"Business is about creating the conditions for our customers so that they are the pros on their field."
That sentence was uttered by a total enthusiast. A man who runs the local branch of a German family business as if it were his own. A businessman in body and soul.
I've been thinking about that sentence for a long time. And you know what? It's true. Totally. Plus, for me, it holds many levels of understanding. I mean, what does it evoke in you? And by the way, notice it's not about the product at all.
Martin Schlögl from Testo said this sentence in the next Zážeh. I think even that is enough to listen to him.
But we didn't stop at that sentence. We also discussed other things from behind the scenes. And Martin answered. To what?
🔸 Where did the entrepreneurial culture within an international company originate?
🔸 How does the business work and how do they find new colleagues?
🔸 What are the peculiarities of technical sales?
🔸 What kind of salesmen are Czechs?
🔸 How is it measured that "everyone knows the logo"?
TRANSCRIPT OF THE INTERVIEW
Martin Hurych
Hello. I'm Martin Hurych and this is Zahžeh. Today we're going to look a little different than you're used to, today we're going to look at how the Czech branch of a multinational company is run with Martin Schlögl. Hello.
Martin Schlögl
Hi, thanks for inviting me.
What does she feel when she watches her sons on the bike?
Martin Hurych
You're welcome. Martin is the director of the Czech branch of a German family company, so when I said multinational, don't be alarmed, it's not a corporation. Before we get into what you do, where you do it, why you do it and how you do it, because that's why you're here in the first place, I was interested in one thing in the preparation. What's it like to watch the guys on mountain bikes on your back? Does it inspire more pride in you or despair that it's not going to get any better?
Martin Schlögl
Exactly both. The boys are 9 and I'm happy that they are both technically and physically skilled on the bike, but of course it's hard to admit that I'll never catch up to them, that I'll fly behind them like a flag.
Martin Hurych
What kind of mountain bikes do they have?
Martin Schlögl
They have XC, I'm even happy that I built them myself with a friend over the winter, so they're ours and we've already decided to go for it. They're having so much fun. Plus they're into trials and they're fooling around in front of the house on pallets now and they're really handy.
What does Testo specialise in?
Martin Hurych
So fingers crossed you keep the boys for a long time. We said at the beginning that you are running the Czech branch of Testo, Testo Czech Republic. Testo is an international company, so first let's talk about what Testo does, because in my bubble not everybody will know Testo. What kind of company is it and what kind of business does it specialise in?
Martin Schlögl
Testo is the market leader in physical measurement instruments and solutions. It is a German company founded by the father of the current owner. Headquartered in Germany, in the Black Forest, there is also research, development and production and it is a sophisticated high-tech measuring instruments company. It started in '57 with temperature measurements, moved on to pressures, humidity, flue gas analysis for airflow and so on.
Martin Hurych
So can you measure everything in SI units?
Martin Schlögl
Basically, yes. It started with the temperature, the temperature was the main thing, and that's where it's coming from. But it also goes to these physical variables.
How does the Czech Republic and Martin fit in?
Martin Hurych
We'll come back to what and where you measure in a moment. Let me tell you how the Czech Republic fits into this international symphony.
Martin Schlögl
We're actually one of 40 chapters around the world. I have been trusted to manage the Czech part here, I am in charge of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. There are 20 of us, I have sales people, product managers, marketing, we have our own accredited lab, so we calibrate the instruments that we sell. We have accreditation in the food and farm specifications as well. We have our own service team, so we install it. It's actually kind of our in-house company. We have the confidence from Germany to do it our way and that's what's really cool about it.
Martin Hurych
We'll get to that. How did you end up in the Test?
Martin Schlögl
I've been in Test for four years. I came from the outside and have actually been in technical sales my whole life since college, so it's not an indirect route. I've spent my entire professional career in technical sales.
Where did the entrepreneurial culture within an international company originate?
Martin Hurych
I was very interested when I invited you here because typically we have consultants or business people sitting here, but I have rarely had a person who works for someone abroad. I was intrigued by what you said about your owner. I have a PnL and the rest is up to me, so you are partly that kind of entrepreneur on someone else's dime, or an entrepreneur in business. How did that come about, or is there a reason or some basis from where that culture has permeated the company? Because typically everyone imagines an international company as a corporation laced with excel spreadsheets and reports back to the chain of command. I'm kind of intrigued by this, because it makes you stand out.
