Sales Engineering

Situation Overview
One of our clients, a semiconductor manufacturer, wanted Beganto to support its inside sales function and outlined the following as the scope of work:

• Follow up on pending sales leads by contacting them via phone
• Update the progress status (the outcome of the contacts) on a periodic basis
• Discuss and qualify the leads as appropriate and workout further action plan
• Drive some of the above specified leads to closure, while escalating others to the client for them to close

Execution
A project team, comprising of two sales engineers, was set up. The team trained in the clients’ products and target applications. Next, a questionnaire was prepared. This was used as a framework for carrying out phone conversations with the sales leads assigned to Beganto. Following key success factors were identified:

• Extensive knowledge of client's products and applications among our sales engineers
• Successful prior experience of the sales engineers in such assignments

The interviewing process was designed such that it would be perceived as engineer to engineer outreach program with the objective of helping the potential customer. This was in contrast with the traditional sales outbound initiative seeking to book business.

The Benefits to the Client
Our client found the initiative very beneficial. All the pending sales leads were followed up and qualified. 75% of the qualified opportunities were followed up on directly by the client. 25% of the opportunities were driven to closure by Beganto sales engineers.