Meet Dell Martens, Edmonton Valve's Connection to Lloydminster

For 15 years he has made sure our customers quickly get the parts they need

Back in the late 1990s, Dell Martens wasn't sure he wanted to continue his career as an instrumentation mechanic. Two things helped him decide. First, the oil fields around Lloydminster hit a decline and demand for his services fell off. Second, he got to talking to Tristian McCallion, who represented Edmonton Valve & Fitting in Lloydminster at the time. McCallion was ready for new opportunities at Edmonton Valve and thought Martens was the right person to take over the territory.

"I said I will give it a try for a year and see how it goes," Martens recalls. "That was 15 years ago!"

Good fit

What made Martens right for the job as account manager? For one thing, a lot of the people he deals with every day are instrumentation mechanics. He can speak their language and they know he has knowledge and awareness of their work, having done the job himself. Of course, there was still plenty for him to learn at the start. He also has to deal with the more specialized needs of mechanical engineers, and of course get along with purchasing offices.

"Where I was before, I was more specialized on a few things. Now that I was calling on a few different customers, I had to learn their processes pretty fast," he recalls. "Tristian was excellent at mentoring me, so the transition wasn't bad."

Martens also had experience dealing with customers already, and simply had to hone his existing skills as a people-person.

Martens is our entire staff in Lloydminster, working out of his home office, which takes a lot of self-discipline. He says, "I probably spend one day a week in my office. The rest of the week I am out helping customers and generating sales".

Staying connected

He's not totally isolated, though. Martens gets on the phone with Edmonton several times a day, and of course he spends much of his time meeting with customers in the field.  

"I don't get lonely out there. I have built really good relationships with my customers, and it's not like I am stuck in my house all week. I enjoy it," he said. He's known a lot of his customers for 10 or 15 years, and even went to school with some of them as a boy in Lloydminster.

"A lot of times I don't need to make appointments anymore," he says. "I give them a quick call they say ‘yeah, come on by’”. They have come to rely on him for more than just handling their orders. He has done training on pressure gauges, valves and flow meters, helping some of the younger customers get the most from Swagelok's vast array of products.

If Martens ever needs to be at the Edmonton office in person, for training or meetings, it only takes two and a half hours to drive there.

Martens is used to driving. Some of his customers are just as far away as the Edmonton office, though in different directions. In the course of a year, Martens will drive 50,000 to 60,000 kilometres to visit customers. So while he technically works from home, he doesn't spend much time there. Besides, he would far rather be out in the field, in front of his customers.

To get in touch with Dell, call 780-437-0640, or contact us.