Martin Schlögl
I have to say, it's not typical, I agree. I've never seen this before in my career. Testo is not a corporation, Testo is an international company, but still with an owner, so the owner of the company is also the CEO. I also flew to his place for the interview because he made a point of hiring and selecting all the branch heads himself, so that's where it starts and that's where you understand the philosophy. Every branch is of course tied to Germany, but I have my own PnL here and it's up to us how we do it here in the Czech market. In Germany, we answer, of course we send the profit and loss statements, but what sales channels we use, how we do our marketing, how we work, whether we work directly or with business partners, that's purely up to us.
Martin Hurych
Does this mean that Testo in the Czech Republic and Testo in Vienna or Poland are diametrically opposed companies?
Martin Schlögl
They are. Everybody does it their own way. Of course, by meeting each other and seeing each other at meetings, we inspire each other and try to do what works and not do what doesn't work, but other than that, everyone is really doing it in their own way.
What industries does Testo reach?
Martin Hurych
I met Testo in my first life, in my corporate life, when I was doing environmental engineering and building engineering. You have a much broader portfolio, you mentioned food, I mentioned HVAC. What else can you measure?
Martin Schlögl
That's our specificity, that we are really very broad. It's all measuring instruments, digital, made in Germany, but it's a broad portfolio. It's used in those buildings by the service
technicians who service heat pumps to service boilers, airflow, air handling. That's the HVAC, like you said, you know. In food, it's actually temperature monitoring, food storage, food transportation, HACCP. Typically, our biggest customer in this segment is a well-known chain that everybody knows, with a yellow logo. All restaurants in the Czech Republic and Slovakia have our temperature measurement, our digital HACCP. Imagine that there are temperature measurements in all the refrigeration equipment, we have a fryer oil analyzer, so even the fries, to make them taste the same everywhere, are analyzed with our fryer oil tester. It's all transmitted to their headquarters via the cloud, so they have an instant overview of where, what and how it's working. It's very similar on the farm. But there again, according to farm legislation and farm standards, it is about temperature monitoring, storage and transport of medicines. Typically in hospitals, where there are warehouses of medicines, or transfusion stations, in pharmacies, our cloud-based dataloggers for temperature measurement can be found everywhere.
Martin Hurych
So you operate in three silos, TZB, food and farm?
Martin Schlögl
You could say. As we are small, I have a fellow producer for each one of us who deals with it comprehensively and controls and manages the market himself. Of course we consult, but it's actually a separate part.
How does the in Testo shop work?
Martin Hurych
That just intrigued me, because I can imagine that in the context of, say, some counter-cyclical development, it's a great thing to have three diametrically opposed businesses. How is your sales team set up? Because it's very likely on one person's goal to encompass all of those specifics.
Martin Schlögl
It's just that our owner is very agile and really pushes to innovate and have new and new devices coming out every year. So they give us all the materials from Germany and the production guy in our company takes over and with the support of marketing, because I have two perfect marketing colleagues, he prepares the materials, the launch and everything. It goes through channels, through all the marketing tools to get it to the customers. We have the advantage that they know us in those particular areas, I'm glad you do too, but of course we have to push it further so that everybody knows the orange logo. I am glad to hear from someone in private life that a boiler inspector has been to their boiler and measured the flue gases with our flue gas analyzer. Nowadays, he doesn't need to print out a receipt on thermal paper to do it, but sends a PDF report directly from the instrument and it's actually a pro report from the customer as well. That's what Testo is doing, digitizing everything and making it easier for those technicians to make it easier for their customers.
Martin Hurych
I'm going to go back to business because you once told me you were a very business-minded company. I understand that Germany develops something, decides to market it, gives you full marketing support and the production guy somehow prepares it. Then how is the sales team stratified? Am I correct in understanding that what goes with the foot is a specialist trader?
Martin Schlögl
As I said, there are 20 of us complete with everything, including the lab, marketing, logistics, everything. Let's set an example. Now we have a new device, a fuel leak detector, which is in the HVAC. That means we've got the complete materials for it and it's going to market. The product guy is in charge of the launch, communicating with the key companies, which are the boiler manufacturers, who will help us get it out to their service technicians. It's in their interest to use quality instruments and ours, of course, to use the Testo ones. So that's the source, he doesn't actually see those very end service people most of the time, he talks to those service organizations and those type of customers.
Martin Hurych
If I understand correctly, does this mean that the production manager is responsible for the turnover in your group?
Martin Schlögl
That's right. He actually has a little PnL within our Czech Ltd. and he takes care of everything. He's got to say, he's got to signal, there's a key exhibition, we'll do a seminar with the customers. Now, for example, we did a seminar at the CTU just about the environment and about measuring air flow and climate variables, which would just be his suggestion. He said he would arrange it there, arrange it, present it and do the communication for it.
