TIM WOLLESEN, SALES MIDWEST INC., LOVES SELLING IRON


By Suz Trusty


Tim Wollesen grew up on a row crop and livestock farm near Wall Lake, Iowa. Helping his Dad on the farm was part of his childhood, from his early memories through his high school years. “But then the farm economy slowed, and the market dropped,” Tim says. “Dad was close to retirement and made the decision to sell the farm. It was a tough choice, but the right one.”


So Tim was one a many young men who were, for the first time in their lives, looking for a job off the family farm. After graduating from high school, he spent three years working for a local farmer. He says, “In 1985, the manager of a lumberyard in a neighboring town brought several of us ‘farm boys’ to one of the lumber company’s stores in Kansas City. I guess he was sure that farm boys would know how to work.”


Tim Wollesen grew up on a row crop and live- stock farm near Wall Lake, Iowa, and thought his future would be on the family farm.


Tis 1945 John Deere is the first tractor Tim’s grandfather bought new. Tim still has it and that little John Deere, he rode as a kid, too.


Tat lumber company grew to 250 stores across the country. Tim moved to ever-advancing positions in several of their stores in metro Kansas City, in time becoming the delivery manager for all ten of the company’s Kansas City stores.


Meeting the Donkey Tim first saw the Donkey Truck Carried Forklift when Ken Ensor, of Quality Corporation, brought one to the lumberyard. Tim says, “I told him it was too little for what we needed to move and asked him to ‘take that thing out of the yard.’ But the corporate office wanted me to give them a good test, so I agreed to bring in three of them for a three-month try out. Tey proved me, and everyone in the lumberyards, wrong; they were strong and durable, able to handle the heavy loads. My first order was for 75. I went from telling Ken to take that thing out of my lumberyard, to selling them, and I still love them.”


At that time, Tim had no idea of how big Ken’s company had become or the background on the machine’s development. “Over the years I found that Ken was a manufacturer who was totally committed to his products and his company and to the needs of his customers,” says Tim. “He was straightforward in his operations and would do anything for you. In fact, a couple of us dealers always referred to him as ‘Dad,’ saying, ‘Call Dad, he’ll make that happen.’ I don’t think he ever knew about that. He is in that ‘Dad’ category for me, a valued friend, mentor and role model.”


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Tim had been thinking about leaving the lumber industry to start his own venture in equipment sales. Ken invited him to see the turf equipment at TPI’s July 1995 Summer Field Day at Todd Valley Farms in Mead, Nebraska, hosted by Wayne Torsen (TPI President 1996-1997).


“Being a farm boy, I figured I knew a lot about farming, but I didn’t know anything about the sod industry at the time. I wondered how big the show really could be and how much equipment could it possibly take just to grow grass?” Tim says that first TPI show was a real eye-opener and gave him quite an education.


Out on His Own Tim started Sales Midwest, Inc. in the spring of 1996 with the Donkey Forklift his first line of equipment. “At first, I was selling the Donkey out of my car,” he says. “I was going through some life changes and, during the transition, had moved into an apartment. Tat apartment also served as my work base, office and storage facility.”


Tim dressed for the job as he had in his lumberyard position, light-colored dockers and a buttoned shirt with a collar. “Te sod customers would take one look at me in those dockers and quickly find some reason I should crawl underneath a machine to check out something. I was going through three pair of dockers a week before I realized they were just testing me to see if I knew my products and was willing to get a little dirty to make sure they were working right.”


TPI Turf News May/June 2018


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