This month, we sat down with our sales team to talk about their career paths and lessons they have learned over the years at Groov-Pin. Get to know our applications specialists, Scott Stanier and Chris Swarm, and sales manager, Mark Ciuba.
What is the most interesting industry to work with?
Scott: I’m very involved in the Aerospace industry and it’s a growing industry. We’re doing things we didn’t think we could do 10 years ago and now we have those capabilities due to our work with lean manufacturing. We expect that it’s going to get even stronger over the next 10 years.
Chris: It’s pretty cool that we supply parts to the military. We supply connectors and parts for the mortars they use, so we’re manufacturing components that are helping to support the people that are protecting our country.
Mark: All of the industries we supply are interesting to work with because our parts serve a vital purpose in each different application. We have recently become involved in Automotive Electronics and our work is on the cutting edge of braking and transmission technology.
What skills are most important for your job?
Scott: You have to be able to understand the customer’s current needs. Internal communication is also important. We have to be able to communicate not just between customers, but also with our team at the plant.
Chris: The number one skill is being able to talk to all different levels and positions when we visit a customer. You have to be ready to talk to the person who is installing the part, a production manager, an engineer, an owner, or president. You have to be able to communicate to many different levels in an organization.
Mark: Listening to our customers and identifying their needs are key. We develop long-term relationships that are built on integrity, reliability, and trust. There are many companies and contacts that we still supply since I started working for Groov-Pin in 1983.
What has been the biggest learning moment in your career?
Scott: I learned how to adapt quickly to the ever-changing needs of our customers. Years ago, the main questions were what is the price and what is the lead time? Now, I talk more about how we can make the product more affordable in the customer’s application by changing materials or tolerances on specific dimensions of a given part.
Chris: My biggest learning moment was realizing that relationship building is the key to successful sales. You hear a lot of people pay lip service to that, but not a lot of them develop long-lasting relationships and trust levels that are mutually beneficial to all parties like we do.
Mark: It has been 10 years since we started our lean transformation and we still learn each day. I was impressed by how both of our facilities embraced and participated in our lean efforts. We had numerous ideas for improvement come from everyone in the business.
What has been the proudest moment or biggest achievement for Groov-Pin?
Scott: Lean manufacturing has put us in a much better position to handle orders. When we get really busy, we can manage more effectively and, in the past, it would have been more of a struggle for us.
Chris: A great accomplishment for Groov-Pin was the process we went through with lean manufacturing. We were able to show off our shop and have customers come in to visit and see the improvements we made.
Mark: I have been with Groov-Pin for 35 years and celebrating our 90th anniversary two years ago was special. Working on new applications and touring the smallest to the largest manufacturing facilities over the years has been extremely satisfying.