Sales technician

Finding potential clients, going to meet them, preparing and submitting their application for approval by the Credit Committee and providing support to the client from the signing of the contract to the completion of the first 'job' are just some of the tasks assigned to the sales technician.

Sales technicians cover from two to five departments, depending on the set-up of the office they operate from, and are assisted by sales consultants who call potential clients and liaise with third party networks on a daily basis.

The technician deals in all contract types, and can offer special arrangements for companies whose yearly account is worth more than € 46,000 and who are seeking unlimited protection. The sales technician is the client's point of contact from the first meeting until the relationship starts to function.

A challenging and rewarding sales remit

The sales technician's work in the field is twofold: to introduce the company to the business of factoring and to demonstrate Factofrance's expertise in the business. “I'm in the field from Tuesday to Friday, attending two to three meetings a day from Brittany to the Loire valley,” explains Pierre-Yves, 34, who started work at the Nantes office in 2001. Before submitting a client application to the weekly Credit Committee in Paris, the sales technician has to assemble as much information as possible about the company's financial situation and its suitability for factoring services. “My mission is to find new clients and establish the basis for a contract with them which complies with Factofrance's operating conditions,” says Cedric, a 27 year-old Bordeaux sales technician. “You have to be selective. In preparing a potential client's application for the Credit Committee, we have an auditing role to perform, since the information we provide is the basis for their decision.”

Romain, who is 38 and works from the Lyon office, explains that his appointments schedule is fixed by the four sales consultants who make up his direct marketing team. “The first step is to make a follow-up call to contacts to confirm their level of interest and to ensure our sales trips are organised efficiently.”

A range of contact

What the sales technicians appreciate most about the job is the amount and variety of human contacts it offers. To gain an inside view of a business, be it a logistics company, a printer or a packaging specialist, is particularly interesting. “What I love,” claims Romain, “is not just the opportunity to discover businesses of all sizes and in all sectors, but having to develop the sales skills which this requires. You have to be professional enough to win the client's trust, while keeping the state of their balance sheet in mind. What makes our job different is that we are always on the look out for new clients. Our contact with a client is on a short term basis only, as once a relationship has been started it is the Operations department which takes over. This frees the sales technician up to resume the search for new business.”

“I work with companies from every business sector, whatever their size,” says Valérie, a 33 year-old sales technician based in Lille. “Good client contact is paramount.” This contact means the sales technician is also responsible for client support in the period which runs from signing a contact with a creditor client to the first assignment of the Operations department. It is also the sales technicians' job to forge their own relationships with third party agents such as banks, accountants and insurers. Because of the commercial potential represented by Paris and Lyon in particular, one sales technician takes the entire responsibility for third party relationships. Handling a group of many similar clients calls for a different approach. “This is a major operation,” explains Cédric, who is 32.“I came to Lyon in January 2000 to find and sign up clients through our third party network. At this office, between 30 and 40% of business comes from leads provided by new third party contacts.”

A range of backgrounds

While sales technicians come into contact with all types of businesses and companies, their own career paths can vary greatly. Romain, a graduate of the Institut Supérieur de Gestion, joined Factofrance in July 1995. Before that, he had run his own company and worked for a consultancy specializing in cost reduction solutions.

Valérie was taken on at the end of 1997 as a sales consultant in the Lille office, before being promoted to the position of sales manager in March 2000 with a specific task to implement: to combine sales in the field with account management. “I didn't follow the traditional career path: I studied law and mechanical engineering. Subsequently, however, I set aside a lot of time to study factoring and company finances and I have followed several internal training programmes. The knowledge I have acquired and my personal sales figures earned me a promotion to sales technician in June 2001.” Other Facto sales technicians graduated with sales and marketing degrees, after which some went on to business school; this is the case for Cédric. Others come to Factofrance with a finance and accountancy diploma (DECF), such as Cedric, who has also worked in financial products sales. As for Pierre-Yves, he holds both a management degree and a diploma in marketing.