Investing in Yourself
Carl Wood’s Franklin Electric southeast region territory managers are certified by
the National Ground Water Association, making them the first sales team in North America to do so.
arl Wood, soft-spoken and easygoing, is a people person, making him a natural salesman in
the water systems industry.
His sales career spanning more than
30 years has taken him all over the
country, allowed him to meet a wide
range of people, and provided him
countless memories. It’s also given the
58-year-old Franklin Electric southeast
regional manager a unique perspective
of his profession.
“What I see a lot of people do in sales
is they get to a certain comfort level and
stop,” Wood says. “They don’t develop
any further. I like to see people treat it as
a continuing lifelong progression. You
never ever stop learning. The CSP is an
indicator that you’re still working, still
going.”
CSP stands for Certified Sales Professional, a designation offered by the
National Ground Water Association that
is specifically intended for supplier and
manufacturer owners, operators, and
employees.
Wood is a CSP II—a certification
that was originally called the Ground
C
Mike Price is the associate
editor of Water Well Journal.
He can be reached at
mprice@ngwa.org.
46/ March 2010 Water Well Journal
Water Systems Sales Specialist until
NGWA switched the designation name
to better reflect the required day-to-day
knowledge. Today, the CSP I indicates
an individual has passed either the water
systems or drilling operations exam
(regardless of focus), and a CSP II
indicates the individual has passed both
exams.
After earning his certification in
2006, Wood made it clear he wanted his
six territory managers to do the same.
The sales team—with 130 years of
water systems sales experience (including Wood)—pursued and achieved this
in 2009.
Wood recalls his team being both excited and proud in earning the certification, which is next to their names on their
business cards and e-mail signatures.
“I shot an e-mail to my boss (Dee
Davis, vice president of Franklin Electric and president of its United States/
Canada Commercial Business Unit)
when the last guy got it,” Wood says.
“I told him my team is 100 percent certified, the only one in the country, and
he shot an e-mail out to the other regional managers saying, ‘Carl is kicking
your butt.’ They immediately called me
asking what the certification is and how
you get it, so I directed them to NGWA’s
Web site.”
BY MIKE PRICE
(Top left) Carl Wood (second from left) is
known by contractors for taking them on
fishing trips, including this one where they
fished at Lake Guerrero, Mexico.
(Top middle) Wood and his Franklin Electric
southeast region territory managers have
130 years of water systems sales experience.
Not pictured is James “Duke” Hunt, CSP II.
(Top right) Wood at the 2010 North Carolina
Ground Water Association Convention and
Trade Show showing a product to Craig
Gilbert, branch manager for HD Supply
Waterworks Ltd. of Charlotte, North Carolina.
As chair of NGWA’s Professional
Designations Subcommittee, Richard
Thron, MGWC, says Wood proved the
age-old combination of “hard work and
determination” can be successful in
seeking the goal for his sales team.
“I think other manufacturers and
suppliers should consider this goal for
their teams,” says Thron, president of
Mantyla Well Drilling Inc. in Lakeland,
Minnesota.
It’s amazing how just three letters—
CSP—can invoke questions or be a conversation starter by not only industry
professionals but laymen alike.
Wood’s neighbor in Ocala, Florida,
who plays golf with Wood every weekend, saw the certification in an e-mail
NGWA.org
and inquired about it. Wood gets similar
questions from contractors.
“If a contractor
asks what it means,
Carl Wood, CSP II,
I say it’s a rating
southeast regional
that NGWA gives
manager for
professionals who
Franklin Electric
know the industry,”
Wood says. “A contractor really does
not like to have
somebody call on
him who doesn’t
know what he is
talking about. It’s a
waste of their time,
so it gives you immediate credibility.”
The youngest member of Wood’s
sales team, 34-year-old Charles Jewell,
CSP I, notices that besides the certification eliciting a positive response from
contractors, it gives him more latitude
when talking about a product.
“It makes us more reputable about
our product and provides contractors
with a little bit more confidence that we
know what is going on in the industry,”
says Jewell, who has worked for
Franklin Electric for seven years and
covers the South Florida sales territory.
“It shows that we’re part of the industry
and not just somebody who wants to sell
a product, but somebody who understands how it’s used and the requirements for it in our industry.”
