InsideView is a pioneer in on-demand business search and intelligence applications. We were founded in 2005 to help business professionals take advantage of the convergence of social media and enterprise applications – or what we’ve dubbed as “socialprise”. For several years now our application has helped sales & marketing professionals track key business events and relationships across thousands of traditional, subscription-based data providers and user-generated, “new media” sources, including social networks.
Chris Powell (my co-founder) and I were invited to speak at a TechAmerica conference on online B2B marketing. (The actual presentation is tomorrow morning.) Instead of discussing the generalities surrounding internet marketing, we wanted to give the audience some info that they could take back to work that day and use to generate some leads. The audience is marketing execs and owners of local Southern California tech companies. We’ve embedded the presentation below.
I won’t pretend to be an expert on this topic, as one can google any number of articles, papers, and blogs on how to write the most effective emails. I am interested in learning what engineers and high-tech salesman think about this topic. What’s the ideal length, focus, level of detail, subject matter, time to send, etc. As an engineer, here is what I like to see out of an email:
1. No wordy paragraphs
If there are long-winded paragraphs of text trying to describe something technical, something is amiss. This is particularly true if there are questions and/or action items sprinkled throughout. These emails are never clear, and their wordy nature indicates that the sender is confused about something. These will result in either a) no response, or b) a multiple day email back-and-forth that accomplishes nothing. Phone calls work better when this is the case.
I’ve created a host of useful Twitter lists for followers of @Help4Engineers (and everyone else too).
My Favorites
Engineering / Science / Technology Favorites: This is my personal list of the most interesting tweeters I follow. I go here for almost all my Twitter news. This list is the best of the best.
All NASA Twitter Feeds: Over 50 unique NASA twitter streams. These are absolutely awesome, and many of them have tens of thousands of followers on their own. NASA is doing an amazing job sharing the incredible information they collect.
Industrial Suppliers on Twitter: I’m constantly adding new suppliers as I find them. Let me know of any I’m missing in the comments. These tweets are way more interesting than I expected when I first made this list.
One of the biggest problems engineers encounter when sourcing products and services is simply finding the right person to call. If you need a 3M product, odds are your company is too small to deal directly with 3M, so they’re going to refer you to a distributor’s regional office. That office will probably take your call, but your local sales rep will surely be out in the field, and you won’t get to talk to him. Maybe you can wrestle an email or a cell number from the inside sales rep, if you’re aggressive, but that doesn’t describe most engineers.
When I worked as a design and manufacturing engineer, there were certain salespeople that consistently stood out in my mind. These were the people that I called time and again for advice and to whom I ultimately ended up giving the most money. Below are 8 ways to stay on an engineer’s mind.
8. Present products and services to your customers as tools, and not just something else to buy. Prepare powerpoint presentations, bring samples of relevant technologies, and do live demos of your products. Engineers are always interested in learning about new tools and ways to apply them.
7. Make yourself easy to approach about a problem. Be friendly and jovial in meetings but always very professional. This makes you seem dedicated to your job and interested in your customers’ needs.
It takes a tremendous amount of time and skill to be the first person called about a problem. Below are five tips that helped me become more than just a Sales Engineer.
1. Know Your Stuff – Become a RESOURCE
If you know your products and services inside and out, great! You can go meet with engineers, be an awesome order taker, and repeat the same spiel like a broken record. Now, you know your competitors products TOO! You are starting to become dangerous now because you understand the landscape of available products and can competitively sell. Finally, you understand the applications that your products are used in. YOU just became a resource to engineers as opposed to just another salesperson. This is the factor that separates the amateurs from the pros!
Tired of online industrial listings and paper catalogs? IndustrialInterface.com is the quickest, easiest, and most efficient way for engineers to source industrial products and services, and it's always free to use.
Matweb Material Search
Datasheets for over 69,000 metals, plastics, ceramics, and composites.
MFG.com Custom Manufacturing
Post finished engineering drawings and have machine and fabrication shops bid on your project.
OctoPart Electronic Component Search
This site is an amazing search engine for electronic components. They aggregate information from major suppliers like Digi-Key, Mouser, Newark, etc. and provide prices, availability, datasheets and more.
Industrial Interface founder awarded top social media sales award by InsideView