SUVs parked on cargo ships reveal scope of U.S. auto market glut

Re:SUVs parked on cargo ships reveal scope of U.S. auto mark... by LeifCarrotson on Friday May 01, 2020 @10:54PM (#23048729)

I deal with salespeople on a regular basis for industrial automation components. I'm an engineer and would consider myself a very high-information buyer, and I spend a lot of time with the products after purchasing and hear about any reliability or performance issues that crop up in the machine for years after it ships, so I know what I've been sold.

In that line of work, I'd say that there are 3 in 10 that drop by the office who are worth many times their commission - it's amazing to be able to describe your needs, and hear which of their products match those specifications plus considerations of requirements I hadn't realized, how their other customers are using the devices, know which are stocked/standard and when you've generated a parametric part number that's never been written before. But some of them are not really much more useful than the parametric catalog, and a couple of them just need to give up the engineering sales and switch to a car dealership or multi-level marketing scam.

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Re:SUVs parked on cargo ships reveal scope of U.S. auto mark... by fouc on Saturday May 02, 2020 @02:44AM (#23049863)

I'd almost call that style of salesmanship as something like an "account representative" or perhaps there's a better word for it.

But it's someone with intimate knowledge of the industry, of the other customers, and works closely with the customer and even educates the customer.

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Re:SUVs parked on cargo ships reveal scope of U.S. auto mark... by toomanybeersies on Saturday May 02, 2020 @04:42AM (#23050362)

I've heard them called Sales Engineers before. They're usually technical employees or engineers before they get into sales, and carry their technical knowledge and industry expertise into a sales role.

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