Martin Hurych
It's already a company within a company within a company.
Martin Schlögl
It's kind of like that. Of course it's a challenge for them and for me to keep it going, but at the same time I see that's where the creative ideas are falling. They're really each taking care of their business in a way that makes them as visible as possible, adds as much value to customers as possible, and ultimately is geared towards meeting the turnaround.
How do they find new colleagues at Testo?
Martin Hurych
It's great that they have their PnLs because in my experience it completely changes people's perspective on employment. The moment you see what you have to generate to bring home a paycheck, it's great. On the other hand, these people must be incredibly versatile. Where do you find them?
Martin Schlögl
We have cooperation with Novitim, I think Anna Schwarz was here. I just understood very soon when I started that we can't do everything ourselves. If we're going to hype people ourselves and do our own online marketing and generate leads, it's going to be very challenging. So I surrounded myself from various sources with pros who are good at what they do in their field, and that's who we work with. Anna Schwarz and Novitium help us find people, it works perfectly, we even find them for our business partners. When our partner in Slovakia was looking for a salesperson, we asked Novitim to help them. So now we're looking for a producer to join us, so Anna knows she has to do it.
Martin Hurych
If you want to join Testo, feel free to contact me, I will arrange the contact. So if you're sitting down with Anne and giving her the brief you want, who do you want? I see in various companies that the world is pushing a lot into specialization, into fragmentation of individual tasks, so that it fits these people personally. The first idea is, a produce person is very different in type than an acquisition salesperson, or than a sales farmer, than a lead generation person. You're actually combining everything in one person. What is the absolute most important thing for you, what does that person have to have for you to even consider them for the position?
Martin Schlögl
The most important thing is the enthusiasm and the will that must radiate from him to do these things. We will teach him, we have really great educational tools from Germany and our own, people will help him, the team there is really good and the people won't let him down. But he has to want to and that will be revealed very soon. We are a small company and it shows very quickly. The advantage of working with these partners is that they know us and we don't have to brief and explain it again every time. They just know us and it's easier, they know the culture of the firm, they know that there's that value of autonomy, but it's bought back by that discipline and drive, which is key for us. That's why they are already trying to serve us such people. Teamwork is also important, because although everyone is a bit of a soldier in the field, they have to work together. Imagine they go to an industrial factory, they put in those HVAC applications, facility management, but they also need a thermal imaging camera to screen the buildings, they have turbines, for example. They need to know if they're running efficiently, which you can measure with a thermal imager, if there's a malfunction, but they may also have a warehouse where they want to monitor the temperature. The idea of 4 different people going to that one factory in 4 days, that would not be efficient. So, it's key to help each other and that's what I'm trying to build in that company and even the head office emphasizes that a lot and it makes a lot of sense.
How are merchant rewards structured?
Martin Hurych
Is it really purely on teamwork that they help each other out, or do you even have some sort of division of who contributes what, so some of that turnover goes to his PnL?
Martin Schlögl
In the bonus criteria they have the overall instrumentation, but also the calibration results. I think the numbers in service are flying up and those customers are coming back to us and those dealers are motivated to sell those calibrations and services as well. So that's also going into their numbers in that area.
Martin Hurych
So in terms of rewarding a producer, do I have acquisition, retention and some cross-sell?
Martin Schlögl
He's also there because all the instruments that we sell outside of his field go into it, but his focus is obviously on his own field.
Why use outsourcing effectively?
Martin Hurych
We mentioned a bunch of partners here, you said you like to outsource. What makes you say that? Because your size often tends to bring a lot of functions in-house, whether it's under the guise that you need to teach them or to put more leverage on people to do what they need to do. You put a lot on external partners. Is it the culture, or is it you, or what led you to do that?
Martin Schlögl
I think I came up with a little bit of that, something was already in the company, but I learned a lot that to be effective, to be close to customers, to really focus on what we're best at, it's not worth wasting time on things we can't do. There are pros who do it well. Obviously we can put an ad out for that recruitment and we can look for those people ourselves, but it makes more sense to give it to someone who does it every day, who understands it and who understands our company and knows our culture. That's why we're working with Novitim. For example, we entrusted copywriting and social media and marketing assistance to Jana Ondrejechová from Sít'ovka. We already know each other, we've been working together for three years now, and it's working out great. She knows about Test, she understands the principles, and when we launch something new, she writes something for us, and if we were creating this competence ourselves in the company, it wouldn't make sense. I've got two marketers, great guys, but one focuses on online, the other focuses on events, seminars, exhibitions and doing copywriting is something that's extra to that. So why not use Jana, who is great at it and does nothing else.
