Nico Lewis: I was sitting in an engineering room, I wasn’t seeing the world

Interview with Nico Lewis, RTS intercoms EMEA Senior Sales Manager (Bosch Security Systems).

– Where and where were you born?

I was born in Emmen, which is a small place in Drenthe, in the North of the Netherlands, on the very nice day of March 3rd.

– What were your school years like? Were you a good student?

I’m not sure I had a great time at school, because when I was a kid, I broke everything, just to try to fix it. If you gave me a car, I would crash it and try to fix it. I’m a fixer – I have two right hands. Everything that I do is trying to make things better. Because of that, I went to a technical school. I was always working with electric products, engines, power – all very dangerous things when you are younger. I went into electronic education. This is what I did for the first ten years of my studies.

– How did you get into the broadcasting industry?

During my internship I was, as an engineer, in contact with the salespeople of the company I worked for. I saw what the salespeople could do, and I decided to become a salesman. Then, I worked for IBM, American telecommunications companies, underground infrastructure… I also did some business in emergency lighting, this was a really big business at the time. I was the expert in the Netherlands on emergency lighting and evacuation systems, at only 25 years old.

I wanted something better, so I went into the telecommunications industry. I came in contact with a guy who was the owner of a very nice company in the Netherlands, Axon at the time. He hired me to be in sales. With this company I encountered RTS, because it was one of the brands for Axon to create cash flow at the time. For me, this was the step into the broadcasting industry. From that moment on – and it has already been over 20 years –   I’ve been working in this industry.

I love this industry: I like the people, the technology, the passion behind it. I won some really big projects in the Netherlands with RTS, and their management said, hey, this guy can sell intercom. We should hire him. So, I worked my way up to RTS, from being a distributor, to now being a member of the RTS team. This was, actually, exactly today 16 years ago. This was a special moment. I am still at RTS, but in the meantime RTS was sold to Bosch , and we have a lot of new technologies and products, and more people. We are part of an extremely big organisation. So, that was roughly my career in five minutes!

– You said you were from a small city. Does it have a technical school?

No, no, no. I was born there, but I moved after a year, because my father worked for Mars. He was one of the directors of the Mars candy bar company. I was raised on chocolate bars! When I was one, he moved to Veghel in the south. At the time Mars was quite a small company. This place is quite unique, because it is near Eindhoven , and this is the ‘brains’ city in the world  – we have the universities, very high-tech companies, and, of course Bosch, which is one of the big players in the region.

– What did you do after technical school?

During my internship, I decided to go into sales. I went right after I finished my training. This is what I advise everyone who wants to go into sales to do – start with the technical training. If you are in sales and have no clue what you do or what you are selling, it doesn’t work. I can talk with you at length about technologies, but I can also talk to you about marketing and sales. After my technical training, I went into sales and I did training in the evening until I was 32. Then, I had two boys and decided it was enough. Every night I was studying until midnight, and then working the next day, and then going to school again in the evening.

– If you have “two right hands”, why did you choose a career in sales?

I was one of the R&D guys developing a test machine for capacitors at that time, because a capacitor is in most cases the weak part of a power supply. So, I had to develop a machine to create a test algorithm for capacitors. The sales guys came in with a nice car, in a nice suit, looking sharp… and I was sitting in an engineering room, I wasn’t seeing the world! This was, for me, an eye opener. I moved from engineering into sales.

– IBM is a really important company. What did working there give you?

This was my first job after I was done with school. It was educational. I did not know how to sell – I had no clue about the five steps of sales. But, you need to learn, you need to ask the questions. This is what I learned from IBM. I did this for a year, and then I found out that the computer business was not my thing. I moved into the security business, and worked there for seven years.

– How did you find your next job?

When I was younger, there were more people than jobs. So, I was lucky that I could find these jobs. In the telecommunications industry, the business was completely different. At that time, they gave a company car to every engineer, because they needed people. When I started, there were ten people behind me and five people before me going in for the same job! I was just lucky. I was young, cheap, naive, and better looking – which was also lucky.

Broadcasting is the industry that I like. The people in this industry are different from other industries. Even though I’m working from my home office, I’m looking forward to going to customers. This is what drives me to do this job.

– When you started at RTS, what were your first jobs and targets in your first years?

When I worked for Axon, I was with a team selling Axon equipment for the DACH (Germany-Austria-Switzerland) region, and the Benelux region. I was also selling RTS to the broadcast industry as a distributor for the Benelux. This was very cool.

Then, I moved to RTS. I was in charge of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. I could fly to Moscow for the first time in my life, I could go to Johannesburg, I could meet with people from different companies. I went to Milan, Rome, Dubai, Saudi Arabia… this was an amazing spectrum. It was cool that I received the opportunity from the company to do this job. It was a blessing, it was fantastic – I loved it!

Of course, I had young children, and that was not easy. You are travelling from Tuesday to Thursday evening, most of the time you try to be home on Fridays to do administrative work. Sometimes, you cannot do that – big shows can take up two weekends. This is the tough side of being in international sales, but it also gives it a kick. The people are fantastic: they’re all patient, they all like the industry. I also have the opportunity to travel. If I travel to a show, I meet other people like me from other branches, and we know each other! So, we are like a small family. It’s fantastic.

– When you came to RTS, did you get assigned to all of these regions? Or did this come step by step?

When I started at RTS I was responsible for Europe, Middle East and Africa from day one. Then, I found a guy from Dubai who could take over my job there, and I also found someone in the UK. I don’t do everything myself. In the meantime, Bosch took over and changed some things, but I’m still working with Russia, Europe, Africa… though I’m not doing Dubai and the Gulf region anymore.

– How do you manage to oversee all of these regions?

It’s simple – we work in a niche market. I have a handful of customers in the Netherlands, a handful of customers in Belgium or in Spain. But, I work with partners. I am not going there directly – I always go through a channel.

In the Netherlands I work with Omtek, it’s a very good system integrator distributor. I also work with companies in Germany, Spain, France… all of these companies have been partners for 15, 20, 25 years! They are part of the family. Those partners go to the customer.

In Russia, I work with partners as well. I work with Okno TV as a partner, and I work for the theater industry in Russia. This is not broadcasting, but also very exciting. This is how I do it – if I want to do business in Russia, I talk to people, and they spread the word for me. Sometimes you’re lucky and they invite you to come to Novosibirsk, or Moscow, St Petersburg…

– How has your private life developed, especially seeing as you were travelling so much while in sales?

Tomorrow I will have been married for 28 years. I met my wife close to Veghel 34 years ago. I was 19! I fell in love, and I am still very much in love. I am very loyal to my wife, and I am loyal to my customers. I’m a loyal guy! This is my style. Maybe travelling helps me. When I go on a business trip to a beautiful place in the world, I look forward to coming back to see my family. Working from home, like I am doing now, does create some stress. I also have some hobbies – I play the trumpet. If I really need to relax, I just turn on YouTube, type in “play with trumpet”.