With its primary focus being the
groundwater industry in the United
States and Canada, the success of
Franklin Electric—a contractor-focused
company headquartered in Bluffton,
Indiana—is dependent on its products
being properly installed and applied by
trained professionals. That’s why the
company has invested heavily in training for decades, providing it to more
than 7000 industry profesionals a year.
Likewise, a dedication to providing
the best customer support they can offer
is what led Wood and his sales team to
set a precedent at Franklin Electric.
“All other Franklin regions will be
implementing the same team certification
requirements,” Davis says. “Franklin
Electric’s success is due to the committed
professionals who make up our company.
They push each other to improve and
support each other in all efforts and
remain focused on providing superior
NGWA.org
Get More Information
on NGWA’s CSP Program
The CSP–Water Systems exam
debuted in 2009 and will be followed by
the CSP–Drilling Operations exam this
year. NGWA’s Professional Designations
Oversight Subcommittee established
the CSP I and the CSP II designations.
The CSP I indicates an individual has
passed one of the two exams (regardless of focus) and a CSP II indicates
the individual has passed both exams.
More information can be found at
www.ngwa.org/cert/csp.aspx.
service and support to the industry.
“Carl and the southeast territory
managers and field service engineers
take great pride in being part of this tradition and continue to be outstanding
ambassadors for Franklin Electric.”
The way the southeast sales team
sees it, becoming certifed is just the beginning. They want to continue to learn
and better themselves even further.
“It’s a great accomplishment,” Jewell
says, “but we need to continue to excel
onto the next level of training. We always have to strive for the next level.”
That’s music to Wood’s ears.
To Wood, it’s not enough for his
sales team to work long hours, weekends, or rack up frequent flyer miles.
Simply put, Wood encourages the
six of them to get involved in their
state associations.
“You’ve got to know what’s going
on, what the contractors are thinking
about, and more importantly, what
they’re dealing with,” he says. “If
they’re up against ordinances or laws
that are affecting their business, you
need to know about it and work with
them to try and change things. All of my
guys are involved in all of their state
associations—for both water well and
irrigation purposes. They’re out there a
lot putting on seminars and supporting
them in meetings with engineers, regulators, and developers.”
Wood has long served on the Florida
Ground Water Association’s board of
directors and has been instrumental in
rallying support to protect Florida’s
Marion County from an ordinance that
would force its citizens to hook up to a
countywide utility system. The system
would force citizens to abandon their
wells and septic tanks, which could ultimately result in water well contractors
being forced to relocate their businesses.
Based on his contributions to the
FGWA, Wood received the 2008
Member of the Year Award.
“I’m working to try and get water
wells to be part of the solution and not
something to get rid of,” Wood says.
It’s this type of passion that inspires
the sales team, says Bob Detter, CSP II,
who is the most senior member of the
sales team and first to become certified.
Detter has known Wood for more than
20 years, and like Wood, joined Franklin
Electric in 2004 when it acquired the
Jacuzzi Bros. Division.
“He is a strong leader and gets the
job done,” says Detter, who covers the
Alabama, Georgia, western North Carolina, and Tennessee sales territories.
“That’s what it’s all about. If something
comes up and a point has to be made,
he’s very spirited—like a bulldog—and
that’s a good thing.”
The son of an Air Force Master Sergeant, Wood earned a finance and economics degree from the University of
Central Florida and has been a student
of Tom Hopkins International, a
provider of sales training strategies and
techniques. He more or less sees himself
as an encourager, helping his sales team
do their job, and loves to see his sales
staff—in particular Jewell and James
“Duke” Hunt (a CSP II who covers
Virginia and Maryland sales territories)
—practice what they learn.
It seems like yesterday for Wood
when he started working for Sta-Rite
Industries Inc., a water systems provider,
in the mid-1970s.
So much has changed over the years,
and he hopes more suppliers and manufacturers become certified by NGWA,
even his competitors, because he says it
improves the entire industry and creates
healthy competition.
“The innovative part of human capital to me is things like this—sales certification. I say that because nobody else
is doing it,” Wood says. “I really thank
NGWA for coming up with that idea. I
think it’s great. Whoever did it deserves
a pat on the back.” WWJ
Water Well Journal March 2010 47/