The All Industrial Electric Supply team is happy to announce Nick Abbott was promoted to inside sales manager eight weeks ago.

Nick started his 12-year career with AIES in Alex’s warehouse and was later promoted to inside sales. He proved to not only be successful in that department but also respected among All Industrial customers and management team.

“Nick is one of the most persistent and ambitious people I have ever met,” Alex said. “When the opening for an inside sales manager came up, Nick was the natural choice. Not only did I know that he would work tirelessly to be successful, I was also confident that his team would embrace him for this new role from day one.”

I sat down with Nick to discuss his promotion, his new responsibilities, and how he plans to drive our inside sales team to success.

How did this promotion come up?

Alex and the management team proposed it to me. I feel like my success in Inside Sales, as well as problem solving and customer development, really spoke for itself. Being passionate about excelling in my position, I think they saw me continuing my growth and thriving in this new position.

Did you see yourself as an inside sales manager before your promotion?

Not particularly. They had mentioned bringing me up to outside sales, but I was content with inside. I have had my co-workers ask me for advice, help, etc., but outside of that, I never really considered something like this a possibility.

What does your new role entail?

The new role boils down to four areas roughly.

• Develop and document a strong Inside Sales process; making sure the whole team is being as efficient and accurate as possible.
• Teaching and enforcing the new process.
• Making sure everyone is hitting their plan, and reaching individual and company wide goals.
• Developing the skills and attitudes needed to succeed in all of the above.

There will be more things added as I become more proficient in the role, but those are the basics. As well as some reporting and analysis.

Has your managerial responsibilities affected your day-to-day?

Yes and no. With the promotion there will be a sizeable amount of additional work and responsibilities, which of course will take up more and more of my time. But the goal is to be able to maintain a very high level of both. There will be some long hours at first getting used to it, but eventually I will develop a system and make it as streamlined as possible.

Any managerial training?

Yes, there will be substantial amounts. To start I have been given a handful of books, and have reached out to other managers within the company and a few outside for their insight.

How are you managing your team?

Right now my big thing is to support them and let them know I’m the strongest advocate I can be for them. In return I’ll get their best work possible.

What has sitting in managers’ meetings been like so far?

I’ve been in two meetings so far. So far it’s been relaying information of what management wants to the sales team and making sure it gets done. In future ones, I will be doing a lot more proposing, making steps to get the sales team everything they need to be successful.

What are your goals for this position?

I want to be successful at the position, which sounds simple and boring, but that is the truth. I want to be the best at it. And me doing that, is getting the sales department running like a machine, a terminator. I want the team to make any competition look like they are on cruise control, while we have our foot on the gas.