Please give a warm welcome to Barry Lamb, Senior Commercial Account Manager at Envirowaste since October 2015.
This is our second interview with Barry, who was so great the first time around that we had some more questions for him regarding his excellent work as an account manager. In this interview, we wanted to know how and why Barry goes above and beyond in his pursuit of finding a solution.
Who is the most interesting client that you handle right now?
City Belts & Bearings Ltd. They are a specialist supplier to the Building Services Engineer, offering a range of products and engineering solutions to facilities management companies and maintenance service providers. They operate primarily within the M25. I have been working with them since March 2017.
What do you do for this client? What services do you provide?
I provide bulk waste clearances and specialist clearances as part of their service to their clients.
Can you think of the biggest issue they’ve faced while working with you, and what you did to solve it?
Approximately 12 tonnes of waste drive belts from air conditioning systems were going to landfill per year. Drive belts need to be replaced frequently and it is quite unpalatable to their clients that they should be just discarded.
This was presented to me as an issue and we worked together on a solution of creating collection points which would be checked by their engineers when on site and returned to a further collection point at their central depot. When a viable amount has been collected, we then take them and send them for shredding and processing to be reused as all-weather surfaces for playgrounds, equestrian usage, and other similar applications. We also provide a reporting mechanism which is crucial for their clients, as this is good evidence of their sustainability credentials when bidding for contracts.
How did you come up with this solution, is it the standard procedure or did you have to think on your feet?
This was definitely something new for us. We had to do some research and talk to a few companies that deal with providing this service for tyres. It involved the joint effort of working with CBB’s compliance manager, our operations team and my own efforts in identifying a supply chain that could make this work. I found a tyre repurposing company that was willing to take it on, but then we had to find a solution that would be cost-effective and keep the carbon footprint at a minimum. There were a number of logistical hurdles but we managed to get a plan in place within a month.
Did your customer see that you went above and beyond to help them? What was their response?
They have been very pleased with this, and their clients have been eager to get it up and running. We will be looking at some similar innovations later this year after we have given this system an opportunity to bed down.
What advice would you give to other account managers who wish to be able to give more in their role?
The key word is “give”. Everything has to be focused on ‘What can I bring to the table?’, rather than ‘What can I grab from the table?’. Account managers will benefit from being problem solvers, solution providers, and innovators.
