GlossaryKind of term: Manufacturing termTechnical sales
What does technical sales do?
Technical sales is the role that judges requests, manages the customer relationship, negotiates price and lead time and follows quotes through to an order.
Technical sales here means the technical-commercial role, not necessarily a job title; sales engineer and account manager are also used. The role judges whether a request fits the business, helps decide how much estimating time it gets, discusses price, lead time and assumptions with the customer and follows the quote up. In smaller shops the owner often does it alongside other work; in larger ones it is a job of its own, often filled by someone with an engineering or shop-floor background.
How does technical sales work in practice?
A price is easier to defend when you can explain how it is built up. When a customer asks why a piece costs more at 25 than at 50, the answer is usually that one-off costs such as setup and programming are spread over fewer pieces. A cost broken down per item also gives you something to negotiate with: another quantity, customer-supplied material, a longer lead time or a different finish, rather than discount alone. Technical sales often has a say in margin within the pricing policy and in which requests take priority.
What is technical sales often confused with?
Internal sales takes in requests, chases missing data and keeps the customer informed; technical sales judges, negotiates and defends the price. The cost engineer calculates the cost; technical sales takes the price to the customer. In small shops these are often the same people.
How does technical sales work with Blake?
In Blake each part's cost is broken down into material, machining, finishing, setup and programming, per piece, per batch and per quantity break. Quote versions are each available as a PDF, with CSV and JSON export, so when the customer has a question you can point to the version they received. More on estimating.
Frequently asked questions
Does technical sales need to estimate?
It needs to check, not necessarily to build. Whoever talks to the customer must explain where the price comes from: which costs are one-off, which are per piece, what the finishing adds. The estimate itself usually stays with the cost engineer.
Who decides which requests you answer?
Often technical sales, within the owner's policy. Per request the questions are: does it fit your machines and know-how, is the chance of an order worth the estimating time, and is this work or a customer you want. A polite no is also an answer.