STL is delighted to welcome David Tomlinson on board as its Account Manager responsible for taking care of its existing wholesale and retail customers.
Sports-mad David has a passion for fast cars – in particular Ferraris, for him ‘the ultimate combination of aesthetic and engineering achievement.’
This combines another of his loves: Italy, a country he adores not only for its obvious beauty and bounty but for its history and appreciation of a long, slow lunch. As someone whose family has been based in the same village for 400 years, he understands the value of building deep and enduring relationships underpinned by integrity, listening and unconditional helpfulness. This is also evident in David’s long tenure as Secretary and Junior Coach of his local cricket club, where his energy, initiatives and support have enabled generations of players to get the most from their membership and perform at their best.
None of this will surprise anyone who has experienced his unique approach to account management.
Despite his love of speed, he takes the time required to build quality relationships with customers, and understand their frustrations, needs and aspirations. He studies every camber and bend on their company’s roadmap, then explores under their business bonnet to discover any inefficiencies impeding a smooth drive towards success.
Only then will he start helping to streamline their machine through regular proactive reviews of technology, support and budgets, designing customised solutions that will gain those all-important efficiencies for optimum profitability.
STL’s founders Ivan Durkin and Tim Dobie have known David since they worked with him at RIVA, and have always been impressed with his ‘extra mile’ approach to customer support. Indeed, it was something they experienced first-hand when, as Channel Account Manager, David was STL’s point of contact at our retail solutions partner NCR.
‘Rather than giving us the usual superficial, sales-motivated opinions, he continually provided value-adding advice,’ said Ivan. ‘It was clear he really understood not only the technology and our business, but our customers’ operations too.’
David’s knowledge has a solid technical foundation from his early career in systems engineering, including with Toshiba TEC where he delivered demonstrations on a wide range of ePOS, hardware and software systems. Since then, his commercial expertise has evolved through various award-winning account management and business development roles for global corporates such as Torex Retail (now part of Oracle) and BT Expedite (the former Retail Systems division of BT).
He’s gained industry-wide respect for his ability to create user communities who benefit from sharing experiences, and effective change management that minimises business disruption for those leveraging technology advances to move their operations up a gear.
Most recently he was Business Development Manager at Tierney’s Office Automation, where he successfully grew the UK operation. But this post reminded him that his thrill isn’t in smashing individual track records at the expense of a blown engine; rather it’s in the long, slow, value-adding burn of fine-tuning customers’ engines so they finish on top of the podium at the end of their season – primed and revving to go again.
At STL this passion will see him pursue an ‘Ambassador’ style role, ensuring customer relationships are truly bi-directional and that STL’s senior executives, technology developers, partners and service providers fully understand and respond to the customer’s priorities.
Ivan said,
‘David’s sector knowledge is really impressive and well aligned with STL’s focus on wholesale and retail. He clearly understands what customers need from their IT. But what distinguishes David is his loyalty, drive for continuous improvement and dedication to quality service. We’re really excited to have someone of such high calibre looking after our customers.’