Description:
Working under general direction of the Director of Sales or Inside Sales/Applications Supervisor, the Inside Sales & Application Specialist position contributes to the commercial growth and profitability goals of the company by providing inside sales and applications guidance and product solution recommendations to customers and sales partners. The position is the key liaison between the factory and external, independent sales agents and customers for pre-sale through order fulfillment activities, including resolution of commercial issues. The position also aligns closely with FCI regional sales managers to achieve sales goals and objectives.
Essential Job Functions
65% to 95% - Sales and Applications Support, and Commercial Responsibilities:
- Interpret customers' applications, installations, and specification requirements to recommend appropriate FCI product solutions.
- Send timely and accurate responses to customer and sales partner inquiries (written, emailed, website, telephone) about product selection and suitability, price, and delivery
- Utilize and be proficient with FCI sales tools, including application evaluation software, Syteline business system, CRM, websites, etc. to be able to efficiently and effectively deliver customer support from initial inquiry through delivery.
- Use technical and business judgment to assess whether a non-standard product sales opportunity (i.e. special need) may be feasible and worth pursuing, and if so to bring to attention of supervisor.
- Interface and cooperate effectively with internal departments and staff, such as sales, production planning, manufacturing, engineering, QA, accounting, legal, repair, and others as needed to confirm the feasibility and interest of the company to meet special product design or performance needs, non-standard commercial terms, scheduling, testing, QA criteria, and/or documentation.
- Coordinate with sales order entry staff to ensure correct entry of non-standard product and/or customer requirements to ensure proper order fulfillment, delivery and customer satisfaction.
- Ensure resolution and timely implementation of pre-order and post-order/pre-shipment challenges such as technical modifications, order status changes and commercial terms or agreements.
- Stay current with, and seek out continual education opportunities on, served industries' processes, engineering best practices, applicable standards, and competitors.
- Provide training to and education of field personnel on how to successfully apply company products and services to a wide range of industries and application opportunities.
- Participate as a subject matter expert trainer in product knowledge workshop activities.
- Be an ambassador for the company to establish, reinforce, build, and retain customer and sales representative loyalty.
5- 35% Project Management Responsibility
• Owns development and execution of project plans, including key milestones and customer satisfaction.
• Evaluate and monitor contract performance to determine the need for changes and to ensure compliance with contractual obligations.
• Help create detailed quotations that allow the company and customer to proceed with an order in alignment with all technical and commercial capabilities.
• Attends meetings with Regional Sales Management Team to determine which quotes should become projects and which should be fulfilled using standard channels.
Requirements:
Qualifications:
- Bachelor's Degree (in Engineering, Business, Science, or other technical area) or equivalent work experience preferred.
- 0-5 years' experience in sales engineering or applications engineering work environment with a manufacturer, sales representative, or distributor, or as a user/specifier of electronic measurement or process control instruments.
- Previous work experience in a manufacturing environment with project or contract management familiarity highly desired.
- Demonstrate knowledge of, or ability to learn, manufacturing enterprise business systems (Syteline/Infor preferred) and competency using of Microsoft software tools (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Project, etc.).
- Ability to interpret and understand industry terms, standards and regulations, customer installation drawings, engineering specifications and symbols to determine applicability and suitability of FCI product solutions.
Preferred Skills:
- Ability to read and understand engineering and manufacturing blueprints, schematics, and drawings
- Ability to work independently with an analytical approach for outcomes expected.
- Ability to manage more than one project at a time.
- Strong communication skills and ability to interact collaboratively with customers and various departments within the organization.
- Experience working with engineered-to-order or custom products.
- Experience in Syteline ERP
Physical/Travel Requirements
This position requires extensive sitting, working at a computer, and talking on a phone. Some time may be spent walking up and down stairs, standing, and lifting a maximum of 25 lbs. Possible infrequent overnight travel to customer facilities, sales partner offices, trade shows or industry events, or training opportunities may occur.
Equal employment opportunity, including veterans and individuals with disabilities.
PI273774319
