Gert Huisman on his start at VHM

“I can really see myself sticking around here for quite a while.” “I can really see myself sticking around here for quite a while.” Gert Huisman says it with a smile, almost like he’s saying it in passing. But there’s more behind that one sentence. A little later the word retirement comes up, though clearly more as a joke than an actual plan. Not only because that’s still a long way off, but mainly because what Gert really means is: this is the kind of place where you want to stay.

Since 2000, Gert has been working in mechanization, always somewhere at the intersection of agriculture and technology. He’s worked on the supplier side, with manufacturers, and over the years he’s seen enough companies from the inside to know when something feels right… and when it doesn’t.

Now, since March, he’s the new face of VHM on the road. As a sales representative that mostly means being out there. Germany as his first playing field, an open calendar, miles on the road and conversations that don’t always follow a script. And honestly, he already knew after the first week: this feels right. Mainly because of the flexibility and energy he keeps running into everywhere.

“It’s a young team. You notice that immediately. In the energy, the pace, the way people get things done,” he says. “And maybe even more important: it keeps you young yourself.” And that’s exactly where that comment about “sticking around” comes from. Not because he’s ready to slow down, because clearly he isn’t. But because he sees a place here that he’s nowhere near done with yet.

Happy to come home

He sums up his first few weeks pretty simply himself: “Coming home happy, for sure. And honestly, also a bit surprised.” Mainly because not everything is planned out down to the last detail: “There’s a plan in broad lines, but you mainly get the freedom to shape it yourself. That fits this role, and it fits the way I like to work.” What the people around him mostly notice is that he’s enjoying himself again. “The people who know me don’t just hear it. They see it.”

The kind of things that just make sense

What stood out to him wasn’t one big moment, but the way things are arranged. “Laptop, phone, systems; it’s all simply ready to go. Sounds normal, but trust me, it really isn’t everywhere. Here they just see that as basic tools you need to do your job.” To him, it says a lot about the way people work and think here: “Anything helping you doing your job, you should have it.” Simple sentence. Says a lot. About how people look at work. And about giving people what they need to actually do it well.

And sometimes that’s hidden in something small. “At a lot of companies, coffee is an afterthought. Here it’s just good filter coffee. The way coffee should be.” It’s a detail, but for Gert it says something bigger: people here think about what they do, why they do it, and how they do it. About quality. And about treating “doing things properly” as something completely normal.

And maybe even more important: this is exactly the kind of place he wants to represent out in the field. What Gert sees inside VHM; in the way people work, solve problems and make decisions, is exactly what he takes with him to customers facing those same challenges.

Out on the road: that’s where it happens

Because for Gert, the real work starts outside the office. “I’m not going to earn it sitting behind a desk. I need to be out there.” So that’s exactly what he’s been doing. In his first weeks alone he already spent a full week in Germany. Visiting customers, having conversations, seeing what’s going on.

And those are exactly the moments where things start happening. “You sit down with a customer who maybe only knows us from one machine. Then you show them what else we do and suddenly you’re talking about an entire line. Simply because they had no idea what was possible.”

Those conversations aren’t scripted. They grow naturally. “That’s where it starts. You see where the need is, and from there you can really start building something.” According to Gert, there’s still plenty of room for that. “In the Netherlands we’re already highly visible. In Germany, there’s still a lot to gain. Real potential there.”

From problem to solution

What he hears from customers is actually surprisingly similar almost everywhere. “It nearly always comes down to the same thing: not enough people and too much unnecessary movement in the process. Too many forklift trips. Too many manual actions. It needs to be smarter.”

That’s exactly where VHM fits in, according to him. “The modular system is genuinely strong. You don’t have to do everything at once. You can start small and expand step by step.” And in practice, he sees how powerful that is. “Customers start with one part, and later the next step follows. Before you know it, there’s a complete line running. In many cases that would never have happened if they had needed to invest in everything all at once.”

Thinking big, staying practical

What really stands out to Gert is what’s being built here. “For a relatively compact company to deliver projects like this, I honestly think that’s impressive. We’re not talking about one machine anymore. We’re talking complete systems. Engineering. Software. The whole thing together.”

He compares it to much bigger players in the market. “With those companies you might expect it. But here it happens too, just with a smaller team. That’s exactly what makes it strong.” And maybe that’s the real difference. Not in what gets said. But in what simply gets done.He compares it to much bigger players in the market. “With those companies you might expect it. But here it happens too, just with a smaller team. That’s exactly what makes it strong.” And maybe that’s the real difference. Not in what gets said. But in what simply gets done.

Making sure it works together

What appeals to him most might actually be how everything connects together. “Selling is great, but that’s really just the start. Then it still has to be built, installed and made to work properly. Everybody matters in that process.”

And according to him, people genuinely feel that here. “You notice that everybody’s doing it together. It’s not office here and workshop there. Everything mixes together.” And that matters, because in the end that’s what decides whether a customer comes back

A place you want to keep moving with

After all those years in the industry, Gert knows what he’s looking for. A solid product.
People who genuinely care. And an environment where you don’t stand still.

For him, that all comes together at VHM. “It just fits. The complete picture.”

And somehow that first sentence still sticks. “I can really see myself sticking around here for quite a while.”