Traditionally, the role of the salesperson is to secure a deal, after which other professionals work with customers continue to work and help them to actually implement the product or service they have purchased. However, GlobalReader, which measures real-time production efficiency, completely eliminated salespeople in the summer and introduced the role of Overall Efficiency Engineer (OEE). 

According to Indrek Jaal, CEO of GlobalReader, the change was caused by a certain conflict of roles, where the salesperson’s work ends once the contract is signed and there is no further concern for whether and how the solution actually serves the customer’s goals. “When coming to market with new products and research, we received feedback from our customers that several key processes ground to a halt quite soon after the deal was concluded. A closer look revealed that the salesperson was often unfamiliar with the customer’s business-specific details, and splits quickly emerged between expectation and reality,” says Jaal, and adds that it is the task of the efficiency engineers to be aware of every detail. Conversely, salespeople are only expected to know the product or service being sold. 

While automation and efficiency are vital for manufacturing companies, it is often the case that companies do not have a comprehensive overview of process bottlenecks, nor do they have knowledge of the various technological solutions that could help to solve these problems. “An efficiency engineer is first and foremost a consultant that always starts with a thorough analysis of the production processes, the result of which may be, but is not necessarily, the making of an offer,” says Jaal, who says that such a process creates added value for the customer even if no deal is reached. 

“There are certainly many industrial companies that know exactly what they need, and in that case, our role is simply to verify that the software is compliant. However, more frequent are situations where the client needs help during the problem formulation phase, and here an outside consultant is of great help,” Jaal is convinced.

Unlike salespeople, who usually leave the project right after closing the sale, efficiency engineers remain with the customer throughout the implementation process to ensure real efficiency gains.

“Because efficiency engineers have a bird’s-eye view of production, they can partner with the customer throughout the project, but also when needs change or, for example, the solution needs to be integrated with an external system.”