Celebrating Hydro-X Water Achievements

A MAN WITH A VERY SUCCESSFUL PLAN

We catch up with Gary Sewell our Sales Director to discuss how he managed to find he feet as a newbie in the water industry to driving today’s water sales team to an impressive £1.5m month.

HOW IT STARTED VS HOW IT’S GOING

I joined Hydro-X 3 years ago as Sales Director for Hydro-X Water, employed to drive revenue growth, margin and profit. My business plan was to grow through new customers, and organic growth. Through innovative new products and services, corporate alignment and working with our existing clients within our top 20 customer base and potential customers, to help them achieve their corporate strategies and synergies through return on investment. This has seen the water business grow from £640K/month turnover to £1.5M. Hydro-X Water is recognized throughout the industry as “The go to company” helping our customer achieve compliance safely and saving; water, energy and CO2. Hydro-X has become the “trusted advisor”

QUESTION 1

Now that we are approaching the cold miserable months. What hot beverage gets you moving on a cold winter’s day?

Lots of black coffee…

QUESTION 2

Why do you think clients continue to choose Hydro-X?

“Hydro-X customers come to us because we are not a transactional sales company, we enhance their customer experience by working with them, by aligning ourselves with their core key company objectives and help them remain compliant, helping them reduce their total cost of operation through ROI and providing them with a competitor advantage. We measure our performance throughout each month with hundreds of touch points to validate our compliance and performance.”

QUESTION 3

What key values do you try to engrain/instill in your team?

“Leadership, honestly, loyalty, work with them to ensure work/home life balance is maintained as it highly important to me that they spend the precious time with their families, and we do this by completing our “Goal Cards” every year by setting out our personal and business goals that we ensure that our habits help us to achieve such. The most important thing for me is to ensure that the team is happy.  At Hydro-X, I have never met such a fantastic team of people who are all supportive of each other.”

QUESTION 4

How do you motivate your team?

“I treat the team the way I would be expected to be treated. Encouragement, coaching and training, monthly 121s, with set objectives and time measurable targets to help them achieve their objectives. Have fun and be happy.”

QUESTION 5

What is your go-to motivational quote?

“I guess there are lots because the team never fail to impress me in all that they do, and I am humbled to work with such a great team of inspirational people. “Thank you tends to be the word of choice”.

QUESTION 6

What was your first job in the water industry and what is one piece of advice you would you give to those just starting out in the industry?

“My first job within the industry was as a technician back in 1988, this was at the very start of legislation for Legionella control, and I spent a lot of time cleaning cooling towers, tanks and installing dosage and control equipment. The advice that I would give is, if you have a dream, it’s only you that can make it work. At Hydro-X, you have a fantastic career opportunity to do as I did, and I would encourage anyone within the business that wants a career path to talk to their line managers and agree a plan to achieve this.”

QUESTION 7

What is it about the water industry that drives you?

“Saving lives. Compliance has to be top of the list, through innovation and constantly reviewing how we can make a difference really does motivate me to do my best each day.”

QUESTION 8

HX Water have managed to bag a huge target across September, what is the secret?

“There is no secret, anyone can have a plan, it’s about gaining trust from your team and giving them the tools to implement it. Be supportive, encourage and reward.”

QUESTION 9

If you could add one thing to the office environment, what would it be?

“That is a good question, it’s much easier to say, If I could take away anything from the office it would be “Teamwork, Trust, Enthusiasm, Dedication and Commitment” it is a really lovely working environment and when I leave each day, I leave with a smile, knowing everyone looks after each other and help each other to be successful. This absolutely is the key to the business success and enhanced customer experience and compliance.”

QUESTION 10

What is one thing you’ve recently learnt that has hugely impacted you/your team?

“There will always be challenges within any business, but what I have learned recently is take the time to listen and be prepared to make change.”

QUESTION 11

What’s next for HX Water during a time of huge growth?

“3 years into my business plan of 5 years and revenue growth has already been achieved. Its very important for me and the team to remain grounded and ensure that whatever we do doesn’t compromise our customers experience or compliance, we will continue to invest in training, we will measure performance and ensure that as we grow, we have the resource available to us to meet all of our growth goals. We have lots of new product and services that we are intending to roll out over the coming months and years that will further enhance compliance and help our customer reduce their total cost of operation which is a differentiator within the water treatment business.”

QUESTION 12

Highlight a moment which has taken you out of your comfort zone and helped you grow?

“As a young account manager, I lost one of my very first customers that I had for 20 years, I was devastated, it wasn’t due to performance, it was due to a change in the customer management team and the new team leader brought another WT company in from their previous company. Never be complacent!”

QUESTION 13

You’re very busy and travelling throughout most weeks. How do you look after your own mental health / chill out?

“If I said that I am chilled and never struggle, that would be a huge lie, everyone is human and it is OK to feel pressured, scared, and worried. We have a great team of people within the business, and I consider all to be a supporting factor in the giving me the strength to carry on during the difficult times. I like to socialise at the weekends with friends and family and take time to have some own time, even if it’s just an hour in the hotel room just listening to some music for an hour. I try to think of the positives and not think of the past because you can’t change that. Concentrate on the today.”

QUESTION 14

Who is your idol? / inspiration?

“My Dad!”

QUESTION 15

Where are you putting your new award?

“It will be placed in my local office in Ely where I spend most of my office based time.”