Leading transport and logistics software specialist, HaulTech, has promoted John Brookes to the position of sales director.
After first moving to the Newcastle-under-Lyme company as customer service manager in 2009, John quickly established himself as an effective link between the company's sales and IT teams and his extensive understanding of all sides of the industry built over 22 years, has enabled him to make a considerable contribution to the development of the HaulTech Traffic and TrakMan products.
He explains: "My operational background has been as broad as it gets and after gaining considerable sales experience in recent years, it made perfect sense for me to listen to the needs of our customers, understand where they were coming from and to help inform our product development process."
John began his career as a driver with local company, Birch Transport, spending three years in that role before progressing into warehousing and becoming the company's assistant transport manager. From there, John moved to Browns Distribution as warehouse manager and also worked in the company's traffic office as a planner and as part of its senior management team.
Looking forward to his new challenge, John commented: "Broadly speaking, my main remit is to win new business. However, in such a competitive marketplace, it is essential that we ensure that our products remain at the forefront of the market so my relationships with our existing customers are just as important.
"It is vital that we continue to listen to our customers and understand their needs as the industry continues to evolve. We pride ourselves on providing customised solutions to each individual customer and we appreciate the need for a targeted set of products that are versatile enough to achieve that."
Having made the appointment, HaulTech managing director, Geoff Brook, is well aware of John's qualities, adding: "John is very personable and strikes up tremendous relationships with his customers. In addition to that, his industry knowledge from an operations perspective is second to none and his vast experience means that he can focus on the need of the individual haulier, using that as a starting point when it comes to his involvement in the product development process.
"In adopting a consultative sales approach, John listens first before looking to provide a solution. He understands the daily operational problems that a haulier might encounter and his intuition when it comes to knowing how best to solve them is a tremendous asset for HaulTech. He has a big part to play and I'm looking forward to working closely with him as we continue to take the company forward."
Away from the office, John, who was born and bred in Stoke-on-Trent, still lives locally, supports Stoke City and enjoys cycling and spending time with his five children in his spare time.