The sales legend: Gerhard Groz reminisces with Hans-Joachim Dallmann at his retirement ceremony in 2007.
From the beginning of the 1980s, Franke expanded its Sales department considerably – through independent sales representatives, among other measures. One of the first was Hans-Joachim Dallmann. He was on the road for Franke for almost a quarter of a century.
It was not a given from day one that Hans-Joachim Dallmann, who was born in West Prussia in 1943, would become a successful sales representative. Soon after his apprenticeship as a mechanic, he joined the German army for four years, where he maintained Starfighter engines, among other things. After the army, he retained a military, cutting tone of voice, which long afterwards earned him the nickname “Dallidalli” (which roughly translates to “Get a move on”).
Hans-Joachim Dallmann continued to gain qualifications, completing his secondary school leaving certificate, a technical college entrance qualification and a technician apprenticeship, followed by additional training as a technical business economist. After working in various jobs, but not finding his true calling, he noticed a job advert for Franke in 1984. The company was looking for a sales engineer who could combine technical and commercial understanding as an independent sales representative. “I actually came to Franke by chance,” he recalled, “but it was only then that I realised that selling was actually my vocation.”
Hans-Joachim Dallmann was responsible for the western Baden-Württemberg region. He covered between thirty and forty thousand kilometres by car every year. Initially, he searched for and found potential customers in the telephone directory, and usually attended four appointments a day. His biggest challenge was that Franke and its special products were still unknown to many people at the time. Thorough preparation, empathy, a sample case and piles of brochures helped him to gain the trust of customers. That included major customers such as Daimler-Benz, Liebherr and Siemens. He still raves about the sample case in particular: “The customer needs to have something in their hands that they can turn and feel.”
His wife typed up the reports on his customer visits in the evening; they were initially sent to Franke by fax. In the 23 years he worked for Franke, Hans-Joachim Dallmann witnessed and helped to shape many different changes, such as the development of the mobile phone from a “monster of a device” that filled half a car boot to the first smartphones, or Franke’s growth through constant innovation. What has remained the same to this day is the good working atmosphere that keeps him coming back to Aalen, even as a retiree. //