PROFILE
THE SWITCH TO SALES “I got to the point where I wanted to give sales a try,” Wilken tells D.O.M. magazine. “I had guys working under me that were taking on more responsibility, and I wanted to see if I could get in the sales side. I wasn’t very outgoing and not what you would think a typical salesperson would be like. But I had most of the other jobs here, and wanted to give it a try.” In 2003, Elliott Aviation opened its completions center in
Moline. This expansion allowed the company to off er paint, interior, avionics, and maintenance. The company needed more sales people to sell its new off erings. An opening came up for a regional sales manager, and Wilken was hired for the job.
What kind of sales training did he receive? “My
introduction to sales was them saying, ‘Here’s your Ford Taurus, and here’s your section of the country. Start knocking on doors,’” Wilken shares. “I was out of the offi ce three weeks out of four and on my own. There were a lot of cold calls, a lot of driving around, and a lot of staring at bad paintings in hotels.” Because of all of Wilken’s experience at Elliott, he was quite knowledgeable on what he was selling. This gave him an advantage when he walked in for a sales call. “Directors of maintenance, aircraft owners and pilots really don’t want a polished high-pressure sales guy,” Wilken says. “They like people who can talk intelligently back and forth instead of just buying them a lunch. If someone was too busy to stop and talk, I would see they were having a problem with their aircraft and off er to help. Because of my knowledge and troubleshooting skills, I would often help them solve the problem. I built a lot of strong relationships like that. I wasn’t ‘the sales guy’ — I was someone who could help them fi nd solutions to their problems. I earned their trust and respect.” Wilken was successful as a regional sales representative. But the company wanted him to take on a diff erent role to help grow sales even more. “My boss told me that my talents were better focused on the avionics side of the business, and helping the regional sales representatives close their deals when it came to avionics,” Wilken says. “I was moved back to an inside sales position as an avionics sales manager in 2003, and have been managing avionics sales ever since.” Wilken manages a team of three other avionics sales
people. We asked him what he looks for when hiring someone for an avionics sales job. “I’m looking for someone who’s technically knowledgeable,” he says. “I want somebody that has ‘been there, done that.’ We are estimators; we need to fi gure out what it takes to do a job. We need to be able to fi gure out labor, parts and certifi cation costs. I don’t need somebody who is just a ‘sales guy.’ I want someone who understands all that is involved with the diff erent pieces we need to package together for the customer. I was told by one of my bosses in the past, ‘You’re not a typical sales guy. Don’t get me wrong, that is a good thing. You are more of a consultant. People gain trust in you
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because you can help teach them the things they need to know to make educated decisions.’ I want my sales guys be consultants, not pushy sales types. “Finally, they need to be confi dent,” Wilken adds. “They need to have a desire to win. We need to close deals to keep everybody working here. If we lay people off , that refl ects poorly on us. It is our responsibility to keep them working.”
GARMIN G1000 One of the main avionics programs at Elliott Aviation that Wilken has helped grow is the Garmin G1000 King Air upgrade. “The G1000 is the most successful avionics upgrade ever in general aviation,” he shares. “It is still going strong. That program has increased our staff even more. We have 35 avionics technicians now. The upgrade is a complete avionics upgrade we replace all the avionics and wiring in the airplane. We take it back to square one and build up a complete new wire harness system as part of the upgrade.”
FINDING TALENT The need to hire more technicians was one of the growing pains associated with the increase in business because of the G1000 upgrade. However, the closing of many avionics schools and the decrease of kids getting into aviation, specifi cally avionics, sometimes made it diffi cult to fi nd qualifi ed applicants to fi ll open positions. The company decided to groom its own technicians. “We hire local people that have the desire to learn possess basic skill sets,” Wilken says. “We bring them into the wire harness area to start build up wiring harnesses under direct supervision. Many of them have moved up to supervisory positions and have also transitioned to diff erent departments. We have even had some go into engineering and quality control. Some have gone into sales. It’s on-the-job training and also requires them to do some study at home.”
TROUBLESHOOTING Wilken says that SIU taught him good troubleshooting skills. He and his classmates were doing a lot of hands-on work on avionics boards. The instructors would introduce faults and have the students troubleshoot the systems He believes many of today’s students aren’t taught enough troubleshooting skills. “People who try to troubleshoot these days often don’t understand the basics of troubleshooting,” he shares. “Troubleshooting, no matter what you are working on, involves the same basic steps. You have an action, you put something in, and you expect an outcome — whether it’s a hydraulic system or electronics. Sometimes, when the correct input is applied, the output is not correct. What do you do then? Well, you go halfway between the input and the output. If the output at that point is correct, you know the problem is between there and the end, so you cut that in half and look there. Before you know it, you’ve halved your way to a solution. That’s the essence to troubleshooting anything. It’s a logical sequence.
Continued on page 40
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