What are the peculiarities of technical sales?
Martin Hurych
You radiate great enthusiasm for technology. You said at the beginning that you've been in technical sales for 20 years. What are the specifics of technical sales for you?
Martin Schlögl
I don't think it's that specific. The principles are still the same. We just want to help customers be pros on their turf. If we make their lives easier, they become a reference for us, and that's how it rolls on. It's really that simple. Whether the product is technical or not, at the end of the day it's still about that value add. I'm close to it because I graduated from the University of Technology, I was already enjoying it when I was studying, I was drawn to sales and I thought it made sense to stay in tech. So we're trying to make people pro on their turf. I don't want to sound like a cliché, but if I apply this to service technicians, for example, there are reputable boiler manufacturers, we all know them, they're probably hanging on your wall at home, who want to appear professional to their customers. They get paid for those services and when they come in with professional equipment, first of all, it's safe for those end customers, but it's also that added value. We want to make it easy for them, we have spare equipment for them, we'll bring it in and calibrate it for them when they're not using it. During the summer, when they're doing something else, we'll put those instruments in their pocket and return them so they're back up and running for the season. It's the same in the drug warehouses. They report their business to the SÚKL and other authorities and we want to make it easier for them so that the reports come out the way they need them to. We want to make their lives easier for them to do what they can do and we will help them in that part. I think that principle is universally valid.
Martin Hurych
I don't want to devalue it at all because I think it's a whole different level of sales and it's actually good news for the product that it's not just about the product. This also runs through the whole Testa, is this the DNA of Testo?
Martin Schlögl
We're trying to do that. We're not exactly in daily contact with headquarters. Of course we have our boss, we communicate maybe once a month, once every two months, but they want us to be such an entrepreneur in those countries. That means that we have to be entrepreneurs ourselves, to have that entrepreneurial attitude and to find those channels ourselves. Every country works a little bit differently. If whether we go to an exhibition, whether we do a seminar, whether we invite customers to our place, it's up to us how we do it.
Martin Hurych
Kind of begs the question of how much time a production guy realistically has to sell, because what you listed is a bunch and he has to make ends meet somehow. Given your reputation in the industries that you're in, do clients tend to come to you or is there still active acquisition business going on and needs to be going on?
Martin Schlögl
It's both. We're glad to have customers come in and talk to us, but of course we have to remind ourselves. In marketing, we use leads, for example. We need to go to those hospitals and those transportation companies, lend them the equipment so they can try it out, so they can see how it works and where the added value is. The salesman or the produce guy has to go there and he has to do it.
Martin Hurych
Do you control it somehow, or is it really up to the guys in charge of the individual silos? Do you tell them how much time they should spend on what activities because that's what gets the best results, or is it really total punk in a good way and it's up to them?
Martin Schlögl
How close we are and how small we are, you can see it. We talk to each other every week, we sit down and talk about it, but how they divide the time, I want to leave that up to them. They generate productive leads and leads, and they make every lead a potential customer who will give us a reference. That's actually kind of the simplest definition of how they should operate. It's a little bit of a branch from branch. The one who deals with airflow, boilers and air conditioning, he talks to those customers, he talks to those organizations, to those service companies, or to our partners. The production guy that handles the farm and the hospital, he really has to go out there and talk to those end customers. It's case by case. Everybody's a little bit specific, but the principle is still the same. He has to find what's most effective, obviously we'll say what works, but I want him to come up with what he can verify himself. We go down that road a lot, if we don't test it, we won't know. We need to try and not go down the same road.
What kind of businessmen are the Czechs?
Martin Hurych
You also said that you exchange a lot of ideas, thoughts, inspirations at the meetings of the heads of representation. When you observe it like that, what kind of businessmen are the Czechs?
Martin Schlögl
They're relational, we do a lot of relationship building. We're not exactly well structured in pipelines and those things. It's kind of easy to feel, but on the other hand, I've also learned that you can't completely break it over your knee. If the strength is in the relationship building, then let him be in it because it works, but it has to be effective and it has to produce results. It's a bit different for everyone, everyone is strong in something, but in general I would say that we Czechs are quite relational.
What is the latest business innovation?
Martin Hurych
What was the last thing you said you had to implement in the store and where did it come from? Which colleague last inspired you in this way?
