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The Chemical Connection: Sales Organization from a Capital Equipment Perspective

The sales organization for a capital equipment supplier to the PCB industry tends to differ slightly from a supplier that manufactures and sells circuit boards to their customers. After all, our sales depend on the printed circuit board manufacturer’s sales. If business falls off, you tend to delay or reconsider the need for new or upgraded capital equipment, and then our sales fall off. If your sales go up and you need to increase capacity or replace old equipment, our sales also trend upwards.

Interestingly, all business cycles experience peaks and valleys—peaks as demand rises and sales pick up, and valleys when demand is satisfied and sales decrease. Capital equipment suppliers see the same peaks and valleys but offset by three or more months. So, what is the best sales organization and approach for a capital equipment supplier in which sales depend on their customers’ sales?

Over the years, our first contact has cycled among direct sales representatives, employees with responsibilities for assigned territories, and independent sales reps who may represent several suppliers within their territory. There are advantages and disadvantages to each approach, but our experience has shown that we get better coverage with independent sales reps who tend to be in and out of shops more often, representing other suppliers as well as us (chemicals, drills, etch resists, etc.). This gives them a better feel for their (and our) customers’ needs. It might be weeks or months between visits for a direct salesperson.

One disadvantage to using independent reps is that they may lack the deep technical knowledge of the equipment that a direct salesperson has, since they may also represent several other product lines, which they must also have some technical proficiency in. To help our independent reps, our technical sales managers (TSMs) can provide direct or indirect support to reps in their territory. Indirect support provides information that the potential customer has asked for, such as technical information and/or test reports, or options to make the customer’s job easier or more cost-effective. Direct support includes the TSM getting directly involved in the sales effort with the sales rep. Advances in video conferencing in the last few years have made this easier and more cost-effective, eliminating travel needs while still maintaining close contact.

The sales rep or sales rep/TSM team is responsible for obtaining the information for a realistic quote once the questions of “How fast can you deliver, and what kind of pricing deal can you give me?” are settled. The sales team needs not only the production requirements but also the technical experience of the customer, the technical level of the product being produced, and the kind of competition they are facing. With this information, the sales rep then submits a request for a quote, and the TSM prepares a quote for the equipment that will get the job done for the lowest price, along with a list of possible options to make it easier to complete the job and be more cost-effective. These options may cost a little more now but will save on labor and time in the long run over the life of the equipment.

In normal times, but especially when things start to slow down, a good salesperson will emphasize the intangibles of an equipment purchase, such as installation assistance, start-up help, and process expertise, along with more subtle things that sometimes get lost in detailed discussions.

As business slows down, many customers delay buying new equipment and try to keep their current equipment running longer. Our spare parts and field service business picks up substantially in slow times and takes up some of our sales slack. A good salesperson emphasizes our record in the quick shipment of spare parts and our ability to get field service personnel onsite quickly. This is an invaluable sales tool that is sometimes underutilized.

Our company has always had some form of process lab. This is also a marketing tool, but sometimes we don’t emphasize it enough. We have production-sized develop, etch, and strip lines along with several smaller etchers for process development. We invite potential customers to send or bring samples for testing. It is amazing how much more confident people are in purchasing capital equipment when they see their product being run on the equipment they intend to purchase. Our sample and visit workspace increases when the economy slows down, and can sometimes be the clinching argument in a reluctant-to-spend customer pulling the trigger on a purchase order. And our smaller etchers allow us to test non-traditional processes that come to our attention and lead to sales in unexpected areas. This is a sales tool that has produced results over the years.

For all its faults (spoken from the perspective of an old dinosaur born in the late 1940s), it is essential to have an excellent website. I’m no expert on websites, as you may have gathered, but it has provided many leads we may have otherwise been unaware of, such as etching glass display screens to remove microscopic cracks and scratches from the surface. Inquiries go to the technical sales manager for that territory, who decides whether to contact the potential customer directly or alert the area sales rep for a visit.

Once we send out a quote, the TSM reviews and makes any changes requested by the customer, and, after receiving a purchase order, shepherds the quote through engineering and engineering review with the customer. Once we manufacture the system modules, we assemble the system, wire it, and run it with water on the factory floor test area. The TSM then schedules a Factory Acceptance Test site visit with the customer to confirm the equipment’s “as-built” condition matches the quote’s specifications. We strongly advise following this step as correcting mistakes is easier in the factory than after delivery.

There may be better ways to organize a sales organization, but some form of the system above has served us well for the last 88 years. Okay, there was no internet in 1957, but you know what I mean.

This column originally appeared in the July 2025 issue of PCB007 Magazine.