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Catching up with KT Technical Sales: Looking at Things from the Rep's Point of View
April 20, 2016 | Dan BeaulieuEstimated reading time: 8 minutes
Ken: Sure, I’d be happy to. We have Bill Doyle who was actually the VP at California Chassis. He was a strategic account manager for them so he really knows his way around projects like this. He is now part of our team.
Tim: And Will Tyson. Will has held a number of positions from purchasing manager to selling interface displays and LCD sales. Then Doc Dougherty who worked for Shelley-Ragon Electronics and is a 40-year distribution veteran.
Ken: We also have Todd Lorea who worked in distribution for many years as well.
Dan: So these are all experienced sales professionals and all subs, all independent contractors?
Ken: Absolutely so that makes for some pretty ambitious and hungry guys.
Dan: So tell me, as a technical rep firm, what is the biggest challenge you guys face?
Ken: Without a doubt it is cash flow. The good news about the kind of projects we undertake is that once we have them they last a long time. But the problem is that it takes a very long time and severe financial investment to win them. It can be close to a year before we even see a penny on one of these projects. This makes taking on new projects very difficult for us, yet of course we have to keep the pipeline filled to make sure something is always breaking.
Tim: And then it is very tough to get people to value what we do. In many cases even when we have won a project it can take over 200 man hours to get it off the ground.
Ken: So it’s very important that we are out there hustling and adding value all the time.
Tim: And that both our principals and our customers understand and appreciate what we are doing.
Dan: So the ideal situation would be…what?
Ken: The ideal situation would be one where our customers and our principals understand what we do and empower us to do it.
Tim: And the best situation is like the project we told you about earlier, where we are embedded in the facility as a true engineering partner.
Ken: As a rep group we position ourselves differently by being a true strategic partner. And then by doing so we get our principals to the front of the line and right there front and center before the customers.
Tim: Our job one is to create value in the eyes of the customer.
Dan: Well put. Guys thanks again for spending all of this time with me. I think you have succeeded in giving our readers a true insight into what a real value-added technical rep firm is and what it does.
Ken: Our pleasure Dan.
For more information about KT Technical sales go to www.kttechsales.com.
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