Technical Sales Representatives Add Value

Equipment specialists can help lab and process operators
navigate to effective solutions

Laboratory equipment is often sold with the support of sales engineers working at the local or regional level. Realizing what these specialists have to contribute, taking advantage of their knowledge and talent, will help save time and cost and contribute to a better outcome when specifying, purchasing and installing laboratory equipment.

Consider these contributions:

Product Knowledge: Specialized sales engineers, by the nature of their job, have product knowledge that is both broad and deep. They are also current on new products, their capabilities and their proper application. Unlike information available on the Web, sales engineers can get advanced notice of product obsolescence and replacement options, new technologies coming to the market, and more. Also, because they are exposed to so many different types of applications and situations, sales engineers are a wealth of tacit knowledge that they readily share with their customers.

Experience: Whether a project engineer, lab manager, or researcher, you may be treading on fresh ground regarding many aspects of a major equipment purchase. You may not have a full grasp on how to handle a particular challenge presented by a project. Call in the technical sales rep - there can be real benefit in connecting to a source with past exposure to your current issue.

Access: Through a technical sales engineer, you may be able to look “behind the scenes” with a particular manufacturer and garner important information not publicly available. Sales reps deal with people, making connections between customers and manufacturer's support personnel that may not normally be public facing. They make it their business to know what’s going on with products, companies, and industries.

Of course, sales engineers will be biased. Any solutions proposed are likely to be based upon the products sold by the representative. But the best sales people will share the virtues of their products openly and honestly, and tell you when they do not have the right product for your application. This is where the discussion, consideration and evaluation of several solutions becomes part of achieving the best project outcome.

As a stakeholder in process or laboratory operation, it's highly recommended you develop a professional, mutually beneficial relationship with a laboratory and process equipment specialist, a problem solver. Look at a relationship with the local sales engineer as symbiotic. Their success, and your success, go hand-in-hand.