Custom-engineered product companies have a unique opportunity for growth. They also face a unique challenge when it comes to the need for in-house collaboration.
Here’s the key to a successful engineered-to-order product: alignment between sales and engineering.
When both teams understand the desired outcome and their role in achieving that outcome, it’s easier to manage a project from start to finish. Everything starts with your sales team.
The sales team is on the front line, and it’s their job to convince potential customers that the company can meet their needs. However, their desire to close a deal can lead to a less-than-perfect customer experience if what they promise is out of scope with the capabilities of engineering teams.
This is why sales teams must evolve how they communicate and collaborate with engineering teams—beyond merely relying on sales engineers to do the go-between work for them.
Here are four things your sales team needs to change when working with engineers.
Take the Time to Create the Right Roadmap
Your sales team is likely the first interaction a customer has with your company. They set the tone in terms of what a customer expects from their experience. This means it is important that they provide the customer with an accurate quote, not just a quote that will make the sale.
An accurate quote may take more time since it requires due diligence to guarantee that the proposed project is feasible for the quoted amount and sales process time frame. The best way for sales to achieve this is to actively discuss the proposed deal with operations and engineering. It’s an act of balancing speed and accuracy, but it greatly improves the customer experience.
Happy customers are important, but they aren’t the only ones who benefit from accurate quotes. Your engineering team also benefits since they aren’t faced with the additional work. This means that they can focus on their existing projects without worrying about fixing an issue caused by sales. Wasting less time can reduce costs and positively impact your profits.
Set Expectations for Product Features and Requests
Your sales reps need to have a basic understanding of what your engineering team can do. This reduces the likelihood that they’ll overpromise when making a sale and helps them set realistic expectations with new customers.
The goal here is building trust with the customer. Someone who trusts your company is more likely to become a repeat customer. Setting realistic expectations also goes a long way when it comes to building the relationship between your sales and engineering teams.
Sales and engineering team members can and should complement each other—not despite but because they’re involved in different parts of the product development process and customer journey.
Realistic expectations are vital, but they aren’t always the final answer. Sometimes it’s a matter of asking the right questions, and a sales rep with technical expertise and an understanding of what’s possible is better equipped to do that. In turn, an engineer may be more willing to consider alternative possibilities if they know that sales haven’t made any promises on their behalf.
When expectations are set, everyone wins.
Don’t Work in Isolation (or Rely Solely on Sales Engineers)
Collaboration is a major factor in the success of an engineer-to-order company. Sales and engineering teams don’t perform in a vacuum, so it’s important that they don’t work in isolation from one another. When teams do operate in isolation, their work and the resulting company culture often reflect this. They don’t consult or consider each other when making decisions, which can result in a poor work environment, wasted time, and lost profits.
Occasionally, at larger companies, product managers and sales engineers are hired to solve this common silo issue. Though the roles they play are invaluable, your company's product will improve if sales and engineering alignment is owned by everyone involved in the product lifecycle, and not just one smaller product team or role.
Sales should understand how the engineering team works and who can help if they have questions, and engineering should know the same information for sales. This may be easier said than done if the two teams don’t work in the same space, but it’s worth the effort. When you remove that sense of separation and isolation, you create an opening for positive interactions and collaboration.
Communicate Throughout the Sales Cycle on a Shared Platform
Removing teams from their departmental vacuum, providing clarity around engineering capabilities, and making sure quotes are correct are all important steps in improving the alignment of your teams. It’s difficult to succeed at these steps if there’s a breakdown in your collaboration and communication process.
There are a number of ways for teams to communicate and collaborate. Companies often use more than one service for communication and find this method doesn’t work well due to the high-touch nature of their operations. Using multiple services means that there’s no one place for everyone to view all of the relevant information.
Using a shared platform helps to ensure that your teams are able to successfully take the steps above and communicate in an efficient manner. Better communication, coupled with team alignment, can result in happier customers, happier employees, and better profits.
Driving Speed and Quality in Custom Product Engineering with Propel Software
Propel Software is purpose-built to accelerate custom product development, ensuring that companies can efficiently meet customer requirements without compromising on quality. With a focus on engineered-to-order (ETO) solutions, Propel provides a unified platform that connects sales, engineering, and customer support teams, making it easier to deliver custom products that meet exact specifications.
Seamless Configurations and Rapid Iterations
Custom engineering often involves navigating complex configurations and precise customer requirements. These highly specialized activities usually take years of experience to perfect, but Propel’s cloud-native product lifecycle management (PLM) solution enables teams to quickly configure new products, streamline the design process, and manage changes in real time. This level of agility is crucial for companies facing tight deadlines and low margins, as it allows them to respond to market demands faster than competitors who rely on traditional systems.
By centralizing data and providing instant access to up-to-date information, Propel eliminates the bottlenecks that typically slow down the custom product development process. This is particularly beneficial for ETO companies, where speed and accuracy directly impact the bottom line. For instance, using Propel, one of our top performers in the industrial machinery sector reduced their average time-to-market by 25%, as highlighted in a report by Tech-Clarity.
Empowering Engineering Teams with Advanced Tools
In the realm of custom-engineered solutions, having the right tools at your disposal is essential. Propel integrates seamlessly with popular CAD and ERP systems, giving engineering teams the ability to work within their preferred environments while maintaining alignment with other departments. This connectivity supports a cohesive design process, from initial concept to field service and after-sales support, ensuring that every stakeholder is on the same page.
Propel’s platform is designed to handle the unique challenges of ETO and specific applications across various industries. Whether you're dealing with startup complexity or managing a mature supply chain, Propel’s flexible workflows and robust data management capabilities keep teams focused on innovation rather than administrative tasks.
Supporting Business Growth with Comprehensive Solutions
For companies looking to expand their custom product offerings, Propel’s solution suite provides the tools needed to scale operations without sacrificing quality. By integrating ETO-specific features, such as advanced product configuration and ISO-compliant documentation, Propel helps businesses maintain high standards while pursuing new market opportunities.
Additionally, Propel offers extensive customer support and resources, including downloadable templates and best practice guides, to help teams get the most out of the platform. For businesses interested in learning more about how Propel can enhance their custom engineering capabilities, we invite you to request a quote. Discover how Propel can transform your custom product development processes and improve your bottom line.
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