MEET THE TEAM: John helps customers solve their building problems with Actis products
After a Covid-induced hiatus we’re back with our occasional blog about members of the sales team here at Actis.
This time it’s the turn of sports mad John Buckley, regional sales director for the South West.
Before joining Actis in 2017, John had been a PE teacher for more than a decade, a career he adored until a cartilage injury put a spanner in the works.
His love of meeting people and his expertise in teaching put him in an ideal position to explain how the Actis range works, and he offers support and training to his expanding client base across Gloucestershire, Somerset and Bristol.
“This job is great. The products are fantastic and innovative, which is why I wanted to work for Actis in the first place. People want to use them again and again once I’ve introduced them to the benefits of the products. The main things we hear from customers is that they are quick and easy to fit, they’re clean, dust free, easy to store, produce little waste and, of course, are incredibly thermally efficient.
“The sales team and I offer a huge amount of support and training to our customers. We’re busy going out on site, visiting merchants and architects and talking to builders. Because we love the products it’s easy to be really passionate about them. A lot of work goes into the training side of things. For example, we have two CPDs which go into a lot of detail about how our products ensure buildings will be both thermally efficient and comply with building regulations.
“We also have a range of very detailed, informative literature about how to use the products in different scenarios, along with some how to videos. We offer plenty of guidance about individual projects so the customers know exactly how to use them and how the products will help.
“It’s not really selling in the traditional sense, but educating and assisting that we do. It always gives me a real buzz to know I’ve helped a customer solve a really tricky technical problem.
“Some customers may initially be a bit concerned about trying something so unlike traditional insulation. It can be difficult, in all areas of life, to make the leap from the familiar to something radically different. But pretty much everyone who’s used it once has said they won’t go back to the old ways and is completely sold on Actis products.
John has a great relationship with many of his customers and even meets up with some of them to play golf out of work hours.
He introduced honeycomb insulation Hybris to replacement conservatory roof system specialist Warmer Roofs in Frome, by demonstrating how easy it is to install and explaining its impressive thermal efficiency.
Warmer Roofs’ sales director Dilip Choudhury is enamoured with the product and the support he receives from John. His company uses 125mm Hybris in all its roofs, currently ordering around 22 pallets of it every three weeks.
“To maximise the thermal efficiency of the replacement roofs, we had to have a product that would give us the best U-value and was also easy to remove from the roof system should the installer need to introduce lighting or other electrical items,” explained Dilip.
“Using solid type insulation is difficult to remove to allow access for the electrician and would either break or would need to be removed completely where, for example, downlighters are fitted. Removing any insulation would breach Building Control.
“Actis Hybris ticks all the boxes and is user friendly and has excellent U-values, which is why we have chosen this product.”
John, something of a football whizz in his pre-injury days, now shares his love of the beautiful game by coaching teams in his adopted homeland in the Wye Valley in Herefordshire. He still gets out on his canoe, swims, plays tennis and badminton and, of course, enjoys his newly discovered pastime of golf with his customers.
He works alongside sales manager colleagues Tom Hendzel, who focuses on Devon and Cornwall, and Gemma Slatcher, whose patch is the West Midlands and South Wales.