How Lynette Went from Elementary School Teacher to Sales Executive

Lynette DeClue once spent her days managing a classroom full of students. Today, she manages multi-million-dollar infrastructure deals for school districts and higher education clients across Florida.

Somewhere between those chapters, Lynette was a medical assisting instructor, a program director, a recruitment firm sales executive specializing in skilled trades and (during a pandemic, while raising a family) a master's student in engineering.

Now a Complex Solutions Account Executive, she works with school districts, colleges and municipalities across Florida, showing them how to fund long-overdue building upgrades through the energy and operational savings those upgrades generate.

Finding budget-neutral solutions to support schools

"To my customers, I’m more of an advisor or solution provider," she says. Day in and day out, Lynette helps people with complex problems; those looking to keep buildings cool on tight budgets, all while supporting their students’ success.

"Our customers are trying to achieve bigger organizational goals. My role is to align Trane Technologies solutions with the goals they have and deliver measurable outcomes."

The project she's most proud of is a Florida college that was overwhelmed by deferred maintenance — crumbling infrastructure, overheating buildings and underground piping leaks, costs that continued to increase each month. Lynette's team walked every building, mapped every challenge and built a budget-neutral solution that funded $15 million worth of facility upgrades through energy and operational savings alone. The college didn't spend a dollar more than they already had.

But the part she's most proud of wasn't the infrastructure. Her team opened the project to students, using live construction as a classroom, and coordinated a visit from a local school district so young adults could see skilled trades in action. “We may very well have helped inspire those students to pursue careers in the skilled trades, and that’s something I find truly meaningful.”

Once a teacher, always a teacher.

Juggling a master's degree, a full time job, a pandemic and a family

When COVID hit, Lynette reached out to her manager and asked if Trane Technologies would support her pursuing a master's degree in engineering (MEng). They said yes. 19 months later, working full time and raising a blended family of four kids, Lynette earned her MEng. "It was a tough 19 months. But it was definitely worth it."

She'd come into the role without the technical background many of her colleagues already had, and she wanted to close that gap. "I felt like, technically, there was still a long way to go. I thought if I could fast-track my understanding of the engineering side and the project management side, I could be a better voice for the customer, and a better interpreter of both sides of the business." Shortly after graduating, she was promoted to her current role. "I think it says a lot about the way Trane Technologies invests in its people."

Lynette is also part of the Sales Women's Employee Network, which hosts annual in- person conferences for anyone to attend and regular training sessions with guest Speakers.