Technical Sales Engineer
Company: STOPA America Inc.
Location: Farmington, Connecticut
Employment Type: Full-time
Travel: Significant domestic travel required
Position Overview
STOPA America Inc. is seeking an experienced Technical Sales Engineer to develop new business and grow sales throughout the United States.
This is a consultative, project-based sales position with responsibility for both direct sales of new STOPA systems and retrofit sales to STOPA's existing customer base.
The successful candidate will combine technical knowledge with strong sales and business development skills. The role requires someone who can understand a customer's manufacturing and material-handling processes, identify opportunities for automation and improvement, develop the appropriate solution with STOPA's engineering team, and lead the sales process through contract award.
For new customers, the Technical Sales Engineer will identify prospects, develop relationships, understand customer requirements, and sell complete STOPA automated storage solutions.
For existing STOPA customers, the Technical Sales Engineer will develop relationships with the installed customer base and identify opportunities for retrofits, upgrades, modernization, system modifications, controls upgrades, and other improvements to existing STOPA systems.
The ideal candidate will be comfortable working with plant managers, operations leaders, engineers, purchasing teams, company owners, and other decision-makers.
Key Responsibilities
Direct Sales & New Business Development
- Develop and manage a pipeline of new business opportunities throughout the United States.
- Identify and develop relationships with manufacturers, fabricators, distributors, and other industrial customers.
- Prospect for new customers through direct outreach, networking, industry events, referrals, and other business development activities.
- Conduct on-site customer visits to understand material flow, storage requirements, production processes, and operational challenges.
- Analyze customer requirements and recommend appropriate automated storage solutions.
- Work closely with STOPA's engineering team to develop system concepts, layouts, specifications, and proposals.
- Prepare and present technical and commercial proposals to customers.
- Manage the sales process from initial prospecting through contract negotiation and closing.
- Build long-term relationships with customers and key decision-makers.
Retrofit Sales & Existing Customer Development
- Develop and maintain strong relationships with STOPA's existing customer base.
- Proactively identify retrofit and modernization opportunities within the installed base.
- Visit existing customer sites to evaluate equipment, system condition, utilization, and operational requirements.
- Identify opportunities for system upgrades, controls improvements, equipment modifications, modernization, and other retrofit solutions.
- Work with customers to understand their changing production requirements and recommend appropriate improvements to their existing STOPA systems.
- Work with STOPA's engineering, service, and project management teams to develop technically appropriate retrofit proposals.
- Prepare and present commercial proposals for retrofit projects.
- Maintain regular communication with existing customers to identify current and future retrofit opportunities.
- Develop long-term customer relationships and position STOPA as the customer's preferred partner for maintaining and modernizing their existing systems.
General Responsibilities
- Deliver presentations and demonstrations to technical and executive-level audiences.
- Attend industry trade shows, customer events, and other business development activities.
- Coordinate with internal engineering, project management, service, and installation teams to ensure customer expectations are clearly communicated.
- Maintain accurate sales forecasts, opportunities, and customer information in the CRM system.
- Negotiate pricing and commercial terms within established company guidelines.
- Monitor market trends, competitors, and customer needs.
- Travel extensively throughout the United States for customer visits, site surveys, presentations, trade shows, and other business development activities.
Qualifications
Required
- 3+ years of B2B technical sales experience in an industrial, manufacturing, automation, material handling, machinery, or related environment.
- Demonstrated success selling complex technical products or capital equipment.
- Strong mechanical or technical aptitude and the ability to understand technical drawings and layouts.
- Ability to understand a customer's manufacturing or material-handling process and translate operational requirements into a technical solution.
- Strong business development and relationship-building skills.
- Excellent presentation, negotiation, and communication skills.
- Ability to communicate effectively with both technical personnel and executive-level decision-makers.
- Strong organizational and time-management skills.
- Willingness and ability to travel extensively throughout the United States.
- Valid driver's license and ability to travel by air and automobile as required.
Preferred
- Experience selling automated storage and retrieval systems, warehouse automation, robotics, material handling equipment, CNC equipment, or other capital equipment.
- Experience with retrofit, modernization, aftermarket, or service-related sales for industrial equipment.
- Experience working with sheet metal fabrication or other metalworking/manufacturing companies.
- Engineering, mechanical engineering, industrial engineering, or other technical education.
- Experience with CAD drawings or technical layouts.
- Experience selling projects with values in the hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars.
- Existing relationships within the U.S. manufacturing industry.
- Experience managing long sales cycles involving multiple technical and business stakeholders.
What We're Looking For
We are looking for someone who is technical enough to understand the solution and commercial enough to sell it.
The ideal candidate does not necessarily need to be an engineer, but must be comfortable discussing equipment, layouts, dimensions, capacity, material flow, automation, and return on investment with a customer's engineering and operations teams.
This person should be naturally curious about how manufacturing operations work and enjoy solving problems. At the same time, they should be comfortable prospecting for new business, developing relationships, presenting solutions, negotiating, and ultimately asking for the sale.
The successful candidate will be able to sell in two distinct environments:
- Direct sales: Identifying new customers and selling complete STOPA automated storage solutions.
- Retrofit sales: Working with STOPA's existing customer base to identify and sell retrofits, upgrades, modernization, controls improvements, and modifications to existing STOPA systems.
This is not a transactional sales role. STOPA systems are highly engineered capital investments, and our sales process requires the ability to understand complex customer requirements and build a compelling technical and financial case for the solution.
Compensation & Benefits
- Competitive base salary commensurate with experience
- Performance-based sales commission
- Company-sponsored benefits
- Paid time off and holidays
- Company-supported training and professional development
- Opportunity to work with sophisticated automation and material-handling technology
- Significant opportunity for professional growth
Why Join STOPA America?
At STOPA, you will sell a highly engineered solution that can fundamentally change how a manufacturer operates. You will work with sophisticated manufacturing companies throughout the United States and be involved in projects from the initial customer concept through engineering, installation, and commissioning.
You will also have the opportunity to build long-term relationships with STOPA's existing customers and help them maintain, modernize, and improve their existing STOPA systems through retrofit projects.
This is an opportunity for an experienced technical salesperson to develop new business while also building a strong recurring sales pipeline through retrofit opportunities within STOPA's installed customer base.
STOPA America Inc. is an equal opportunity employer.
Pay: $85,000.00 - $90,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- 401(k)
- 401(k) matching
- Dental insurance
- Health insurance
- Health savings account
- Life insurance
- Paid time off
- Tuition reimbursement
- Vision insurance
Work Location: Remote
