Emergence of a Sales Engineer

Due to globalization and FDI in industrial sector, foreign companies are establishing their bases in India. For example, Volkeswagon, a German car manufacturer, has set up manufacturing plant in chakan area of Pune. Similarly, other Multinational giants are setting their offices in India.

“Technology Transfer”, which is the resultant, has increased the pace of industrial growth and hence production. In early days, this was not happening due to which we were lagging behind the advanced countries like US, UK, etc. Today we are using same technologies that they use.

Due to increase in the competition in the market and between the homogeneous products, the marketing part comes into picture. Marketing has 4 major Ps, if Intel processor is taken into example, Intel processor itself is a ‘product’, the ‘price’ associated with it, the distribution channel that Intel has called ‘Place’ and ‘Promotion’, the advertising, selling methodologies.

Selling a technical product is different than a FMCG(Fast moving consumer goods e.g. soap, biscuits, etc). Selling starts from identification of the need, giving a proper and suitable solution and closing the sale with the generation of revenue. For example, software sales, Products like motors, gearboxes, industrial equipment  etc. A person who sells these kinds of products is a Sales Engineer.

A Sales Engineer should be technically sound as well as has managerial skills. Both qualities are required to sell a technical product.  A Sales Engineer needs to undergo product training to understand the working, features, application of the product, installation etc to perform better in the market. Also, to sustain in the tough competition, a sales Engineers has to provide a solution to their customers.

Finally, I say that current trend of technology sales has transformed sales executive into sales engineer. A sales engineer having engineering background with an additional degree or experience in managing accounts, planning and forecasting sales, handling accounts, generating continuous business leads to a great success for him and the organization.