Sales Engineering Specialist
AFL, a leading global fiber optics company, has an immediate opening for a Sales Engineering Specialist – OEM Market in the Central Region including TX, OK, AR, MO, KS, IA, WI, MN, ND, SD, and NE. Candidate must live in or be willing to relocate within territory. The ideal location is Dallas, TX, but there’s flexibility on the exact location.
The Sales Engineering Specialist will be primarily responsible for developing and maintaining relationships at key accounts providing direct sales and implementation support for AFL’s products. He/she will establish themselves as the customer’s resource for all AFL OEM products, providing world class service and support to drive future sales. This customer base includes some of AFL’s most technically challenging customers, so a strong technical aptitude is required in order to succeed.
He/she is to drive sales, insure customer satisfaction, and report back to the organization applicable customer needs and requirements. The individual will be responsible for maximizing sales of targeted products and services at defined OEM accounts. You will work directly with your Sales Manager to prioritize activities by customer potential, short term and long term, and to determine the best “route to market” strategies, for each applicable sales opportunity.
Responsibilities include, but are not limited to:
• Interface with existing and potential customers either verbally or in person on a daily basis.
• Work with AFL’s internal product groups to set, and attain, goals for each specific area; targeted accounts, product needs, etc.
• Using professional selling skills to generate preference for AFL’s products and services.
• Maintain a high level of knowledge regarding AFL’s products and services and their applications to the potential customers. Act in a consultative role to the customer to insure that they can easily order, install, and add value to their internal programs with AFL’s products and services.
• Maintain sufficient knowledge of customer’s business to recognize opportunities and be perceived by the customer as a problem solver and cost displacement specialist. New opportunities as well as their business potential should be communicated to the National Sales Manager on a timely basis.
• Manage all selling expenses within the established travel expense budgets.
• Establish sources to provide information or competitive pricing, market activities, transaction usage and other information about the assigned account(s) or target markets.
• Provide direction to the customer service representatives in support of customer needs.
• Provide information as required by the National Sales Manager to assist in development of twelve-month rolling forecasts.
• Assist in training and orientation of new customer sales organizations as required.
• Continually improve selling skills through participation in training and seminars, supervisory feedback, self-evaluation, and customer feedback.
• Achieve or exceed planned sales levels for all products and services at targeted accounts and/or targeted market segments.