Staff Spotlight: Meet Ben Hedenberg

And then next thing you know I'm in international logistics I'm in damage claims, and then I'm running the customer service team about seven, eight years in. Then I decided to get into the sales side of things. So working with contractors I saw. What the territory managers were doing in the field. I was like, this is great. I think I could do that. And then became a territory manager where I was able to achieve a number one status for all of Trane in, well, 2000, 2009.

I was able to get number one status, then move up to a sales leader. Sales leader to a district manager, and then I was a sales director running about a 350 million territory in the south. And in that time I gotta work with a ton of contractors and really became passionate about helping them improve their business and got to see.

I think I've had the pleasure of being in more than a thousand shops and working with a thousand contractors and understanding their business and seeing those that are super successful and maybe some of those that are not quite as successful in learning from that. And then after 20 years, I had an opportunity to make a shift in my career. Right? Make a big pivot which are always interesting.

And so I went to work for another software company where I managed the partnerships, but I really missed working with the contractors themselves and missed the sales portion of it and helping people grow their business. And so one day I got called up from a company and said, Hey, there's this company called Simpro. They're an Australian company. They just got some additional funding and they're looking to grow in the United States. And I was like I've never heard of them.

I'd never heard of them like two and a half years ago. And so started talking to 'em and saw the product, gotta meet the people and the culture and really fell in love. And I've been with us since March of 2021 and have really rebuilt the sales team and focused on some major growth that we've done in the last two and a half years.

We do spend a lot of time with implementation to understand what customer's processes are, and then figuring out how we come together to put those same processes within Simpro, so that flexibility to be able to make adjustments and handle the business really makes a difference. Those repeatable processes can be put in place within Simpro and then. The job costing's fantastic. I don't think anybody has project management like we do.

Being able to handle something from, you know, one hour to a year and being able to really get an understanding of the process along the way, and really be able to look at the work and process and seeing how many hours you're using, how you're doing against labor, how you're doing against equipment, make sure that the equipment pricing is right, really allow contractors to control their business.

Through what I like to consider their central business platform, then we're a business operating system to be able to have one place they can go to, whether they're in their office at home or on a beach in Jamaica. They can see what's going on in their business as long as they have a laptop to be able to view what's in there and they can dive down as deep or keep it as high level as they want to.

And the owner, unfortunately, a lot of people have different vices. I've seen people. Drink and smoke and do different things. This customer's vice was eating and he would start in the morning, he'd get a donuts for his guys and koches for his guys. And then eat a couple of those and then he'd start working and he'd drink some coffee. Have a biscuit. Next thing you know he is grabbing lunch, fast food, burger.

Start at 6:00 AM leave at 7:00 PM do paperwork at night, and unfortunately, his weight really ballooned up to where he was 354 new pounds. He didn't have. Control of his life cuz he was trying to control his business so much. And then I saw him implement processes in place. He went to classes. He had people he could lean on and talk to.

And then, you know, I hadn't seen him in six months and he had dropped 150 pounds and not because of gastric bypass surgery, which I'm all for people taking control of their lives, but it's more that he just realized he had to take care of himself. And so instead of going to. The place to do donuts. He would look in the morning and see what was going on, what was on the schedule, cuz he had one place to look for it. And he'd go for a walk and he would then go into the office.

He enabled his people to run the business better. He became healthier, the business became healthier. It was so very similar, like his health and the business' health and the mental health of everybody around them seem to go directly in line. So getting to see people make that change in their life and change in their business. And it's just so rewarding to see what people can do and how he's supporting his people that were working for him.

He allowed like his managers to actually manage and it really helped him change his lives. So it's, it is just, I don't know, it's, there's some pride in that we're working with people that are really making people's lives better. You know, they're dealing with. Plumbing issues and they're dealing with the quality of air and really quality of life for people that are out there, whether it be in residential or commercial, you know, it's just exciting.

I, I grew up, my dad worked on the railroad his whole life and he would deal with derailments and, you know, come home with dirty hands and a tire back, but he was always pretty satisfied with what he was doing. And being able to support people like him is just, you know, a point of pride for me.

Running your business and having it function in a way that's a beautiful story. And I like that a lot.

But with a product program like Simpro, you really have one central location for them to be able to run their whole business.

And then I realized I, I wanted to have more control of what was going on. I also, I don't know how this fits within the podcast, so we can have that discussion, but now I didn't believe in some of the leadership that were there at the time, and that made a difference for me. And when I was interviewing with Simpro, I gotta meet the c o I gotta meet the c o and understand who they were and what their focus were.

And it's very much in line culturally for what I was looking to do in terms of supporting people. Also an H V A C. There's five major players and it's just like you're moving a point of market share back and forth between one another. It just didn't feel like you're making a ding in the world. You're just kind of making a ding back and forth. And it was nice that you were helping people out with, offering them good equipment that's gonna work for 'em.

