Service Engineer as a Salesman
When we talk of a service engineer also being a salesman for the company, one tends to relate this statement with selling of spare parts. Yes, of course, it is necessary to sell spare parts and the service engineer is in a position to make most appropriate recommendations. But a service engineer acts as a salesman in a much broader sense. He helps selling new products, he helps selling remedies and upgrades. A customer friendly service engineer can substantially reduce the selling effort on the part of company’s salesmen; can even help to open a door firmly shut on a salesman. Every company has some stories to support the above statements. Here are some from the companies I worked for.
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Effortless Selling
An inter-office memo written by an area sales manager to the all-India service chief is a testimony to the way a highly customer-responsive service engineer can make selling so effortless for his counterparts in sales.
“What is so great about this small order for Aquatherm?
The order was finalised in 3 minutes flat. Customer invited an offer only from Thermax and called us for discussions. They offered us fair price and fair terms and we accepted.
How this was made possible?
Thanks to the service provided by Sanjay Reddy (service engineer).”
Selling Remedies
Reduced steam output from a 6 ton/hr coal fired boiler was creating ruckus in a chemical complex and the company’s service engineer was summoned to set the boiler right. The problem arose after the arrival of fresh supply of dust laden coal. Heavily fouled boiler tube bank and a number of other fouling related problems ended up in drop in steam output. A few hours of a number of corrective actions and the boiler was restored to service. With this backdrop, when the service engineer strongly recommended use of a fire side additive to keep the boiler heating surface clean it was no wonder that, the factory manager readily agreed to accept his suggestion. The chemical division of the same company was approached for supply of the fire side additive. The customer has since been on the list of regular users of the additive.
Retrieving a ‘lost’ order
Irked by the evasive and lackadaisical response from the sales team, a perfectly happy, next-door existing customer is driven to a distant competing company for purchase of a second air compressor. The service manager is simply shocked to know about this development but sensing that there may be an outside chance to retrieve the situation, he takes the liberty of gate-crashing into the office of the friendly works manager, in the buyer’s factory across the road.
In a nutshell, after a hurried exchange of greetings, the following dialogue ensues:
“You have always been saying that your air compressor is performing very well and that you are even happier with our after-sales service”
“Yes, of course I would say that any time.
And still you have decided to buy the second compressor from elsewhere.
But why are you so upset? Our decision is not a reflection on service department.”
“I think it is. After all, when you tell me you are happy about high degree of our responsiveness and you have often praised Sarin so eloquently, I have always taken it that you are happy with our company.
“Yes, yes, but….
“All right” cuts in the service manager, “we shall deal with all the details, but please tell me has the order been actually released? If not, can you hold it for a day. That is all that I want of you as of now.”
“I think it is too late but let me check for you.”
Kashyap reached out for the telephone, called his city office and, asked the purchase manager if the compressor order had been released. He held the line for a couple of minutes and then said: “OK, that’s good. Please hold the order till I get back to you. This is important.” Turning round to me he said: “you are lucky. If you were a few minutes late, the order would have been mailed.”
“Thank you very much.” I said with some relief.
A motivated, customer-committed service engineer can bring some customers, to a level of emotional engagement that allows the company to apply some moral pressure. With some amount of give and take, two days later, a repeat order was placed with full credit assigned to the two service engineers who had been interacting with this customer since installation and commissioning of the first air compressor.
Opened a shut door
It was quite baffling for the sales engineer to figure out why the managing director of Kathmandu distillery, a seemingly satisfied existing customer, was not even prepared to meet him to discuss the Thermax offer for a second boiler required at the distillery. The regional manager (RM) at Calcutta also failed to break the deadlock but was not prepared to forego the business without even getting a fair chance to discuss what was bothering the managing director. He was suddenly reminded of the service engineer Manoharan who had since moved from Calcutta to Madras as regional service manager. The RM knew that as a service engineer, Manoharan had created amongst his customers, an image of quiet confidence and that customers had begun to look at him as a friend and the one on whom they could rely for most appropriate technical advice. On the request of the Calcutta manager, Manoharan called the distillery MD, gave him the salient features of the offer and requested for a meeting with Calcutta sales team before closing the issue. The Managing Director appreciated Manoharan calling him and readily agreed to look at the matter once again. Finally, the order was lost for commercial reasons, but what was done by an empathetic service engineer years ago did help in opening a tightly shut door.
This is one the four blogs in this series apart fro the Preamble. Click on The Technician; A Friend in Need; The Teacher or Preamble, to reach the relevant blog.
Gopal K Gureja
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*I have used the title ‘service engineer’ in a generic sense for all those who provide on-site technical support irrespective of the official designation they may have.
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