Tommy Armstrong

We are Sunward Dealership, situated in the West Midlands, offering a wide array of Sunward construction plant machinery, including compact mini excavators, skid steers, tracked loaders, and powered access platforms. Additionally, we provide a selection of plant trailers and hydraulic attachments. My focus is on effectively managing sales in both the West and East Midlands regions. I am responsible for identifying new business opportunities and nurturing existing customer relationships to boost sales in these areas. We specialise in delivering both sales and service for our extensive range of construction machinery to clients across various sectors, including plant rental, construction (new builds), civil engineering, demolition, and recycling/waste management. We provide our current and prospective customers with high-quality excavators and hydraulic attachments, supported by our exceptional service.

I was tasked with introducing a brand-new product to the UK market, known as a tiltrotator, which transformed a hydraulic excavator into a versatile multi-tool carrier. While tiltrotators were new to the UK, they had been in use in Nordic countries for the past 40 years, and Rototilt aimed to expand its operations throughout the UK and Ireland.

My role involved increasing sales in the Midlands and Southeast of England through direct sales efforts and establishing potential dealer partnerships. I strategically enhanced sales by directly engaging with end users, demonstrating the tiltrotator, and meeting with prospective construction machinery dealers to promote the concept along with the benefits and features of the tiltrotator integrated with machine control systems. Additionally, I participated in exhibitions, roadshows, innovation days, and dig weekenders to focus on connecting with new potential customers and dealer partners.

I reported directly to the Sales Director and managed to build a new sales team for a start-up operation focused on hiring excavator-mounted pile breakers, which are essential for breaking down foundation piles to reveal the rebar. I took the initiative to recruit, onboard, train, and mentor each sales representative to enhance their skills effectively. I led the sales team in formulating and executing the company's national sales strategy. My role included overseeing the strengthening of relationships with both existing and new customers to ensure continuous growth and the achievement of hire revenue targets. While I occasionally worked from the office, I dedicated significant time to visiting potential and current hire customers alongside each sales representative in their territories, providing support, motivation, and coaching.

I was assigned the responsibility of enhancing national account sales in the areas of plant hire, construction, civil engineering, ground works, and utilities, while also focusing on the maintenance and growth of direct house accounts for our range of mini and medium compact excavators and tracked loaders.

To achieve national account business, I engaged with prospective clients in our industry by providing mini excavator demonstrations for evaluations, conducting live demonstrations of our mini excavators for these targeted national account customers, and participating in exhibitions, trade shows, and innovation days. Additionally, I invited potential national account customers to our UK plant facility for a factory visit, allowing them to meet our team and observe our setup and operations. My goal was to increase national account sales by selling between 500 and 1,000 mini excavators annually.

In managing our direct house accounts, I addressed any ongoing disputes, facilitated communication between the factory and customers to ensure timely delivery of mini excavator orders, and resolved any issues related to servicing and maintenance promptly. I also provided support for our direct house accounts during their open or innovation days. I collaborated with all team members within our organisation to ensure we consistently met and exceeded our customers' expectations. I reported directly to our managing director and senior management regarding marketing competition and trends in the market.

I later moved to Hewden Hire Centres with the intention of advancing my career into senior management. I began my journey as the Regional Sales Manager, where I was responsible for overseeing a team of 8 Area Sales Representatives across 10 depot locations in the London area: North, South, East, and West. My objective was to maintain existing accounts and hire revenue while also striving to grow new accounts and revenue across all depots and regions. We achieved this by fostering and developing closer relationships with our current customers and resolving any disputes. Additionally, we proactively expanded our external hire business by cold calling all sites within our regions, meeting and exceeding customer expectations, and collaborating closely as a team to support one another, ensuring we could effectively outshine our competitors. I managed and mentored each team member to encourage and assist in their overall success within our business.

I began my career with Hewden in the heavy plant division, where I was responsible for hiring a wide array of plant machinery, including excavators, mobile cranes, telehandlers, dumpers, diesel generators to a varied clientele in sectors such as construction, civil engineering, house building, utilities and events. Most of our hires were sourced through cold calls to construction sites, gathering information to identify the individuals responsible for plant hiring within their organisations. Additionally, we collaborated with existing accounts to manage and grow the hire business for our depot. We also capitalised on national account opportunities, maintaining contact with our national account customers who had construction projects commencing in our managed regions, ensuring we maximised every hire opportunity generated from these sites to funnel back through our designated depot.