically convinced myself

that taking a step to the side or back does not change where

I'm going, it's just altering the path of how I'm going to get

there. And so if it takes a little longer, that's okay. If I

have to, you know, do a little jog in the road, I'm fine with

that, but it wasn't going to change, you know, my ultimate

goal and where I was trying to reach

and you know, I think that probably somewhere in

the back If your mind you're like, Well, I'm going to

headquarters. So maybe there'll be more visibility, maybe

there'll be more opportunities for me, right. And I think that

a lot of times, especially in sales, for those people who want

to get into leadership or want to get into management, it's

hard for them to take a step back, right? It's because it's

like, I've been managing people. And now I have to be managed,

I've been doing pipeline reviews, now my I have somebody

who's going to be reviewing my pipeline. And so really, I would

say, just having your ego in check to understand that, Hey,

it's okay. I'm doing this because there's future growth.

And it seems like after a year, you weren't in the right place,

you became the General Sales Manager, and then you were able

to move into this VP of sales role. So today, as you say, you

manage you're the VP of sales, as well as the president of the

company. So how are you able to balance those two things?

Yeah, that's a tough question. I, you know,

it's weeks, I think that probably 80% of my time is spent

doing, you know, sales manager, VP of sales type work and 20%

CEO stuff. And some weeks, it's, you know, flip flopped, so

understanding is not going to be perfect. And we're intentionally

running a little lean right now. So I'm okay with it, we know

that eventually, we'll hire, you know, a sales manager

replacement to fill that seat. But for the time being,

especially in the climate that we're in with what's going on,

we're okay, that, you know, I'm wearing a couple of different

hats. Some of the jobs that I'm doing, I think, pair well

together, you know, still doing some higher level selling with

customers, which I would, you know, and we'll be doing as a

CEO, even when we have a sales manager, still trying to

interact with our sales teams, as much as I can, and kind of

charting the course for where we're trying to go. So I think

they pair well together. But I know it's not a long term

solution that we're going to try to stay in

that once a salesperson I was a salesperson,

I mean, we asked I mean, if you're really truly a

salesperson, it's hard to to let that go. So you saying that

you'll be involved in some higher level deals, it's because

you want to not because you have to.

That's so true. And I went out with one of our

salespeople two weeks ago, and we did some cold calling, and I

haven't cold called in a while. And we did about a day and a

half of it. And we walked in nor dock or door knocked, you know,

30 different places. And I had so much fun. And we had a lot of

success, like a much higher rate than I ever got, I think on my

own. So I don't know, it might have been just like that day and

the sun was shining, that people wanted to talk to us. But I came

back up to the corporate office and my brother in law's the CEO

was like, Man, you seem lively today. And he's like, is your

bucket full right now, like it is kind of fall like I just had

a blast cold calling. So yeah, there is something just, you

know, inside a salesperson that kind of gets them going when

they do certain activities,

and that you know, inherent need that you

have or that desire, I'm imagining that's what makes you

really good and effective as a VP of sales. Because one thing

that you know, a lot of salespeople say or think is if

you haven't walked the day in my shoes, then you really can't

give me advice. But you're like, I just want to have that cold

calling. So if I can do that, you can do that. Right? So it's

very, it's much easier for you to say that. So a lot of times,

when you're in companies of your size, there's a battle between

the CEO and the VP of sales in terms of what the CEO wants and

what the VP of Sales wants. Right? So since you're operating

in both of those modes, I'm curious as to when you have

those battles of this is good for the sales organization, but

maybe it's not good for the company, or vice versa. How do

you get through those internal battles?

Yeah, I think it's actually, to me, it's easy,

because I'm having the conversation myself. So a lot of

the battles that we might see as a sales leader, you know, VP of

sales, saying, I need more salespeople, I need to take them

here and here because we need to have these growth targets. And

then the VB going well, we got budgets, and we can't do

everything. And so I'm aware of both sides of those coins. And

so at some level, it's not me alone, we have a great

leadership team that we work with, but at some level, we're

making that decision together and saying, all right, is it

worth the risk to go maybe outside the budget to stick

someone here with the expectation that sales are going

to do X. And so it is a very fluid process that we're kind

of, you know, toiling through what's in the best interest of

the company, but also in hitting sales targets. So I'm fairly

pragmatic about it. Like I'm not interested in hitting sales

targets for the fun of hitting sales targets. If we're gonna

hit sales targets, I want them to affect the bottom line and

actually progress some of the company goals too. So

so you don't have that VP of sales hat that

says we'll win by any means necessary because the CEO hacks

because we still gotta make money.

