{"id":13375,"date":"2021-11-29T11:46:03","date_gmt":"2021-11-29T16:46:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aquatrolscompany.com\/an-unexpected-beginning\/"},"modified":"2021-11-29T11:46:03","modified_gmt":"2021-11-29T16:46:03","slug":"an-unexpected-beginning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aquatrolscompany.com\/en-eu\/an-unexpected-beginning\/","title":{"rendered":"An Unexpected Beginning"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Pat Jones<\/strong> | Ready for a change, Bill Smith decided to take his superintendent skills and launch into an agronomic sales career last year. Once he joined the Van Diest Supply team, the whole world turned upside down with the pandemic. Instead of stepping back, Bill plunged full force into learning about Aquatrols products and how he could help his customers in the heaviest play conditions we’ve seen in years.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bill Smith picked a crazy time to begin his career in agronomic sales. The former super had only recently joined the team at Van Diest Supply Company, a longtime Midwest turf and ag supplier. Just as he was getting his feet under him: Boom! Pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIllinois shut down for golf and I didn\u2019t travel because I didn\u2019t want to endanger anyone else, so it was all texting, emails and calls. But we found a way to get them stuff because that\u2019s what we do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Things changed quickly as the pandemic turned into Golf-palooza in Illinois and around the world. \u201cBy June it was like the \u201890s again. It was great that clubs made up for lost ground and the trend has continued.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One upside of the shutdown was that it gave him time to teach himself more in-depth about the products he was now selling. He\u2019d used Revolution\u00ae as a superintendent but needed to learn more about the rest of the Aquatrols portfolio. \u201cWe spent a lot of time on Zoom learning about the products from their team,\u201d he recalls. \u201cIt was extremely useful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One outcome of learning about the technologies: he\u2019s become a believer in putting Dispatch\u00ae in the tank for improved infiltration and pre-emergence and insecticide sprays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019s also seen big interest in combatting localized dry spot using Aqueduct Flex\u00ae. \u201cI\u2019ve had lots of courses start using it for greens and hot spots on fairways,\u201d says Smith. \u201cIt\u2019s also great for sod. It really helps reduce the water needs during installation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAqueduct Flex is such a good recovery product for localized dry spot. It\u2019s a no-brainer to keep a bag in your cart to fix trouble spots.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also felt fortunate to have help from his Aquatrols territory manager, John Turner. \u201cHe did a great job of bringing me up to speed and we did some very helpful zoom training with the Aquatrols team. He\u2019ll join me on calls and help with recommendations. He\u2019s been a great partner.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the two weren\u2019t strangers. \u201cI\u2019ve known JT for 30 years. He\u2019s such a good guy and he always knows how to find the customer\u2019s needs. That was invaluable to me as a superintendent.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So how does Smith plan to move forward working with customers? \u201cI just want to build on what I have guys trying now and get them started with other products that I think would help them. In the end I just try to focus on the needs of the customer and find a solid solution. Having access to Aquatrols\u2019 portfolio has been a great help in doing that for my customers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company\u2019s reputation for quality helps a lot. \u201cLike Van Diest, Aquatrols has been around forever so you don\u2019t need to sell the company. My biggest goal is simply to share more information about them because the product line fits in so many ways. The variety of their portfolio is just amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smith says he\u2019s still learning but he knows one thing for sure: \u201cIt\u2019s all about relationships and building trust. Don\u2019t blow smoke. And treat them like I wanted to be treated when I was in their shoes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Pat Jones | Ready for a change, Bill Smith decided to take his superintendent skills and launch into an agronomic sales career last year. Once he joined the Van Diest Supply team, the whole world turned upside down with the pandemic. Instead of stepping back, Bill plunged full force into learning about Aquatrols products […]<\/p>\n

Read More… from An Unexpected Beginning<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13377,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[290],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-success-stories"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAn Unexpected Beginning<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The learning curve was steep but Bill Smith managed to help customers, against all odds, during the pandemic and learn the ropes with Aquatrols products.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/aquatrolscompany.com\/en-eu\/an-unexpected-beginning\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" 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