Influential Woman · Metrology

April Laue

Territory Sales Manager, BC MacDonald

St. Louis, IL

3Awards received

Her Story

About April

I'm a Territory Sales Manager specializing in metrology sales, a role I started at the end of January. My typical day involves getting up, answering emails, and then visiting customers with scheduled appointments. Each customer is different, but everybody needs to make sure that what they're producing is what it should be against a CAD PDF or step file, and what I sell helps make sure they're doing that. Before metrology, I spent about a dozen years in industrial and safety sales. I started with Fastenal where I was with them for about 5 years - a great company to train with that taught me organizational skills, time management, logistics management, and vending programming. Then I moved over to Black & Company as a territory sales manager, where I learned much more about safety, ladder inspection, and fall protection inspection. Everything became very easy, so learning something new was a priority. I had a lot of gauging experience in industrial and safety sales, but not much as far as metrology goes. Now I'm learning more about measuring the itty bitty and making sure what you've got is what you need. Prior to sales, I owned my own cleaning business that grew from just me to 12 people, and I also worked in HR as both a generalist and then as an HR manager.

Her Interview

Ten minutes with April

01What do you attribute your success to?

I attribute my success to keeping my chin up and keep trying, even when I fail. And you fail a lot - I fail numerous times a day. One of my mentors, Steven Galetti, would say, be like a goldfish, 10-second memory. Just shake it off and keep going. When I fail, I just get back up and keep on going, like it never happened. Winners don't give up - you just go to the next. Just keep going. You're gonna get a lot of no's, so chin up, shoulders back, and keep trying.

02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?

The best career advice I've received came from my mentors who consistently asked, 'What can I do for you? How can I make your life easier?' Easter Day at Fastenal really took me under his wing and gave me the availability to be a leader, always asking how he could support me. Then Steven Galetti at Black & Company gave me great advice and did the same thing. I could go to Steven and say, 'This is what I'm looking at, this is what I'm thinking of doing, how would you do that differently?' He had great advice and insight because he'd been in the business for 40 years on how to improve what I was about to do, how to fine-tune it and make it better, and take it one step farther. He also taught me to be like a goldfish with a 10-second memory - just shake it off and keep going.

03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?

I would say winners don't give up. Next. Go to the next. Just keep going. You're gonna get a lot of no's. Just, chin up. Shoulders back. And, keep trying.

04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?

I would say challenges would be that metrology is a very niche market. The people that need it really, really need it, but they're very far and fewer between than, say, industrial safety sales. Everybody needs a nut and a bolt and a screwdriver, safety glasses and earplugs. Not everybody needs a ZEISS CMM. So that would probably be the challenge in my industry - finding the customers that need me and making sure that they're well taken care of. And then, opportunities - like I said, those that need that equipment need it. There's about a dozen people that produce what I make, or what I sell, so like I said, very niche market.

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