Like father, like son: Mark and Tyler Langdon
By Ed Avis
Sometimes salespeople are compared to hunters or fisherman. If they’re successful, they bring home the goods. Well, Tyler Langdon, a newly elected IRgA board member, is an actual fisherman and a hunter -- and a salesperson for IRgA member firm Eastern Engineering.
“I'm a big deer hunter and bass fisherman, so I kind compare sales to the hunt, trying to find the fish or trying to find the deer. And then once you find it, trying to put a plan together and close the deal,” he says.
Langdon has been fishing for customers for Eastern Engineering since 2020. He didn’t always plan on joining the company, which was founded by his grandparents, Bob and Mary Langdon, in 1972. But it’s been part of his life for as long as he can remember.
Early Memories
Langdon’s father, Mark, has been the company president since 1999, so naturally Tyler has deep memories of spending time at Eastern Engineering’s headquarters in Muncie, Indiana.
“I'd go in there after school, and I can remember being in there when I was, I don't know, 6, 7, 8 years old and there just being prints everywhere,” Langdon says.
Later he helped in the company’s warehouse, and during high school he spent his summers as a delivery driver. And when he graduated from high school and left for Indiana University, the family business lured regularly lured him back.
“Throughout college I would still come back home during the summers and help out in the front room, help out doing deliveries,” he says.
Despite all the work in the family business, Langdon was not totally sold on a career there. He studied environmental management in college and planned for a career in that field. But as graduation approached he reconsidered. The opportunity to join a successful, growing company seemed too good to pass up.
“Towards the end of college I had a conversation with Dad and said I wanted to go into the business,” he says. “And soon as I got done, I started working there. I have taken some accounting classes and some more business classes periodically since then.”
At the Family Company
Langdon graduated from Indiana University in 2019 and joined the company, which now has nine locations in Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and Michigan. He spent his first 18 months in the service department, mostly doing administrative tasks such as logging work and billing.
In March 2020 he moved into Eastern Engineering’s sales department. Everybody knows what else happened in March 2020: COVID. So his entry into the sales world was slow, marked by knocking on a lot of doors with nobody behind them.
As he grew into the job, the similarities between seeking new customers and fishing and hunting became apparent.
“It is definitely different at first, going in and talking to strangers and trying to start a conversation with someone that a lot of times they probably don't really want to talk to you,” he says. “You kind learn as you go.”
Today his sales territory is the north half of Indianapolis and the northern suburbs. He primarily sells and leases equipment, and these days that includes small-format copiers, something Eastern Engineering added to its offerings about five years ago when customers started asking for them.
Eventually he will move into other departments at Eastern, including printing, color, accounting and management. His younger sister Emma is following the same path. The idea is that both will end up in leadership positions.
Langdon will bring a next-generation perspective to the IRgA board, but he says he also looks forward to meeting more veteran reprographics folks: “I'm excited to join and learn from the people that have a lot more experience in the industry than I do.”