Introducing Matt Sulley, Wormald’s National Sales Manager
How did you find yourself working for Wormald?
A close friend of mine had worked at Wormald for some time, and when I returned back to the UK after a gap year travelling around the world (including Australia), I was looking for employment and was presented with the opportunity to be a Business Development Manager at Wormald.
I’ll never forget my first day on the job; I was given a company car, a pair of binoculars and a copy of the Fire Standards and was asked to search for the sprinkler ‘alarm gongs’ at several large industrial estates and provide quotes for compliance testing. That was in March 2002 and 16 years later I am still at Wormald!
What experience have you gained in your years at Wormald?
Over the years, I’ve developed a breadth of multifunctional experience that stretches across all areas of the business. After five years working for Wormald UK in various sales, design and national account management positions, I was very fortunate to be offered a transfer to Melbourne where I worked as a Sprinkler Estimator and Service Sales Manager. However, I was keen to further my industry knowledge, especially in the Australian resource sector, and accepted a sales role in Queensland. This role exposed me to large construction projects across various verticals where I assisted in delivering a number of very challenging projects. After five years in Queensland, I accepted a relocation back to Melbourne to be the National Sales Manager.
Tell us about your current role, what are your key responsibilities?
As National Sales Manager, I’m responsible for achieving financial targets and increasing the Wormald portfolio of customers across all verticals. I’m also responsible for managing the Major Accounts Group, which consists of four centralised teams dedicated to our national customers, as well as National Account Managers, National Business Development Managers and a support function to the Regional Sales Managers. We’ve developed this team to ensure our customers consistently receive an exemplary level of customer service.
What do you enjoy about working at Wormald?
I like how every day is different and diverse. We have so many customers in different sectors and locations with very different fire systems, every day presents a new challenge. We design tailored fire systems for different buildings, verticals, applications and industries which means there’s always something new and interesting to work on.
What is the most challenging aspect of your role?
Since the divesture, I’ve been required to undertake an extraordinary amount of travel which has been necessary to help Wormald lay down its foundations and implement a new sales structure in order to take Wormald into the future. Over the last two years, we’ve worked tirelessly and invested heavily in developing Wormald’s own technologies to provide instant visibility to our clients. We’ve also put a new support structure in place to support the business’ success, however, the hard work has just begun and we’re now looking forward to many exciting things ahead.
What trends or issues are you seeing in the fire industry today?
Compliance visibility and price point remain the key challenges but the problem is you can’t have both. Price doesn’t equate to quality and compliance, particularly for customers with a need for national coverage. While competition is always going to be a challenge, Wormald prides itself on its ability to deliver exceptional service to large scale national organisations that find it hard to maintain the necessary regulation and compliance visibility.
What do you enjoy doing in your downtime when you’re not working?
Living in Melbourne and experiencing what the city has to offer. Keeping fit with some road cycling, a bit of running and following motorsport. In fact, I love all sports and we have them all in Melbourne including tennis, cricket and obviously one of my favorites, AFL. I also have a love for food, I must say Melbourne offers some best food venues in the world and I really enjoy trying them out.
