About
This manufacturer makes protective coatings for tanks, bridges and plant equipment. Each technical sales engineer carries a broad product range and several accounts, each with years of history behind it.
"The customer expects the person across the table to understand their site: the substrate, the exposure, what was applied before," says a Senior Technical Sales Engineer.
Opportunity
Meeting that expectation took study. A large share of every week went to learning products and technical material. "I was studying products when I should have been working on sales strategy and seeing customers."
When a question went beyond what they knew, the answer was always the same: "Let me check with our technical team and get back to you." The engineer came to dislike that sentence. "By the time the answer came back, the conversation was over. Customers don't wait."
Solution
A colleague who knows the account
Now the engineers take Lubinpla into their meetings. It already knows the account: which coatings went on which site and when, the complaints and trials on record, the product range and the data behind it.
“It's like having a technical support team with me in real time, one that already knows my customer and my situation.”
Answering in the room
Last quarter, a maintenance manager at a chemical plant showed the engineer a pipe rack coated eight years earlier. The section stays humid all year. Could they recoat over the existing system without blasting back to bare steel?
The engineer asked Lubinpla on the spot. Back came the coating history for that site, the surface condition recorded on the last visit, and the products qualified over aged coatings in high humidity, together with the surface preparation each option needs, the conditions under which overcoating becomes a risk, and a small patch test that would settle the question before any commitment.
“I walked the customer through the options right there and proposed the patch test. You could see the change in their face.”
The follow-up is already written
Back at the office, a follow-up email with the recommendation and its sources was already drafted. The engineer checked it and sent it.
The Technical Sales Manager who leads the team sees the change across everyone. "Engineers with less experience answer with the same depth. Whoever the customer meets, they get the same expertise."
Impact
The engineers now spend their time where it counts: with the customer, and on where the account should go next. The product study hasn't gone away. It has moved into the conversation, where it is needed.
“Because I can respond right away, the expertise and the trust come with it. In sales, that's everything.”