Finding a job you love at a company that rewards your efforts and empowers you to make your mark can be challenging. With countless sales jobs out there and thousands of companies to work for, it’s hard to know which is the right fit for you.
RDO Equipment Co. is proud to employ hundreds of professional salespeople in more than 80 locations across 12 states.
As an account manager at RDO, I’ve been in your shoes. Before I joined RDO, I was also looking to take the next step in my sales career and wasn’t sure what that could look like.
Luckily, selling Vermeer equipment has been rewarding for me in multiple ways. However, that doesn’t mean it’s the right fit for everyone.
To give you a better understanding of what it’s like to work at RDO as a Vermeer account manager, let’s talk more about this career and what a day in my life looks like.
What Does a Vermeer Account Manager Do at RDO Equipment Co.?
The Vermeer account manager position here is a customer-facing sales role.
When you enter this position, you’ll be responsible for creating, filling and managing a sales funnel within your assigned territory.
The specific equipment you sell will vary depending on the market segment you focus on. I focus on the underground utility market — selling machines like concrete cutters, trenchers, plows and directional drills.
Other Vermeer account managers, however, might focus on the tree care, recycling, landscaping or agriculture industries.
Specific duties of a Vermeer account manager include:
- Maintaining and managing a customer list
- Selling RDO as a full solutions provider
- Coordinating and conducting field demonstrations
- Doing market research
- Participating in training
- Maintaining strong knowledge of Vermeer products
While these are some duties you’ll find in the job description, let’s talk a little bit about what a day actually working in this role can look like.
What Does a Day Look Like as a Vermeer Account Manager?
I’ll say this later too, but one of the coolest parts of this job is that no two days are the same. While this is a great perk (if you like to constantly be on your toes), it makes it difficult to boil down this job into a single day — maybe impossible.
Here’s an overview of the things I do most often on any given day:
- Prospecting and Outreach
- Job site visits
- Product demonstration
- Creating proposals
- Working with other departments
- Providing aftersale support
Prospecting and Outreach
You need a well-developed funnel to create a stable, successful book of business in sales. This means constantly having potential customers at various steps in the purchasing journey — from lead to qualified lead to opportunity to customer.
Prospecting and outreach are the first steps in building a funnel in this role (and many sales roles).
I like to do this both in-person and electronically. Before I reach out to a prospect, I try to verify that we’d be a good fit by matching their qualities (business type, size, location, seasonality, buying trends, needs) with the qualities of my current customers.
Here are some ways I approach prospecting:
- Check out their website
- Look up their Universal Commercial Code
- Check out their social media and digital presence
- Stop by their office(s)
- Stop by their work sites
From there, I start creating touchpoints with them and sparking up a relationship.
Although RDO has a good reputation as a Vermeer dealership, working a new lead is still labor-intensive, and I commonly make phone calls, send emails and go to their locations to discuss their business needs.
On any given day, 40 percent of my time is spent doing prospecting and outreach.
Job Site Visits
Customer job site visits are another thing you’ll do a lot in a Vermeer account manager position.
This helps you get a ground-level understanding of your customers' businesses, the work they're doing, and how they’re using the equipment.
In turn, doing job site visits makes it easier to meet each customer’s future needs and ensures they’re getting the highest value possible from their relationship with RDO.
I like to do regular site visits with every customer at least once per year.
Product Demonstrations
As a Vermeer account manager, you’ll be trained to operate all the equipment you sell. Product demonstrations are a great way to demonstrate a machine's value to a customer.
For my product demonstrations, I bring the equipment to a customer’s yard or job site and show them the machinery up close. After the demonstration — or throughout it — customers usually ask questions and for more information.
This gives the customers an opportunity to learn more about each option they’re considering and then we can discuss next steps.
Creating Proposals
Most sales jobs involve creating proposals for clients—this one is no different. I spend a good amount of time creating proposals.
These can become long and tedious, especially in the Vermeer underground market, because the equipment often has to be configured specifically for the customer’s use case.
Typically, account managers create proposals for a couple of different reasons:
- You create them with the customer’s estimating team as they’re bidding on a project/job. That way, they can work your proposal into the bid they’re submitting
- You create a proposal for a customer who’s currently working on a project but needs additional, different or new equipment.
Depending on how many leads you have to this stage, the amount of time you spend on proposals will fluctuate. There are also a lot of people inside of RDO who will support you throughout this process.
