BICC-VERO Electronics |
About VERO... |
| 1961 - VERO is established by Mr Verdon Roe in England. One of the very first VERO products was the "VERO Board", with which many past students of electronic engineering will still be familiar today, a matrix board for assembling test circuits and test setups.
1979 - BICC in the UK acquires the VERO Group. For BICC, a major English cable-manufacturing group, purchasing the VERO Group meant the acquisition of new technology sectors.
1994 - MBO, separation from BICC. The VERO Group management acquired the group in an MBO, with backing from investors.
1995 - Flotation of the VERO Group as a plc on the London Stock Exchange.
1998 - The American Group APW acquires the VERO Group. There was a shift towards focusing on the telecommunications sector.
2007 – APW goes into administration and ceases trading – all assets and IP are sold.
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Sales Engineer: Oct 1990 to July 1991 (then promoted) |
British Columbia
Ontario is a p
Yukon,
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The most significant change in career direction...so far!
After 13 years with Ferranti I was approached by the regional sales manager of VERO Electronics to become his sales engineer for Scotland and Ireland.This was quite a gamble leaving my comfortable design job but decided to take him up on this offer.
I viewed Sales as an opportunity to open up other doors for my career and trade comfort for the 'edge' of the business world and professional progress.
It proved to be a great choice. |
Core competencies |
| • territory planning |
• new account development |
• market development |
| • budget management |
• account maintenance |
• strategic selling |
| • value-added selling |
• relationship selling |
• how to be successful |
The sales territory was Scotland and Ireland, with one week in 6 to be spent traveling around Ireland: while that may sound romantic this was 1990 and the troubles in Northern Ireland were raging and driving a car with UK plates around the North was like pinning a target on one's back. I have many, frightening stories but, more importantly.... job done!
I was one of 25 direct sales engineers and at the end of my first year I was award the company's 'Sales person of the year' for increasing sales 90%. This was achieved by
- working 4 1/2 days every week in front of customers
( only 1/2 day in the office)
- visiting 4 to 6 customers per day with appointments plus 1 or 2 cold calls per day
- moving up the value-value chain - I recognized very early on that the opportunity to grow would not come from doing the same as everyone else i selling discrete products so I started selling the companies full range of services: product integration.
- being on call 24/7 to support my clients, where needed
The combination of the above was so successful that my ability to sell integrated products caught the eye of corporate and after 18 months carrying a bag I was relocated to our headquarters, Southampton, England, and was promoted to Product Marketing Manager
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