Sales engineer Jelle: 'I'm at the start of great projects'
At 7.15 AM, his working day starts with a cup of coffee and opening the mailbox. Sales engineer Jelle Molenaar (26) works in the sales department at Gpi. This department processes quote requests from customers. Jelle tells about his motivation: ‘Accomplish a nice order, that is why I do it.’
When Jelle was looking for another job, he found the vacancy of sales engineer at Gpi. He tells about how he became a part of Gpi: ‘I found the vacancy online and applied. After a few days I had my first job interview. The position, which combines customer contact and technology, appealed to me. The atmosphere during the interview was friendly and it didn’t feel too formal. It felt good from both sides and within a week I was ready to start’
Customer contact and technology
‘The combination of customer contact and working with technology appealed to me the most’, Jelle explains. ‘As a sales engineer I am at the beginning of great projects. When we receive the customer’s request, we start working on it. We start with the customer’s specifications and often we have further questions for which we contact the customer. We also give advice – where necessary – to make the best possible offer for our customer. Sometimes we spend a month or even six months on a request. Everyone involved participates in this phase. When an order comes in successfully and all the effort pays off, it makes my day.’
Own initiative
The Technical Business Administration course, which Jelle completed, fits well with the job. The fact that there is no direct course in tank construction means that you have to gain a lot of knowledge in practice. Jelle: ‘To be able to make an offer, you need knowledge of technology, you also need basic knowledge of mathematics and you have to like working with heat calculations and various design codes, for example. Giving the customer good advice is also an essential point during the quotation stage. My technical background is very useful here. You are thrown in at the deep end; no request is the same. You have to be enterprising and analytical to master everything. Of course colleagues help, but you have to take the initiative and want to find things out. I like that’.
Future
Jelle tells about the company and his future: ‘Gpi is a young and dynamic company that really offers the whole package: from process tanks and equipment, to large 15.000 m3 storage tanks and pharmaceutical vessels – from small to very large built in the factory or directly at the customer’s site. This allows you to do anything within Gpi, because there are many different jobs at various locations. For now, I am comfortable with my position and I have enough challenge as a sales engineer. Maybe I want to grow into sales later, that suits me.’