Employee Spotlight: Scott Roob, VP of Sales

February 28, 2020

Employee Spotlight
At Inland Packaging, our employees are our greatest assets.   Learn more about our team of energetic, passionate people who create breakthrough solutions that innovate the packaging industry on a daily basis!

What is your favorite product that Inland produces, and why?

That’s a great question because there are a lot of products that I love.  We do a wide array of products, but if I had to pick one, it’s the one that is near and dear to my heart, the Coors Light label with the thermochromic mountains.  I picked that one because we started that project with Miller Coors back in 2005-2006 and at the time I was with the technical services team. I got to work on the front end with the Miller Coors Innovation team, our suppliers, and internally.  It was fun to watch that project grow from the initial brainstorming session they put on, and then to reality.  The success that it had in the market was very gratifying.  Yea, I’d have to say the Coors Light label is near and dear to my heart.

What is your current role?

My current role is Vice President of Sales.  Now being here for 21 years, I’ve had several different roles.  I started here when I was still in school in our production operations.  I started as an entry-level label line associate.  From there I made my way through operations going to a jogger, manual cutter, rotating cutter, operator. Later, I worked on a converting press we had for a bit, moving into our technical services, from there into sales, and sales management, and now leadership.  So, it’s been a fun ride.  It feels like I’ve worked for three of four different companies along the way because of our growth and change.  It’s been extremely exciting and rewarding and I can’t wait for the next 20 years.

What impact does your role have on our customers?

I’d like to think my role has a major impact on our customers.  Inland as a whole is a very customer service driven organization.  We are all about customer service and growth, not only for Inland but also for our customers and our community.  One thing we do as a sales team is to not assume or go into our customers trying to tell them what they need or what they want.  It is about listening and finding out from them what they are looking for and how we can help them and what impact we can have on them.  In our organization, our sales team is really the front and sales and marketing together are driving the path that our company is going in.  Including the investments we make, the people we hire, and the markets we go after.  It is all the information that we are getting from our customers.  So, I’d like to think of my role and the role of the sales and marketing team has a large impact — a positive impact — on our customers.

What are you binge-watching right now?

Unfortunately, I probably watch too much Netflix and Amazon Prime, but it’s my way to wind down at night.   I am waiting for Ozark to come back on, I think season three starts in March.  In the meantime, I’ve never watched Dexter, a bunch of people told me that’s a good show, so I just started watching Dexter.  On Amazon Prime, I just started Billions.  I’ve been through all the seasons of Billions and waiting for more seasons.

Before working at Inland, what was the most unusual or interesting job you’ve ever had.

Unusual or interesting job I’ve had?  The most unusual job I’ve had was selling shoestrings at a mall kiosk.  The niche of the shoestrings was that you didn’t have to tie them. You just pull them and they snap back into curls.  They had a bunch of buckets of shoestrings, yea that didn’t last long. 🙂 My neighbor at the time was the one who started the kiosk and I helped him at the time.

Most interesting was my time at the La Crosse Country Club, working in the pro shop and bag room.  I recommend anybody at a young age works in customer service somehow, someway.  It teaches you life lessons about how the world works, about different types of people, about what to expect going into your career or profession.

Who inspires you?

There are quite a few, obviously my parents had a big influence on my life.  Right now, the people that inspire me are the people that I am closest to.  So my wife is a nurse, at the end of the day I always go back to– I love my job I love what I do– but being a nurse and helping people just blows my mind that she can do that day in and day out and is very good at it.  I’m also inspired by my daughters.  My oldest daughter is a freshman at UW-Madison, and just to see her work ethic, see her enthusiasm, and the go get ‘em attitude that she has.  Compiled with how fun she is to be around and see her with her friends and she is inspiring me to see the good in the world.  The young people coming up.  It’s refreshing.  My nine-year-old daughter teaches me lessons in empathy.  Understanding that you always need to be looking out for others and taking other people’s feelings into consideration. She’s very sensitive and very in tune with her surroundings and it’s a good refresher.  It’s a good reset cause sometimes things can get crazy in a day and she brings me back down.

What is the best concert you’ve ever attended?

The best concert I’ve ever attended,  I’ve been to quite a few.  I have to say, my wife wanted to go see Lady Gaga.  Do I like her?  Sure.  Would I ever thought I’d go see her?  Probably not, but I did see her between Christmas and New Years in 2019.  One of her concerts was on New Year’s Eve, and we saw her in Vegas.  Extremely entertaining.  Extremely talented.  Talented singer, and very fun as well.  The shows were good and went by fast, and I have to say it was one of my favorites.