In the ten years that regional sales manager Tod Myers has been with Sentry Equipment, there’s rarely been a dull day – and that suits him perfectly.

“No day is the same for me, and I experience constant change and interruption,” he says. “But I enjoy the challenge of something new every day and the relationships I’ve built. Our representative relationships and internal employees are some of the finest people to work with.”

Adapting to this constant change – particularly through the COVID-19 pandemic – is just part of his commitment to deliver a great customer experience for all of his clients in the bulk solids industry.

“You need to be able to shift on the fly to meet customer needs,” he says. “You can’t get hung up on interruptions, and you have to be willing to change gears continually. Customers expect your agility for a great experience.”

One key to his job satisfaction is that Sentry Equipment empowers him to do his job autonomously. “I’m trusted by management and the company to do my job well and manage my representatives and customer relationships appropriately,” he explains.

Before the pandemic, he usually spent two weeks traveling and two weeks of the month at his home office in Kansas. During his office time, he manages representative relationships through training, insight, company communication, and oversight of their progress and success. He also manages customer relationships by following his accounts through every stage of the sales process.

“This ensures an easy, seamless, and committed experience for the customer,” he explains.

Tod Myers

Regional Sales Manager

Who inspired you the most in your career? “My first mentor in the bulk solids industry was Terry Maholland. He provided me with an immense amount of wisdom, and he always had a great sense of humor.”

What does he do when he’s not working? “When my kids were little, going to ball games was big. Now that I’m becoming an empty nester, golfing and spending time on the lake are what I most look forward to.”

If you could be or do anything else, what would it be?“I’d be a bartender on a Caribbean Island!”

Keys to Sentry Success

Some of his most recent successes include:

• Helping redesign the PR and RX bulk samplers
• Maximizing new relationships through building representative territories and finding new partnerships
• Communicating and fostering sampling opportunities through OEM relationships

“I always strive to drive repeat business for the company and drive efficiency of OEM equipment with samplers,” he says.

When he meets with new customers or partners, he highlights Sentry’s employee-owned business model, which helps us lead the way in sampling for the bulk solids market. Employee-owners share in an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), so we all share in the benefits of our hard work, positive results, and continual improvement and innovation.

“Sentry is 100% employee-owned, providing our employees a stake in its success,” he says. “We also have a breadth of capability that is impressive within the bulk solids industry and beyond.”

This can be helpful during the sales process, as Sentry Equipment is an active member of the bulk solids market, historically resistant to adopting sampling technologies.

“The equipment Sentry Equipment sells to the bulk solid market is still relatively unknown – and if it’s known, it’s seen as a luxury instead of a necessity,” he says. “Gaining the customers’ trust and buy-in to sampling is key in developing those relationships.”

If he had one piece of advice for bulk solids customers to ensure successful sampling, it would be to use automatic sampling to improve safety.

“Safety is a huge advantage of automatic sampling,” he says. “With manual sampling, people are entering the process line with potential physical and chemical hazards. Removing this hazard with automatic sampling ensures personnel and equipment safety.”

Employee-Owner Profiles is a regular feature that highlights members of our team. As an employee-owned company, Sentry Equipment believes that employee ownership makes a difference. Our employee-owners are dedicated to hard work, positive results and continual improvement and innovation to provide our customers the highest quality products and services.