Dave Davies was made for relationships. Throughout his entire adult life, he has excelled at forging the friendships and trusts to have a successful sales career.

Today, Dave is a Verdesian Account Manager covering Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and north Texas. But earlier in his career he was tasked with helping others cover things. Like walls. And ceilings.

You see, Dave began his career with Sherwin Williams, where he spent almost a quarter-century working in several different locations and in management positions across the United States with the paint company. (Some of his product wound up on the retractable roof at the Houston Astros stadium, or on the Mall of America in Minneapolis.)

Dave and his family eventually wanted to come back home to Kansas, he took a job as Workforce Center Director with the North Central Kansas Region unemployment office – until he, too, was laid off in 2008.

Dave’s ability to form relationships was the game-changer.

“I was at the local gas station south of the house one day, and the location manager of the local ag coop was filling up his truck,” Dave recalls. “I said, ‘you wouldn’t happen to have a job for a guy with sales and management experience, would you?’”

Turns out, he did. Dave went to work soon thereafter with Mid Kansas Coop. He would rise within that organization before moving on to Farmway Coop and, for the next five years, with WinField United as a Customer Development Manager before coming to Verdesian.

“My whole life has been predicated on relationships,” he says. “There’s really no difference if it’s paint or ag sales. They’re both chemicals.  It’s all relationships, relationships, relationships.”

Today, Dave is all-in on agriculture. He received his Certified Crop Advisor certification in 2014.

“Verdesian is my company. I like the people I work with, and we all work well together. I can call Andy Snell or Kyle Hartmeier or Terri Bryant if I have a question. We’re all one big family.”

When he’s not working, Dave loves to spend time with his extended family. He also enjoys archery, trapping and fishing – a passion he gladly shares with his five grandchildren.

“I’ve always been a person to ask questions,” he recalls. “If I didn’t ask that simple question those years ago, who knows where I would have gone?”