Avoiding falling into the Sales Representative Engineering Trap
Many times I have seen this occur, a Maintenance Supervisor or Engineering director contacts a firm that promotes themselves as having the ability to resolve a particular mechanical issue with their “solve all widget.” A contact form is filled out and an eager sales representative calls to make an appointment to “come out and see what the problem is .”
See if this sounds familiar. The appointment goes like this: The sales rep shows up, appears to have genuine interest, listens, makes notes, takes measurements and suggest several items from their glossy catalog or web site. However he/she prefaces any suggestion for equipment or items to correct the existing condition with “let me turn this information in to our engineers and they will suggest the correct item for your application.”