Maintenance Engineering Sales Tip “Franks Corner”

At one of my first seminars, I heard a tape about a salesman in Mississippi during the depression selling expensive mule feed to farmers. The tape had many selling lessons, but my favorite was the quote “An ounce of loyalty is worth a pound of cleverness.”

Every sales organization has seen “clever” people come and go. I hesitate to call them salespeople because most aren’t willing to knock on doors and do what’s necessary to be a top producer for any company.

The tape also said that customers and employees who are loyal over the long haul are golden like many of our own top sales reps who combined, give us hundreds of years of loyalty and production. Many thanks for all your years of selling and helping others to succeed and grow the company!

Frank Grendler

Maintenance Engineering Vice President Dennis Leno “Man, Know Thyself.’-Plato”

Maintenance Engineering Vice President Dennis Leno “Man, Know Thyself.’-Plato”



What kind of a year will you have in 2011? Have you thought about it? Are you excited about it?

You know, I have wondered many times about the challenge the great philosphers and teachers down through the centuries have given us. Think! Think! Think! That has been their constant theme.

Think about what? Well, about who you are. What you are. What you want. What you want to become.

Perhaps the saddest commentary that could said about anyone is that they went through their entire life and wasted their precious God given talents.

“Man, know thyself.” Think about what you are going to do with your amazing amount of God given talent and then make 2011 the best, the most profitable year of your life. Yes, it will take work. Yes, it will take thinking time but with only one life to live, shouldn’t we make the most of it?

Dennis Leno

Vice President Maintenance Engineering

Maintenance Engineering President Curt Kesselring “Change In the 21st Century”

As we enter the 21st Century we are reminded of the incredible change that the world has seen in the past century! Up until a couple of hundred years ago, most every century was much like the one that preceded it. Primitive tools, human disease, agrarian lifestyles, and survival of the fittest were predominant descriptors.

The past century saw change accelerate to lighting speed. We have seen dramatic improvements in our lifestyles, health, and life expectancies. Fo every negative change there has been a dozen positive ones that have improved our lives. Yet there were naysayers every inch of the way. Every year non-believers contested every change. Yet those who created, advocated and implemented change most often won out, creating the most fantastic century in history. I for one consider myself incredibly luck to have been born into this time, and in this country, the greatest benefactor of these positive changes.

Change. We can fear it or we can embrace it. We can resist it or we can use it to take us to the next level. I have high goals for Maintenance Engineering in the next five years and they will require even more changes than we saw in the entire past 37 years. Yes, some changes will fail and that’s the risk we must take. However, with a strong, positive vision of the future we can together utilize change to transform Maintenance Engineering into a company which will benefit us all in ways we cannot yet imagine.

As we enter this new millennium, join me in making Maintenance Engineering an industry leader in positive, constructive, and profitable change which will cause us to grow. Let’s embrace change. Let’s use change to create an even better opportunity for us to take advantage of.

Curt Kesselring




President Maintenance Engineering

Frank's Corner- Old #1 Shares One Of His Great Selling Tips!

The largest and most successful chewing gum company is the Wrigley Company, founded Wm. Wrigley, Jr. in 1891. Since its inception it has been number one in the business. Once Mr. Wrigley was asked ”Why do you continue to spend time and resources advertising when you already have the biggest share of the chewing gum market?” The answer was “it’s like a train engine, if you quit shovelling coal the train will run for awhile but soon it will slow down and eventually you stop.” It’s the same with opening new accounts. It you don’t keep adding new account to your file box, everything will suffer, your referrals, your phone and repeat business and of course your volume/income. So take the advice of Wm. Wrigley, Jr. and keep adding those new account to your file box every week.

Good Selling!

Frank G.

Maintenance Engineering President Curt Kesselring “World’s Best Fluorescents”

Maintenance Engineering has the best fluorescents in the world, bar none! This can be said for our entire product line, but it is our fluorescents that we’re most proud of… and sell the most of. Here are some common questions about our fluorescents and our answers.

#1 WHAT MAKES THEM THE BEST?

SUPERIOR DESIGN- Our engineers work with each manufacturer’s engineers to develop the specifications for our production runs. The designs utilize features that competitors reject due to their cost. Competitors choose lower quality to save money. Maintenance Engineering purposely incorporates these more expensive quality features which differentiate us from the competition. This results in the best quality that money can buy and the customer is the benefactor.

#2 HOW ARE THEY MADE?

