The Journey: A Transition to Operations, or Maybe it is Sales
Taking the first step out of his engineering role. Paul finds himself in a role he did not expect.
Paul had built a strong foundation in product development, thriving in the engineering world of testing, design, and collaboration with shop technicians. Yet over time, he realized something was missing: direct connection with customers. Though he enjoyed the technical work, secondhand feedback through product managers was not enough. He made it clear during every advancement review that he wanted more customer-facing experience ideally through operations, not sales (he barely even played golf, after all). Paul knew he wanted to stay technical but get closer to the customer. After years of steady growth, he finally got his big break: following a successful promotion presentation, Paul was called into a meeting with leadership. They offered him a new role. But it wasn’t quite what he expected yes, it would be more customer-facing, but it was located far from home, in a remote center that felt like the end of the earth. It wasn’t an obvious “yes.” Paul would have to decide if this was truly the opportunity he had been waiting for or if the price to chase it was too high.
This Journey will share the updates and downs of a sales professional as he moves through his career. If you know someone struggling with sales please share this with them.
Also new posts for the journey will be coming out on Thursdays so subscribe now so you do not miss any of the Journey.
The Interview
Much to his surprise Paul’s family was onboard with the move and the new opportunity for him. So he let the leadership team know and the process started. First he had to formally apply, got to love those corporate policies. To even get the job req number he talked to one of the hiring managers on the phone. An interview of sorts.
“How’s it going, Paul, right?”
“Yep, it’s going really good. Looking forward to joining you all out there.” Said Paul.
“Yeah we’re looking forward to having you. How do you feel about talking to customers?”
“Pretty good” Said Paul, “I’ve been working with some consultants and 3rd party inspectors on some projects.”
“Sounds good, how good are you at reading contracts?”
“Honestly I have not done much of that, isn’t that what we have a legal team for?” Paul was a little confused this was an ops role right.
“Yeah, we do but we need something that can understand contracts and implement the details with one customer. How much do you like golfing?”
“Man, I’m not going to lie I’m really not much of a golfer.” Paul Admitted.
“No worries. Let’s have have you apply for this req”. He rattled off number and Paul wrote it down quickly.
Then he asked, “Oh yeah, one more thing, you mentioned a family right, so you’re married?”
“Yeah that’s right.” Paul answered, a little confused by the questions.
“Okay that’s good that’s one less we have to worry about when you get out here.”
Man that was the weirdest interview that Paul had ever had, but apparently it went ok. Because before he knew it there was an offer on the table and he was wrapping up his projects and working on the move.
The Gig
Paul was now in a new role, in a new city and working with all new people. The city was interesting. A smaller place, farther from most of the big cities that Paul was used to. It had the essentials and an airport so you could get pretty much anywhere you needed. Which it seemed like that’s want most of the people did. They either had families there or they got out of town. As Paul settled into his new job he now had formal direct reports and he was located in house with the customer. This customer has been a long time customer and had an established contract, which ment there really was little selling it was more just getting equipment ready to ship. Paul found the people part of it interesting. The engineers they worked with were all different. The contract was pretty straightforward. Yes there were some grey areas but they were easy to manage. Honestly it gave Paul a false sense of security in his sales abilities. He was thinking that he was really better at this “sales things” Than he had thought. The first challenge came when his customer kicked off an RFP.
The First Request for Proposal (RFP)
Paul got a crash course in what it meant to develop a commercial model and set up a price book. Sure he had some support from the commercial team, but still he was struggling to understand margins and pricing. He listened in a lot of the meetings and just tried to play with the spreadsheet to better understand. Finally they came up with a good number for their bid. The challenge was Paul really had no idea if it was reasonable. He had done very little investigation or talking to the customers. He knew there was a potentially to pick up more work, but what should that number be? The goal was to make the first cut and then dig in deeper to build on the work they already had and lock of the future work. The numbers were finalized and submitted.
Weeks went by before Paul got the news… they had not made the cut. From the sounds of it the numbers they submitted were so far outside the lines that they were not even close to making the cut. Paul had missed the mark big time. However, there was little time to wallow because the team had to regroup. What had been submitted was only for the future work, or a one off project area. Paul got the team together and they circled the wagons. They looked at the discount off the current work and got a letter in front of the direct over all the projects. They wanted to stay in the game. The valuable less that Paul had learned was build the relationships before the RFP so you know where to get the information. Then do everything you can to stay at the plate. That way you can keep the conversations going. Now that they were back in the game what would a new deal look like. Paul had to work with the procurement team to understand.
The Joy of Dealing with Procurement
As Paul and the team developed their game plan they realized that they needed to get more information about a couple of new project areas that were on the horizon. Given that it was a RFP Paul had to work mostly with a procurement lead. This was something new for Paul. To this point he had only worked with engineers and mangers of engineers. Procurement was not the go between. As Paul sent time talking to the procurement lead he painted a great picture of what the new work would look like.
“This new area is just about to get approved for Phase 3. Once that happens we’re off to the races and we’ll need all the products and services that you can provide.”
Wow thought Paul, what timing. We’re getting in at the perfect time. If we can pick up all that work we can really grow this account.
There was a little more back and forward but Paul was able to get the discounts approved for the current work. And they locked up the deal. As the numbers were crunched it was one of the biggest deals on the company that year. Man, Paul was flying high. Now to update the price book get the contract approved internally and signed. All those things took some time but Paul made it through. They locked up the work and knocked out the competition. What a way to start out his career in the operations center. What a win!
Was that a Win?
Shortly after the contract was locked in and the new pricing was implemented Paul got a call from one of the product line managers.
“Hey Paul, great job on that win. Got a question for you about the new price book. We were doing some checking did you just use Cost plus pricing for those larger motors?”
Paul was getting nervous, “Yes, that’s how I priced everything for the new price book.”
“Oh ok, well we usually going higher on the margin for the larger motors because not everyone has that horsepower out there on the market.”
“Oh I see.” Said Paul. His heart was sinking. Had he left money on the table? To be honest he really had no idea how to update a price book. He just honestly tried to keep the pricing close to the same, but apparently he had just discounted some items more than he thought.
Next came the activity questions. As Paul got to talking to the new engineer for the emerging areas he realized that “Phase 3” May not have been as close to approval as he thought. He had not tied any discounted to activity or anything so now the customer was getting a discount on the current work and it looked that that big flood of activity was much farther out in the future if it would come at all. Maybe this big win that everyone was praise Paul for was not such a win after all.
Things to Remember:
As we walk through this Journey with Paul we’ll stop every so often to look back and see what we can learn from Paul.
In interviews make sure you prep some of your own questions about what a day in the life looks like for this role. Also what success looks like 6 mons, 12 mons, and 18 mons from now.
This will ensure you know exactly what you are getting into. Paul thought it was more of an operations role when in reality it was really sales focused.
With Request for Proposals (RFPs), make sure you build the relationship first. Find those key decision makers that will provide you with feedback and key pieces of information.
When dealing with procurement or functions like that make sure you plan only on things that are in writing.
If you are bidding on work based on a volume of activity find a way to connect your discounts to activity that you have completed. Meaning tier your offering based on units installed or revenue achieved with that client.
Paul gave the discount and then never got the increased activity. Do not make that same mistake.
Don’t forget that a new post about Paul’s journey will be coming out on Thursdays so subscribe now so you do not miss any of the Journey.
Have you had an experience like Paul’s let us know about it in the comments. What did you learn?
Are you going through something similar right now and want some coaching? Reach out and let me know so I can help you avoid the challenges that Paul faced.