Learning at Home

When I first started selling hardware, my company encouraged me to take home some demo equipment and practice using it. Once I familiarized myself with the equipment on my own and with coworkers at the office, I would feel more comfortable in the field.

The beauty of this was that I could have fun with it. We lived on a 4.5 acre property at the time, with probably 3.5-4 being wooded and stonewalls going around some of the property line. I was able to locate the property corners and ultimately layout our lot using my GPS base and rover. I also laid out a small garden using GPS, which my wife definitely made fun of me for. Little did she realize I was multitasking, training for work and prepping a garden.

When we bought the house we now live in, part of the process prior to moving in was getting a new septic system installed. During the process I coordinated and scheduled everything, so I was able to be in touch with both the surveyor and contractor. I got my hands on the septic design pdf and saved it.

Now I sell takeoff software at AGTEK, and typically our customers will do takeoffs starting with a PDF plan. So again, I was encouraged to practice learning the software on my own in order to get proficient enough to do demos for customers. Well I thought it would be fun to do a quick takeoff of the septic installation that was done on my house, and that I did. Work becomes interesting when you personalize it.

Last story I promise. When I worked with Trimble, I sold job cost accounting/ERP software. It taught me how projects are managed financially. Each project is essentially its own profit center, and job costs are categorized accordingly. So labor costs may be grouped together, materials, subcontracts, equipment, etc. My wife and I took that perspective and created a spreadsheet (link here) to track the costs of our home renovation. Then we compared things like our budget versus what we actually spent to see how well we were doing. It was extremely helpful and kept us on track.

Have fun with it!

I think a reason I really enjoy construction technology is that it can be fun. Learning how to demo a piece of software or hardware is fulfilling and should be enjoyable. I also love interacting with customers and getting to know their stories and how I can help them.

Trudging through the woods with a surveyor, jumping in a big excavator, sitting in a construction office with a prospect to walk them through software, and collaborating with coworkers to prep for a presentation can all be exciting and interesting. Any career has ups and downs, but if you're looking for a fun and varied environment for B2B sales, then construction tech is a great option.