PRODUCTION CONTROLS- Maintenance Engineering’s lamps are made in the most technologically advanced plant in the world. Sand literally comes in end of the plant, is melted into glass and finished lamps come out the other end. Computers control the entire manufacturing process. Cameras photograph every component as the speed down the line; computers instantly analyze it for defects and reject substandard components in a fraction of a second. Electric robot forklifts silently move components around the factory, stopping for humans who get in their way and go to a recharging station for “lunch” when needed. Finished product is held for 48 hours in a fully automated warehouse controlled by one man in a booth while samples are tested for quality.

#3 WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF BEING EARTH-SAFE?

ENERGY- Our Xtrabrite lamps have higher efficacies meaning they produce more lumens per watt of electricity.

LONG LIfe- Our 7 year- guarantee means fewer lamps need to be made thus conserving the earth’s natural resources. It also means fewer lamps being disposed of in landfills or recycled.

#4 WHERE ARE THEY MADE?

Most of our high usage fluorescents are made in the USA. Our first criterion for selection of a manufacturer is that they be able to make the best lamps in the world. Our preference is that this manufacturer is in the USA but we go to wherever the quality is best for each and every product.

The quality of our lamps is demonstrated in our 84 month guarantee. Who else guarantees a “minimum life” of seven years on a fluorescent lamp… and ten years if it is used with Maintenance Engineering Premira ballasts?!? As a salesperson you can be proud that you sell the finest fluorescents and the finest lighting product line in the world. Maintenance Engineering Quality makes it easier to open accounts and much easier to repeat them. Quality means value to the customer and financial rewards for you!

President Curt Kesselring



Maintenance Engineering

Maintenance Engineering Vice President Dennis Leno “The Imaginary Obstacle”

Imagine the money salespeople could earn if they did not have call reluctance. Call reluctance is an imaginary obstacle that salespeople put in their mind. Consider this…

Is call reluctance a thing? NO!

Is call reluctance real? Only in the sales rep’s mind!

Can call reluctance be felt? Only in the sales rep’s mind!

Call reluctance is an imaginary obstacle salespeople put in their own minds. Now, I am not making light of this imaginary obstacle because to a salesperson that has it, it seems like a very real thing.

I liken it to a story told to me by a friend who was big game hunting in Alaska. Walking down a trail in the woods, he spied what he thought was a bear. He was frozen with fear as this bear approached him. Imagine how foolish he felt after ge realized what was funning toward him was not a bear at all but a big friendly dog that he had actually met earlier that day. Consider this!

Was the bear real? Only in the hunter’s mind?

Was the fear real? Only in the hunter’s mind?

What was the solution to the hunter’s problem? seeing the bear for what it really was- a harmless dog.

What is the solution to a salesperson’s fear of call reluctance?

Simple- see call reluctance for what it really is- a harmless imaginary fear that is not real at all!

Are there are people who will try to hurt your feelings of course, so what? Say a prayer for them but don’t make their problems you problems.

Kill cal reluctance by recognizing it as only an imaginary obstacle in your mind!

Dennis Leno



Vice President Maintenance Engineering

Maintenance Engineering Sales Tips “Franks Corner”

During an interview after a game in which he had made a “Buzzer beating” basket to win the game, Michael Jordan commented, “I’ve missed a lot of similar shots, but that’s the price you pay for success.” Babe Ruth struck out 1,330 times and Jack Nicklaus played in a lot of tournaments he didn’t win. Our best field reps make a lot of pitches which do not end up in sales, but this doesn’t keep them from being in the Top 10 or 20. Sales is a numbers game, the more calles we make, the more pitches we get. The more sales we make of course the more money we make. When I was doing a lot of training we had a saying. “We come to town to pitch.” so don’t worry about “going down swinging” bevause the only result that counts is the amount of your commission check.

Good selling!



Frank G.

Maintenance Engineering Ltd Vice President Dennis Leno “Call Reluctance”

There is a saying in sales that the only salesperson who has never had call reluctance is a liar. I would agree. Call reluctance happens to everyone in sales soones or later. the successful ones have simply learned to handle it.

I would like to share how Veteran Bill K. said he handles call reluctance. Bill said he has developed a personal philosophy that has overcome it.

#1. Every call I make (field or phone) I want to learn from that person.

#2. I want to help people.

By having that “learning” and “helping” philosophy. Bill gains tremendous strength from that philosophy. Bill, we thank you for sharing this powerful personal philosophy with us!

Vice President Dennis Leno



Maintenance Engineering