Working With Other Departments
Collaboration is common in this role, too.
Although a lot of my day as an account manager is spent trying to drum up new business, I’m responsible for ensuring customers get the support and service they deserve.
To do so, I spend time acting as an intermediary between the customer and other portions of our business, whether that means the service department, the financing team, the parts department or other salespeople.
Expect plenty of cross-department collaboration as a Vermeer account manager.
Providing Aftersale Support
Aftersale support is an important part of providing a great experience to customers. Every time I sell a new piece of equipment or bring on a new customer, I provide aftersale support.
This includes:
- Delivering the machinery
- Providing training to a customer’s staff/demoing equipment
- Answering any questions
- Ensuring they know the resources they have available
- Being around the first time they use it to make sure everything is working smoothly
Aftersale support is an important part of your job as an account manager.
The Best Parts About This Career
For me, working as an account manager at RDO has been a great fit. Not only do I feel supported and valued, but the industry is exciting and the work my customers do is interesting. There’s never a dull moment.
Here are three more great things about this career:
The Autonomy You Get
In this role, you receive a tremendous amount of autonomy. No one is looking over your shoulder or micro-managing you. Instead, you’re trusted to do your job and supported fully while you do.
If you like managing your own schedule and making decisions for yourself, this is a great role. I often feel like I’m running my own business. It’s an entrepreneurial job.
Working on the cutting edge
Vermeer is a premium provider of heavy equipment. As such, they’re constantly developing innovative ways to solve customer problems and improve efficiency.
These products are truly on the cutting edge, which makes learning about them and helping customers implement them fun and rewarding.
Building relationships
The relationships you develop are some of the best things about working in sales. As an account manager, you’re not just responsible for creating new business. Instead, assisting your existing customers is also important.
My customers do very important work and getting to know them on a personal level (while we work to grow their business) is something I enjoy.
Challenges of Being an RDO Vermeer Account Manager
Like any career, this job has its challenges. They fluctuate by the day, but here are some of the more persistent difficulties you’ll encounter in this role:
Time Management
There’s never enough time in the day as an account manager. Using the hours you have efficiently is important to being successful in this role.
With so many moving pieces sometimes it can be challenging to manage your time correctly. You need to have good time management skills to do well in this role.
Being Flexible
Plan to change your plans is my motto.
Sometimes, you have your day all planned out and one phone call can change everything. Maybe a customer needs you to stop by their office, or a piece of machinery can’t be delivered when it needs to be.
Great account managers can adjust their plans effectively at a moment's notice. This can be a challenge, especially when you have a lot of work to get done.
Handling Objections
Like other sales roles, you’ll encounter a lot of objections in this career. Just because you’re ready to sell to them, doesn’t mean every company is ready to buy at that exact moment.
Expect to hear a lot of “nos” before you sell any machines. This can be frustrating and it’s important not to take this personally. The best account managers can shake off an objection and move on with their day.
The number of objections you hear will vary depending on the buyer’s cycle of the machinery you sell. For example, if you sell big equipment like tub grinders, horizontal grinders or tree chippers, these have a longer buyer’s cycle, meaning it takes longer for a customer to purchase — increasing your time between sales.
Who is a Good Fit For the Vermeer Account Manager Position?
This position is a good fit for people from all kinds of backgrounds. It’s recommended you have some experience in sales (I came from furniture sales previously).
Beyond this, people who are competitive, good at time management, are not easily discouraged and like meeting new people make good account managers.
It also helps to enjoy learning new things and to have a passion for heavy equipment — there’s constant learning in this job. Having a good business acumen is also helpful since this job is so entrepreneurial.
Join RDO Equipment Co. as a Vermeer Account Manager
Now that you know what a day in the life of a Vermeer account manager is like here at RDO, are you interested in applying?
Learn more about our sales positions here, including benefits and answers to frequently asked questions we get. You’ll also find some videos from current account managers who will talk you through their journey with RDO.
If you have any questions, contact our careers team. We’re happy to help you on your journey to build a career you’re proud of.
Nathan Bowker
Nathan joined RDO through our sales trainee program in 2018. Quickly, Nathan's work ethic and passion for learning vaulted him into a full-time sales role as a Sales Professional in Riverside, CA. In 2019, Nathan took his current position as a Vermeer Underground Account Manager in Oxnard, CA.
