What does internal sales do?

Internal sales is the office-based commercial team or role: the people who take in requests and orders and handle customer contact by phone and email. They log a request, check that model, drawing, revision, quantities and material are there, chase what is missing and tell the customer when a quote will follow. After the quote they follow up, and they turn an incoming order into an order confirmation. Technical judgement is not part of the role, but recognising when a drawing needs it is.

How does internal sales work in practice?

A complete request can be estimated faster than one where the cost engineer has to chase a STEP file, a revision or a quantity. That shortens quote turnaround time, which can weigh in who wins the order. Internal sales matters at the order too: whoever checks the purchase order against the quote spots a different quantity, another revision or other conditions before work starts. Internal sales passes on signals from the drawing, such as a tight tolerance or an unfamiliar finishing step; judging them is for the cost engineer or manufacturing engineer.

What is internal sales often confused with?

Internal sales is not technical sales: internal sales keeps requests and orders moving and the customer informed, while technical sales judges, negotiates and defends the price. With the cost engineer, the boundary lies at the data: internal sales makes sure they are complete, the cost engineer calculates with them. In a small shop one person often combines these tasks.

How does internal sales work with Blake?

In Blake you create a request from uploaded STEP and PDF files, with several parts per request. Model and drawing are paired per part by file name; where there is doubt, the pairing stays open until you confirm it. A missing purchase or subcontract price stays open and does not count as zero, so it is clear what still has to be chased. More on requests.