8/29/2012

It’s been just over a year since I joined the Harrell’s family. When I was interviewing for the Marketing Generalist position I asked several people what they liked most about working for Harrell’s. Each person said, “The people.”  ‘The people’, I repeated to myself. Really? It’s not the benefits, the pay, the hours? Perplexed, I browsed through the website and located the mission statement trying to figure out what it is about Harrell’s that attracts ‘The People’. Here’s what I found:

Harrell’s aspires to Grow A Better World through excellence in service, integrity and value. Growth and success aside, the Harrell’s family remains focused on its mission to:

• Serve, honor and glorify God.
• Create an environment to empower and invest in our employees.
• Provide consistent quality products and service through innovative solutions.
• Create and grow loyal relationships through trust and integrity.
• Sustain growth through planned expansion.

God, the people, quality, service, integrity and planned expansion...Wow!  God in the mission statement! As soon as my first day on the job, I could see what everyone meant about ‘The People’. With a sales force over 90 strong, that’s a lot of Harrell’s people out there helping people grow turf and plants. ‘The People’, helping people. Like myself, there are many many of ‘The People’ who work behind the scenes to support our sales team. More people helping more people. At Harrell’s it truly is ‘The People’.

At the recent 2011 National Sales Meeting, I had the honor of meeting just about every member of the sales team, including the eleven or so new sales representatives who joined the family the same time as I did or more recently (A big thank you to the newer people for taking over as the ‘new person’ for me):  Matt Shultz – Mid-Atlantic Horticulture, Rebecca Bond – Southeast Horticulture, Nicholas Cole – Florida Golf, Adam Wright – Florida Golf, Pete Kiraly – Midwest Golf , Al Pondel – Midwest Golf, Kathy Conard – Mid-Atlantic Golf , Jack Harrell, III – Florida Golf, Matt Marlow – North Carolina Turf & Landscape, Tristan Rosado – Florida Turf and Landscape, Brad Babicz – Florida turf and Landscape, Chris Falletta –  Florida Turf and Landscape, and Chris Wiegand – Georgia Turf and Landscape.

This year, Harrell’s implemented the Rookie Sales Person of the Year award. This award is given to a sales representative who has been employed at least a year, but not more than two years and who has embraced the Harrell’s mission while being an effective and productive resource to the customers in their territory. The 2011 Rookie Sales Person of the Year was awarded to Brad Babicz of Florida.

Way to go Brad! (I’m a little loyal to Brad, having been in the same new employee orientation and both being USF graduates!)

In addition to the sales force, the National Sales Meeting brought together many of the operations, IT, Marketing, Accounting and Human Resources staff. You see with more than twelve locations in the South, mid-Atlantic, Midwest and Northeast regions of this great country, it takes a few people to keep things running smoothly. Harrell’s implemented the Sales Support Person of the Year award. The Sales Support Person of the Year among other things, is someone who exemplifies the mission through their positive attitude, service minded interaction with other company employees, attention to detail and follow through, overall professionalism and positive image, efficient and effective management of their responsibilities, customer relations, embraces growth and change, is self-motivated and exhibits leadership qualities.  The 2011 Sales Support Person of the Year was Garry MacKrell from the Butler, PA location.

Congratulations, Garry!

If it weren’t for our knowledgeable sales force, those of us in non-sales positions at Harrell’s wouldn’t be needed. My job is to help the sales reps do their job, so when Jack Harrell, Jr. began announcing the nominees for Sales Person of the Year, I sat a little straighter in my chair. The Sales Person of the Year among other things, is someone who embodies the mission with a positive attitude, efficiently and effectively maintains consistent growth in his/her territory with exceptional customer relations and professionalism. In addition, the Sales Person of the Year collaborates well with other company employees, embraces new ideas, procedures and products and exhibits leadership among their peers. The 2011 Sales Person of the Year was Lee Crosby of Florida.

Woot! Woot! Way to go, Lee.

There are so many deserving people at Harrell’s eligible for each of these awards. Truthfully, I don’t know how the Executive Team is ever able to pick just one person, but somehow they manage to determine one person who, for at least this year, gets to wear the crown.  No matter who wins the award, one thing is for sure.... it’s ‘The People’ that make Harrell’s, well....Harrell’s.