But was there equipment much different than any of the other equipment that was out there? It just felt, I don't know. At times a little bit pointless, right? Moving, having somebody install a Trane unit as compared to a carrier unit as compared to a Lennox unit. This didn't feel like I was really helping things out where I saw there was a bigger need in the software space, particularly in the commercial space, which we really focus on. But it's amazing you see these companies that are doing.

5, 10, 15, 20 million, and they're using QuickBooks in an Excel spreadsheet to run their business. And they have, they throw more heads at it or they work more hours. And they think that by working harder in the business, that they're gonna change the business. But really they're not working on the business. They're just kind of. More of the same. And you would think that the commercial side of the would be further along cuz they're dealing with bigger projects, longer projects.

It's not just a quick change out, but in many ways they've been able to get by from having really smart owners and they don't have the processes in place. So it's a space that is really in need of a product like Simpro to continue to. Improve their business, know where profitability is. They're dealing with these million dollar projects and they have a lot of risk in it, and they're basing it on an Excel spreadsheet, and it kind of just blows my mind.

We were built from the ground up dealing with projects, so dealing with things for a month, being able to have multiple people on a job, being able to keep track of all of the equipment that you using on the project, real time job costing to know where you are in the middle of a project, and then the configurability being able to match what their workflows are.

By having configurability within our system and then our implementation process, we typically spend on average about six days with somebody, and that's over a couple months. So really spending hands on understanding their workflows, walking them through it to match how to make. The best of our system and their system to come up with a way that works best, and it's really that hands-on differentiation.

Other companies out there, they'll have people look at spreadsheets and they'll have group meetings where that one-on-one really differentiates us from what everybody else does.

I think of we were in Brooklyn and we're working with a contractor there. Company's been, I think 60 years old, third generation in the fire security space. And they had been they're like a well-known name within within. New York City and Fire, and you can imagine that's a big market with big players in it. And they've been able to grow nicely over time, but a lot of their systems were incredibly antiquated.

And then having, again, have it all in one place to be able to run their business has really allowed them to see what gaps they have, where they can grow, how they can use more of Simpro to help 'em improve their business. It was just, it was neat to see a third generation push into a fourth generation. Really making a difference in, in their business by using a software that helps 'em and they've been able to streamline their businesses.

They're not using a hundred percent of Simpro yet, which we see a lot of people not using a hundred percent right away, but they're kind of, they were at the walk stage. So I think about it, crawl, walk runs. Let's figure out what your key functions are for the first couple months, then let's get you walking where you start using more. And they were kind of moving onto that next level, into that run phase where they're implementing all of it and making sure.

That, you know, they took care of their core functionalities, but then they're starting to use more and more of it to streamline their process and it's, it was just neat to sit down and talk to people that have worked there for 20 years and how they've seen a difference in their company for the year and a half, two years that they've been using Cipro and what the next steps are for 'em.

And we had two conversations and he signed up with us and they've been able to grow. By 25% in the last year and a half. So they've been able to really grow their business by having it in Simpro. So commercial, H V A C's great Security is a space that I didn't really know much about before I came to Simpro. Because they're that line of defense that's behind the scenes.

I was talking to one of our largest security companies, Orion, and he said, we don't want people to know our name cuz we want it to be, we want to be the people that, that are behind and that you don't know who they are. Because they're taking care of business. Seems like the only time you know what security companies are is if something goes wrong. So they deal with, you know, big casinos. They deal with government agencies.

They're keeping schools safe, so they don't want people to know exactly who they are, but that business is continuing to grow like they have. Cameras and gun detection and all those terrible things that we don't like to think about, but that are in the background, trying to make everybody safer. And it's amazing to see how that's growing. Obviously electrical, being in the business for 22 years, we have pieces that they can really manage the whole business through.

And I'm sure other people have talked about that on this. Commercial plumbing is fantastic for us. Low voltage. We're part of Low Voltage Nation. Blake IMOs is a really good partner of ours and he has connections with, on Facebook with, you know, 5,000 plus followers, 10,000 plus followers, and. Those little voltage contractors typically are smaller, but they need to have a system be able to keep track of their inventory.

They're so in, in the Trades, it's so hard to keep track of what you're using and make sure some of it doesn't just walk away. It's kind of amazing how it just walks away periodically, but having it in the system and making sure that they're billing and having good cash flow has made a huge difference to some of those local voltage contractors. In a lot of those cases, they'll send somebody out there for a service issue. Hey, this is broken.

Whether it be H V A C or low voltage electrical, a number of different, we have a cattle feed company that we signed up. We have a a tent company in Antarctica. They manage the tents for scientific purposes, but you send somebody out there for a service thing and one thing's broken, and then person is like, Hey, can you check out this too? And then they.

At a capacitor or they do something to make sure it's taken care of, but without really monitoring it, that stuff just looks like it just walks away and you're not charging the customer for what they need. They don't recognize all that you're doing for 'em. And you just have a tendency to miss out on these things. You can be delivering great customer service, but if you're not charging for it, you won't be able to continue to deliver that great customer service.

