EDOS we look for someone who owned a HVAC company or worked in installation management. Those people tend to be the best people because they are communicating peer to peer. They don't go to a distributor and come off as a polished salesperson." reps and we don't want to retrain someone who already thinks they have the process down," Os explains. "It is easier to train our people on our process of going to market." "Our sales team has field experience and has done installation, gone through training "We gain distributors' and contractors' trust through real peer-to-peer training." "The people we bring in are some of the best people you can find," Os adds. "The amount of time we spend in the channels is where we differentiate ourselves." EDOS does not hire traditional salespeople and will not hire a representative from a competitor because it's not the company's policy. "We don't like doing that with other and can share how they ran into a real world problem and how they overcame it," Os says. "We can teach sales and marketing, but it is harder to teach systems and how everything functions as a system. We gain distributors' and contractors' trust through real peer-topeer training." Every salesperson is assigned a territory and gets deeply embedded in the channel by becoming a member of industry associations and involved in the local communities. "We have a tremendous inside sales team and I am not looking at that through rose-colored glasses," Os notes. "Distributors tell us and volunteer that information on how strong our inside sales team is because the people we have are extremely supportive. It's our people with field experience and managers who go above and beyond what is required is what I'm most proud of." QUALITY REPORTING As the industry continues to evolve, manufacturers continue to put a greater number of responsibilities on representative agencies, Os says. The challenge for EDOS is to balance the different tasks required by manufacturers and provide them with quality information. "There are more requests for more in- Spring 2016 www.wdimagazine.com 37http://www.gastite.com http://www.wdimagazine.com