CONEXPO In-SANY-ty: Beer Pong Honeymoon

Wayne Grayson  00:00 

Hey guys, welcome back into CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2023. We're here at the SANY booth and I'm here with Tom Schanz. He is the director basically of municipal sales for SANY. And we are here playing some more extra-large beer pong. So, Tom, I will give you the the honors let you go first. And I'm gonna ask you a question. Tell everybody kind of what your job at SANY looks like. 

Tom Schanz  00:34 

So my job really is me and my team, we help the dealers across the United States go after governmental customers. 

Wayne Grayson 00:42 

So what is what is that like? What is it like selling to those to those government customers? I mean, you kind of have to cover a lot of different equipment, right? 

Tom Schanz 00:57 

Yep. Full product arc. So it's interesting, because they're very, they need support, and they need an OEM and a dealership relationship that they know is going to have their back in good times and bad. 

Wayne Grayson 01:11 

What is their biggest priority right now? 

Tom Schanz 01:17 

Your budget is always an issue. So you're always worried about how am I gonna make my tax dollars work the best I can? And, you know, I think we do a really good job with that.  

Wayne Grayson 01:39 

What is your favorite aspect of CONEXPO this year? 

Tom Schanz 01:46 

It's always nice to get to see what everybody else is doing in the industry, and then to be able to reconnect with dealers and customers is always a good time. 

Wayne Grayson  01:54 

What kind of surprised you the most about this year? 

Tom Schanz 01:57 

I don't know if it was a surprise, but it really was impactful, how much electromobility has really been a focus this year, right? 

Wayne Grayson 02:13 

Speaking of electrification, how big of a priority is that right now for municipalities and what are their kind of like concerns and thoughts on that? 

Tom Schanz 02:24 

It's really geographically specific. So, for example, in California, that's going to be a huge focus, but you may have some rural, rural parts of the country where that doesn't typically matter as much to them. At least not yet. 

Wayne Grayson  02:38 

Exactly. It's coming though, you can definitely see it. Well, tell me a little about yourself. What do you enjoy doing in your in your downtime? 

Tom Schanz 02:49 

So my downtime? Well, I like to work on the house with my fiance and I have a house that we're kind of fixed up right now. Man, I spend time with her spend time with her a little gold retriever. And when I can try to fish and spend some time outdoors working on the house. There's something about it that’s just super relaxing. 

Wayne Grayson  

So you're about to get married pretty soon. 

Tom Schanz 03:13 

I am getting married. Getting married in November. 

Wayne Grayson  03:17 

You are you are in the thick of it. 

Tom Schanz  03:19 

I am. We're in the busy season right now. 

Wayne Grayson 03:21 

Where you guys getting married at? 

Tom Schanz 03:24 

Florida. We're really excited. 

Wane Grayson 03:29 

Beautiful and what about the honeymoon? 

Tom Schanz 03:32 

We decided we're gonna wait until next summer. And I think we're gonna spend a few weeks in Europe. 

Wayne Grayson 03:37 

Where are you wanting to go in Europe? 

Tom Schanz 03:41 

I don't know if we've nailed that down yet. But Italy is definitely on the list because I just have Italian heritage. So I've never been to Italy before. So that's a big one for us.  

Wayne Grayso 04:00 

We were talking a little bit about this earlier, but what's your favorite aspect of working at SANY? 

Tom Schanz 04:10 

Oh, definitely the culture. Yeah, yeah. The people we work with are second to none. Everybody is extremely bright, extremely intelligent. Yeah, they all work hard. And we all like really bond together. 

Wayne Grayson 04:20 

That's awesome. Definitely get that feeling for that here this week in the show. 

Tom Schanz  04:26 

It's kind of hard to miss especially with a group like this. 

Wayne Grayson 04:31 

What piece of equipment that you guys have been developing or announced that others showed you is most exciting to you? 

Tom Schanz 04:38 

The all-wheel drive motor grader. I’ve been begging for it for two years and now we finally got it. That's gonna be a huge machine for customers. 

Wayne Grayson 04:55 

So what's the thing you’ve been hearing the most from customers here at the the show? Or like, what do you think everybody is really most excited to see here at the show this year? 

Tom Schanz 05:04 

I think just the SANY presence as a whole has been a little bit surprising in a good way to people, right? I don't think people really realize kind of how big our product line is. 

Wayne Grayson 05:46 

I guess we're gonna call it man. Tom, thank you so much for joining us power one. Guys, thanks for joining us during this week of ConExpo-Con/AGG 2023. Thanks for watching the videos and hanging out with us and we'll see you next time.