Most rental companies want to grow revenue, and a lot of owners think the answer is hiring a sales rep. Then the rep starts, the sales don’t show up, and everyone wonders what went wrong. On episode 113 of The Rental Roundtable, I sat down with Dillon Baird, founder and CEO of RepMove, to dig into that exact problem.
Dillon spent years as a high-producing sales rep in construction and the oil field before he built a field sales tool for himself, so he knows what it takes to get out there, stay organized, and turn visits into rentals. Here’s what stuck with me.
Growth Starts With Activity, Not Luck
Ask Dillon what drives sales and he’ll boil it down to one word: activity. The trap most reps fall into is spending all their time on the handful of accounts that already buy, and quietly writing off everyone else. It isn’t laziness. It’s just easy to chase the money that’s already coming in.
“Let’s say we have a book of 100 customers. We’re calling on 20 of those, because they give us business. I’ve gone into this place five times and they haven’t given me anything, so I’m going to forget about them. We don’t do that on purpose. We just chase where the money’s coming from, and we get caught in these habits.” Dillon Baird, Founder and CEO of RepMove, (8:16)
That habit feels productive, but it’s a trap. The reps who grow their book get in front of more customers, more often, and they know when to pivot away from a stop that isn’t turning into anything. As an owner, your job is to make that activity easy to plan and easy to track. When your team spends less time guessing where to go next, they spend more time actually selling.
How to Hire Your First Sales Rep
A lot of owners hire their first rep, hand them a customer list, and say “go get it.” Dillon’s seen how that ends. Without a plan, even a good rep spins their wheels.
“That first rep we’re hiring, we need to have a process for that person. Here’s the customer base, here’s the prospects in the area, here’s the active job sites. Not just overwhelming them with data, like, here’s all the customers, go figure it out. Take a smaller chunk so when those sales reps go out, they’re getting on base.” (13:38)
The fix is to set them up to win. A focused starter list keeps a new rep from driving to a project that wrapped up two years ago or knocking on a house that used to be an account. And if this is your first rep, know that you’ll probably be learning right alongside them. You don’t have to be the best closer in the room. You know your business and your customers better than anyone, so build the plan and coach as you go.
What a Top Rep’s Day Actually Looks Like
So what does a strong day look like? Dillon likes the idea of 10 visits a day, but he’s quick to say that’s a target, not a rule. A great relationship call might run two hours, and that’s fine if it’s worth it. The point is to pre-plan the day, stick to one area so you’re not burning time driving across town, and stay ready to pivot when a customer throws something at you.
He also gives his reps a simple way to make sure no visit gets wasted. He calls it running the bases.
“We think of it as baseball. First base, we log the visit and what happened. Second base, we’re thinking about the next step, what we’re going to do next time we come in here. Third base, we close the loop right then and there, and don’t put it in the pile of stuff we’re never going to get to. Once we do first, second, and third base, we start rounding the bases and scoring runs.” (22:10)
And when a customer isn’t there? Don’t just move on. Dillon’s rule is to pick up the phone right then. Call, text, or email. He says about 90% of the time they answer, and it turns into a real conversation and sometimes a rental. Compare that to a rep who aggressively waits by the phone for it to ring. The planned, proactive day wins every time.
The Difference Between a Good Rep and a Great One
I asked Dillon what separates a good rep from a great one, and it’s not being the smoothest talker in the room. He put it in a few buckets: a real desire to win, positivity, people skills, a repeatable process, and deep knowledge of the customer. On top of all that is situational awareness.
“There’s definitely a care first. They want to succeed, they’re competitive, they want to win. A great people person, with great situational awareness to walk into a job trailer, see a meeting’s going on, and walk out. And that pre-planning motion: I’m going here, and this is why. I’m not just going to walk in and say, hi, Frank.” (24:30)
That’s the skill you can’t fake. Great reps read the room. They know when to push, when to build the relationship, and when to walk out and come back later. Do that enough times and customers start bringing you their problems to solve. That’s how you earn steady business instead of one-off orders. The good news for owners is that you can hire for drive and people skills, then coach the rest.
Coaching, Leadership, and the Tools Behind the Team
A sales team is only as strong as the leader behind it. The best sales leaders Dillon sees treat each rep as an individual, sit down to review accounts together, and keep the energy up. Not every rep will be a top-20% performer, and that’s okay. Let your best reps run, and spend your coaching time helping the other 80% get better.
Attitude matters more than most owners realize. Sales is a job full of no’s, and that positivity has to come from the top.
“As a leader, I think it’s even more important to drive that positivity from the top. Because if you’re a tired, pessimistic, burned-out leader, the team’s going to feel that, and that’s going to be passed on to the end user and the end customer, too.” (31:33)
Tools matter too. Give your reps a field tool so their activity and notes funnel back into your systems instead of living in a notebook. And don’t forget your inside team. Your front counter is the tip of the spear for every inbound call, and a missed call is a missed rental. This is where the right software earns its keep.
At Quipli, we built Quinn, our AI agent, to answer after-hours calls and book rentals so the demand your outside reps work so hard to create doesn’t leak out the back door. Quipli also connects your office, your yard, and your dispatch, so everyone sees the same picture without a stack of phone calls. Your outside team creates demand. Your inside setup has to catch it.
Earn the Right to Be Lucky
I always ask guests for the best career advice they’ve gotten. Dillon shared two lines that have stuck with him since his caddie days: keep your head down, make your calls, and don’t let emotion get in the way. When you stop worrying about whether a single order comes in and focus on the work, the sales follow.
“Once we take the emotion out of it and we just sell, pure activity, and we round the bases, the sales just come. There’s no way we can’t sell with all that output. Another mentor told me: how do you spell luck? W-O-R-K. You’ve got to earn the right to be lucky, and that comes from your activity out there in the field.” (33:05)
I love that. There are no shortcuts in this business. Things are never as good or as bad as they seem, and the reps who stay steady and keep swinging are the ones who win. That’s true for your people, and it’s true for the equipment rental software behind them. At Quipli, we build tools that take the busywork off your team’s plate, and Quinn makes sure no opportunity slips through after hours, so your team can spend their energy where it counts: on activity and relationships.
Thanks to Dillon for coming on the show. If you’re building out a sales team this year, plan the work, coach your people, and give them the tools to win.
