My first year in Sales by Tony Green

My employment in the sales profession now totals one year in duration. As an engineer entering sales at almost 40 years of age plenty of ups and downs would be experienced.

My motivation for joining the sales force was to use my technical background to help solve customer’s problems while at the same time earning at good living.

The requirement to perform while learning on the job presented me with many challenges. In my view, part of the reason was the existence in Silicon Valley of plenty of folks who are technical trained with previous sales experience. From my first year sales is something where you would prefer someone with experience even though you need to start somewhere. The result was I landed many interviews but received no offers.

One of the things I learned from those who are in sales is persistence is required. So I continued to push in search of the sales job when there were many other non sales jobs whose qualifications I met. Finally, I got a break and landed a sales position.

After doing the job for a year it became clear a company might be better served to hire someone with previous experience. Companies should seek to hire someone who wants to go the extra mile for customers who are the essence of what sales is about. How would I grade my performance as a professional in sales? I am still waiting to close my first large sale. The journey has had ups and downs; however, through everything I always try to focus on the customer.

Hopefully, the customer is where my focus will stay, on the person writes the check at the end of the day.

Cure cycle and my commission by Tony Green

In any sales position salespeople are paid on the amount of sales they generate.
Selling industrial products is no different. Customers are attained and maintained if they get value for what they pay for and the value is communicated in a consistent manner.

The promotion of these products are the same as any product because the customer is still a person but different since the ultimate value is dependent upon the benefits that they received.

In many industrial fields, Chemistry in particular, the value comes from the actual properties and behavior of the chemicals in the customer’s application.
Case in point, I work in the chemical industry. My primary function is to market and sale epoxy chemicals to our customers. The electrical and heat resistance properties of epoxies find many uses as sealants, adhesive agents and in various other applications.

Epoxy polymers are cured by a process which is referred to as cross linking. Heat applied causes the molecules to form a three dimensional network of molecules. The time the reaction takes to complete is known as the cure cycle.
How does this relate to sales? Part of my job is to understand what the customer values. From my experience customers require as a short time as possible for curing to occur for their applications. There are many instances where this time can be shortened without loss of performance.

In the end, understanding the details of the cure cycle allows you to move the sales process forward. It will allow you to understand and communicate the customer requirements straight to your company who will use its expertise to provide the best possible solution. This does not turn out in the sales persons favor all the time. At times other polymers are better suited to the customer’s application. My training allows me to be to supply engineering support to our customer while the engineer does engineering.

In short, my perspective on chemical sales may be different due to my roots as an engineer prior to thinking about entering sales. In my view if you are already technically inclined why not have total control of your sales process? After all it is my commission.