Martin Schlögl
We implemented leads last year and that's just brand new. I didn't know, I didn't know, I learned about it on the Leady.cz webinar. We use Leady and Merk and they also trained my salespeople on how to use it and it worked great. It's a great thing, it works so that we know exactly what the customer was looking at, what they were interested in and where they came from. Marketers have this, it's mandatory there, it's no longer up for debate that they have to respond to these leads and take advantage of it. Because we can also see in that whether it's our existing customer or not. It's just something that we don't want to let go of and processing it is great. So that's one of the newest things. But how we grasp, for example, the seminars or exhibitions, we simply learn. We have such a simple process for that, we always do a feedback after the exhibition, seminar, we say what went well, what went wrong, how much it cost, what it brought, what is the overlap for the future and what we will do differently next time. That's how we evaluate it, conclude it and move on and that's how we do it after every event.
Why should I do regular project reviews?
Martin Hurych
A lot of people don't really do feedback and when they do, it's when they're in trouble. Where did that come from or where did it come from and what are the visible effects? Why should I waste my time revising what was fine?
Martin Schlögl
It's good to look at what was right about it and move it forward to make it work even better next time and, conversely, to think about where something might have gone wrong. I think it's always possible to move something forward, to be inspired somewhere, and if we don't tell each other right after the event, it gets forgotten and gets stuck.
Martin Hurych
Do you do this within each of those groups, or across the company, so that everybody learns?
Martin Schlögl
Across the board for that specific event, to get those production people, the sales people, to make them think about it. They'll take ownership of it as well, and if they know up front that we're looking at the event that way, they're more likely to take ownership of it, and I feel good about that, that it works better.
How does the exchange of information with foreign countries work?
Martin Hurych
Let me go back to the original question. We can often reinvent the wheel here. You have the advantage of seeing a bunch of countries, talking about how they do business in each country. So I'm interested to know if anybody is more progressive and if you've seen any methods somewhere that have surprised you, for example, in terms of digitalization, automation, structuring the team, rewarding the team. Was there anything that you thought you would bring to the Czech Republic because you haven't seen it here before?
Martin Schlögl
This works a lot. I came there 4 years ago and from the beginning I felt that the other directors of the other branches took me in. When we see each other like this twice a year, we really talk about everything. We have a whatsapp group together where we share tips, tricks, when someone does something well, sells something, how they launch a campaign for example, we share it right away and I have to say it's a very open atmosphere. Everyone else has been there longer than me with a few exceptions and they've had that attitude towards me as well. They offered that advice, they didn't push me into anything, but I've had the opportunity and I always feel like if I call somebody they're happy to give me advice and happy to give me their opinion.
Martin Hurych
What was the last business thing you took over or modified?
Martin Schlögl
Right now we are launching two new products on the market, gas leak detectors and then we have the Compact class series, which are instruments just for physical quantities, a series of 11 instruments. I just consulted with my colleagues from Poland how they went about it, which channels they did it through, whether they went through an exhibition or did a seminar or how they went about it in Poland. I was very much inspired by that and they asked me in reverse how I wanted to go about it, so it works both ways.
How is it measured that "everyone knows the logo"?
Martin Hurych
You said that your personal goal is that everyone in your business knows the orange logo. Firstly, may you succeed in that and secondly, I wanted to ask you how you think that is measured and where you are on that journey.
Martin Schlögl
That's a good question. We are growing, which we are doing well, I'm glad, but it's hard to measure market share in such compartmentalised areas because the spread is so wide. We don't have competition that does everything, but we have competition in every one of those areas.
Martin Hurych
Do you think market share equals brand awareness?
Martin Schlögl
Yes. When we come to the show and to the seminar, we talk to the technicians and we see what they use and how our booth is packed and the competitor's booth is not. You can measure it with hard numbers too, but there is a certain level of inaccuracy. It's about how our customers approach us, how well known we are, and how we're growing in those particular industries. That's a measure of success for us.
Martin Hurych
Where do you think you are already on that path for everyone to know you?
Martin Schlögl
I think the journey never ends, which is good on the one hand. We want that orange logo to be the first choice for anyone who wants to measure. If someone wants to measure physical quantities professionally, they should think of Testo, let them see it. It sounds like a cliché, but that's how simple the goal is.
Martin Hurych
So, Martin, good luck.
Martin Schlögl
Thank you very much.
Martin Hurych
This was another episode of Ignition, this time from a slightly unconventional perspective. I hope you still enjoyed it, if you did, be sure to cast, shar, subscribe so that the world knows about us and that we make it at least as far with knowledge as Testo is at the moment. I have no choice but to wish you success and keep my fingers crossed, thanks.
Martin Schlögl
I also thank you for the invitation and have a nice day, thanks.