IT ALL STARTED AT ADRIAN COLLEGE

Tom_Repp_at_Adrian_College I entered Adrian College in a fog (not that kind of fog!)…not having any idea of what I wanted to do with my life. I did have a little artistic talent so I registered as an “Art Major”. My very first art class I sat next to, what is now, one of the most talented and respected artists in western Michigan. This was one of the most devastating moments in my life. I could not come close to the talent that this young lady possessed.

Looking back…this was a real gift. It was apparent that I did not have the DNA required to make a useful living in art. So I switched majors to Business & Marketing. I still see Cheryl occasionally in Kalamazoo and still thank her for sitting next to me!

Later at Adrian College, I took a business class that contained a section on computers and we actually did a little programming in Cobol. I thought this was pretty cool. I could tell that I did not want to be a programmer. But it did give me a glimpse into the tools that would change the way we do business.

That fascinated me.

I then entered into a career in management at a well known, Midwest, men’s retail chain. I was head of the committee to research and deploy their first point-of-sale (POS) system. Again, the opportunity to streamline a, transaction heavy, business fascinated me.

I met the love of my life, Nancy, at Adrian College and we have been blessed with two incredible children. Derek is a Major and Foreign Area Officer in the US Army and Lindsay retired from a  leadership position in private education to raise her boys, Colt & Vince. Both are married and Derek & his wife Araceli have blessed Nancy and me with two wonderful boys, Jack and Paul. Lindsay and husband Sterling now live near Indianapolis. 

20210-02-Repp familyV1

Back to business. Fast Forward

After several entrepreneur efforts, in the mid-nineties I become interested again in the web and its ability to streamline all the transactional stuff that holds business back. Industrial sales & marketing is basically a transactional exercise. There are lots of moving parts & pieces that come together to make a sales organization successful.

In 2005 I founded a web development company to help industrial companies take advantage of the changing face of online search. Again, I could see that Google was actually streamlining the classic industrial buy cycle and I wanted to be part of that.

Think about it. There used to be 6 to 7 classic buy cycles…recognition of a problem, research, reach out…& so on. In 2010, GlobalSpec outlined four distinct stages of the industrial buy cycle; Needs awareness, research, consideration & comparison and finally, procurement. Google has single handedly compressed these 4 stages from weeks & months to minutes.

Then my world really got interesting.

I became an inbound marketing practitioner & evangelist. Inbound marketing, is a term created by Dharmesh Shah and Brian Halligan, the founders of HubSpot. When I read their book, Inbound Marketing, it all came together:

Again…I see the web as a “tool” that has transformational power to dramatically change the way industrial marketers “go to market”…generate leads and close deals.

This blog is dedicated to that principle. And…yea, I am still pretty good at the yo-yo.

PS: Thanks to Stan Krajenke, my Adrian College room mate, for the picture.

For more info on what The Repp Group can do for your industrial marketing & lead generation…CLICK BELOW

Callout-Banner-Subscribe-1


WATCH THIS and find out how to beat your rivals to the best industrial leads



    Hubspot-Marketing-Software-Certified-TomRepp

    SEMrush-Certification-TomRepp

    Follow Us!