Yeah, exactly. Yes. I'm very aware of the

bottom line of it all. And I guess that probably helps to in

some capacity with the team And so our sales team probably knows

more about what's going on with the company than say a lot of

sales teams that just have a top line quota. So our team has a

fairy, they have a top line quarter, they know what we're

going for. But they also understand some of the cogs that

are involved. And some of the overhead that we have. And, you

know, what fun is it to, you know, do 20 more million dollars

worth of sales, if we're gonna make the same profit? Like, we

all feel good, but we actually were very inefficient in what we

were doing.

Yeah. So I always say that, you know, as a

middle middle management, sales manager, even as a salesperson,

when you think about discount, you always think about top down,

how much can I discount? What can I discount? And that's a

good sales leader, you think about bottom up? What's my

margin? What's the lowest? How was the lowest margin that I can

sell for them? Right? And so again, since you have that view,

you're able to tell the team that so instead of that top down

view, they're looking at bottom up, right? So they think about

things in terms of that bottom up, and then help them be better

salespeople? Because they understand hey, no, it doesn't

make sense. Yeah, I need to walk away from this deal. Or maybe I

shouldn't do this now. Because it doesn't make sense for the

company.

Yep. And our team is getting better at that every

single day. But it's a learning process, right? We're all kind

of figuring it out as we go.

Awesome. So you kind of mentioned the success

story in there a little bit. But as you look back at your career

as a sales manager, or VP of sales, what is a who's a person,

a team, a situation that you're really proud of today?

Yeah, if I look back over the career, I would

probably echo the one that I started on, which was down in

Florida. And I mean, that was that was such a hard time we

hired this individual. And they were struggling in the

beginning. And I had a sales manager at the time, who was the

the former former VP of Sales for our company. And I was going

to him saying, like, what do I do here, like, the person is

just not getting the job. I don't know what to do. It's

early on, but I'm nervous. And he was very quick to be like,

cut them, you're done. Like, let them go. And I was like, and I

just couldn't, I'm like, this is our fault. Like, we hired him.

And we should have done a better job on the front end, knowing

what we were getting. And you know, to take this individual

from the job that they're doing, bring them in house and just

say, Oh, you're not really what I'm looking for. Like, I just I

couldn't handle that. And so I went against what our VP of

Sales said I should do. And I said, I'm not gonna cut on like,

this is on me just as much as it is on him. And so I just worked

more with them and what had more patients. And, you know, like I

said, we divested of that area, but the company we sold to, he

still works for this day. And he's doing great. And he's

progressed along, and he's a key member of their team now. And I

take a lot of pride in the fact that I stuck with them. And, you

know, didn't give up.

That's powerful. I love that story. Because so

many times, that's the answer I just cut off. And I often ask

sales managers, sales leaders, when they have that low

performing person, I asked them to be introspective. And I say,

have you given that person? The best of you? Have you invested?

Have you coached them to the best of your ability? And most

times they say no. And so I'm like, it's on you. It's not on

them. Right. And I think you realize that you said it's on

me, it's not on him. Let me invest more and your investment

paid off dividends. Yeah, that's awesome. Andy, I've enjoyed our

time together. If somebody wants to reach out to you, or get in

contact with you, what is the one best way? One best

way is probably LinkedIn. Obviously, they can

search me at Andy Ryan MC, and you'll find me and send a

message. I'm pretty accessible. So they could also just google

search HHR technology and call our office and say I want to

talk to Andy and you'll get through at some point in time.

And so yeah, I'm pretty accessible. But yeah, LinkedIn

is a very easy way.

Awesome, LinkedIn. And I'm just gonna

give people another little tip there. Hey, all you cold callers

out there. Sometimes you you don't think that you can access

the decision maker. But have you ever thought about just Googling

them picking up the phone and asking me bachelor tenacity that

like you said, at some point, they'll get patched through

tenacity go. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, guys. Make

sure you check out Andy on LinkedIn. And thanks again so

much for joining me for this episode of the snack sized sales

podcast and remember in everything that you do transform

your sales until next time,

thank you for joining us today on the snack sized sales

podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe and leave us

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