Interview with Rob – Ottevanger’s people
Rob – Ottevanger Moerkapelle
“I invest in sustainable and long term customer relationships.”
Area Sales Manager
9 Years
Moerkapelle
Can you introduce yourself?
Hello! My name is Rob Hinten, and I am 61 years old. I am married, having two adult daughters, who both still are living at home. My hobbies are basically sport related. Previously football and running, nowadays walking and cycling.
For how long have you been working at Ottevanger?
I have been working at the Triott Group since 2012, where I first started at Wynveen in Heteren, and this is now my third year at Ottevanger where I am based in Moerkapelle.
What are your tasks and responsibilities?
As an Area Sales Manager I am mainly responsible for generating leads that ultimately will result into orders. This ranges from small projects, such as individual machines or a single process line, to complete turnkey projects. Before the pandemic, I went to England or Ireland almost 4 weeks to visit (potential) customers. Unfortunately, this is less now: In October I went to England again for the first time in 1.5 years time.
Besides UK and Ireland, I am also responsible for Spain/Portugal and all French speaking countries (France of course, Maghreb which is Maroc, Tunisia, Algeria and other African countries, mostly based at the western coast of Africa).
What does a working day normally look like?
Before the pandemic, I was traveling a lot. Unfortunately, that’s not possible at the moment and I don’t expect it to come back in full either. That’s why I have a lot of digital meetings with (potential) customers on a normal working day, since I would otherwise visit them. When I am working at the office, I schedule moments to discuss projects with our engineers and colleagues from sales support.
Fortunately, work continues to come our way especially from England, despite the lack of opportunities to go there. Due to Brexit, there seems a greater demand for self-sufficiency. Currently I am working on 5 larger turnkey feedmill projects. That’s excluding the I’Anson feedmill on which I was working for almost 8 years before we finally got concluded with the order. That was just before the Summer holidays.
What do you like so much about your job?
I especially like the versatility. Normally it’s not a job where you sit in the office all day. Traveling appeals to me and the contact with many people, both internally and externally, makes it very enjoyable. I also enjoy investing in sustainable and long term customer relationships. To have a good cooperation and be successful, it is important that there is mutual trust and that we get along well. It is nice to get to know customers in a personal way and to share and discuss personal interests with them as well.
Do you have anything left to say to all the readers?
I think Ottevanger is a great company to work for. It is a very loyal employer, with nice and pleasant colleagues. Together we can be proud of what we do. I realized this when I was visiting the industrial estate where the I’Anson feed mill will be established. It made me feel proud to see just bare land, realising that we will realize a complete feedmill, and putting this into operation, in two years time.