Every time a digital signature is done, I can send out quotes online and whenever somebody signs it, I can get notification. I can turn that into a job automatically. I like those workflows where, It's not automagic because you have to do the steps to make sure that things are taken care of, but make it move along the process and have notifications keep you in tune with the most important things.

And then even like the alerts when you log onto the front page as an owner, there's so much going on in, in the business and you need to know that. Top of the fold information that's going on. Who are the customers, who are past to, what are the contracts that are expiring? Which one of my guys has their certification that's going past to and keeping on top of it so it doesn't sneak up and surprise you?

Cause so often if as they're running their business, Things just kind of get 'em they're juggling a thousand balls and something's gonna drop. So we give 'em one place where they can look to and really see, Hey, what I, what are the most important things that are going on in my business? What do I need to act on right now?

I'm very much focused on clarity and honesty on the sales team, and I'm really proud of the nine people that we've been able to develop within the team. We have. One person that has been here before I got here. We've built out the other eight people from either connections, people we've built up from. We have one gentleman, Brandon who started as a sales development rep, one of his early jobs, you know, his.

24, 25 when he started, and then he is moved from an SDR to being doing cold calling, which is one of the toughest jobs out there in the business. Cold calling no matter what you're doing. And he was very successful helping us stand that up for nine months. And then he is recently moved over to an account executive, so to salesperson.

And he's doing incredible as a account executive, but seeing that, that maturation and seeing when you align with that, Ethics and the culture, how you can help people grow within their livelihood and their skills. And that's incredibly fun for me. That's awesome. It's, yeah, you get to literally facilitate that growth and I like that. That's a really cool way to look at your job. What advice would you have for someone looking to get started in the Trades?

I know I just talked about culture, but I think culture isn't the most important thing. I've seen some incredible owners of, in the Trades business, whether it be lawn mowing or plumbing, H V A C security, and then I've seen. Some not so great people. Some very narcissistic, egotistical people that think that employees are just people who work for 'em.

So finding that person who really wants to help you develop as a person, help you develop in your career that is, is willing to do the Traneing to really know how whatever you're installing, servicing how it works. And so when you repair it, that you're preparing. Are repairing the the root cause and not just the symptom. So really get an understanding of what's going on with the whole system overall. And I'd also say, give you a chance to fail.

Like, I think there's some, the only way I learn is to touch that, the hot stove, if it's really hot. And I think that's the way a lot of people do too. So make sure that people are safe and they have the tools they need, but allow them to. Fail at some level and give them the support if they do. Cuz oftentimes you can really grow from that.

Technology and can make some decisions and to implement it within the system, given the right amount of time to implement this. And it could make all the difference. We've seen companies that, you know, we initially thought they would take seven to eight days. They can implement it within three three over a month long period. Because they have, they understand the business, they really clean up their data. So we walk into a lot of.

One of my early careers jobs in college was working as a movie man, which God bless those people. It's the, it was the worst job I've ever had. And so often you'd walk in and somebody's house was in complete disarray. Nothing's in boxes. They don't, they have all the junk they've ever collected over the last 25 years that's set out.

And those days were the worst because you had to organize and put things in boxes that, you know, that should be thrown away and you'd end up moving it from, One place to the other and you're like, I know this is just gonna stay in boxes for the next 10, 15, 20 years.

So if a customer can take the time and really clean up their data, clean up which customers they're doing business with, make sure they understand what product they're selling and if they can map out their workflows, just know, like, I do this. Somebody calls in, I schedule it. I dispatch that person. I have them do this, and I sign this and have all their documents in order. That makes all the difference.

Like so often our implementation consultants are working almost as a psychologist to get people to open up about what's going on in their business find out how they're really working, when people don't necessarily even understand their own workflows. So if people could take the time, clean up their data, have the right person, and then have some workflows where you understand how your business runs, that helps out tremendously and we can. Make the most out of that.

I mean, I would like to say we're the right fit for everybody, but we're not necessarily right. So get to know a couple people that are working here, and when I made the comment earlier about you should get to know who the managers are and who the owners of companies are. Same with whoever you're working for. Whenever you're doing an interview, you should be interviewing. The company to make sure they're a right fit for you as much as you're a right fit for them.

So 75% of our salespeople actually came from the Trades and have gotten their hands dirty if not even higher. So it's something that, that I believe in. I've tried hiring people that just are purely tech SaaS people because they have some history and they don't relate as well to our customers as I would like.

And I grew up turning wrenches and working in factories and I think really understanding customers, who they are, the struggles they go through, the the business side of things is a huge advantage. If somebody can really get an understanding of that really makes a difference. And I think that separates us from what a lot of other people who go to market with different salespeople, like are people. Most of 'em have good experience working with the Trades.

So we've, we will not sell to the people where it's not the right fit.