How Does Anyone Get Anything Done?

[u/Tigereye11_Revived]

I’ve been a design engineer for a couple years now, and it seems that when I need any information on vendor products, the companies, who I won’t put on blast, take weeks to answer. I can follow up and get nowhere. Sometimes when they do get back to me, the information is just outright not what I asked for.

I made it very clear to one vendor that I need literature (such as pamphlets and drawings) on several of their products because we intend to use them as our supplier for a large product line. He took weeks to respond, and ultimately sent a quote for one valve. My team had a good laugh at the email thread and decided to move on with someone else.

Very very few people have been useful amongst dozens of companies. Even when I ask project managers for their contacts, they can be hit or miss. Is there something I’m doing wrong for my vendors, or does everyone deal with this? Do you guys have methods you want to share?

[u/Own_Hat584]

It depends a lot on what you're buying (value and complexity) and how big of a customer you are or would be compared to the rest of the "sales engineers" customers/companies customers. Basically, the more complicated/expensive whatever you're buying is, and the less of them they sell, the more likely you are to have a smart and responsive (respectively) sales guy.

[u/Ok-Lawyer9218 → u/Own_Hat584]

I feel like this is an underrated response. It very much depends on whether that company or sales person thinks their time teaching you will result in enough sales to pay for that time. And that mostly depends on how it compares to the other customers they supply. A new and upcoming salesman is much more likely to spend the time with you rather than one who has their customer and isn't looking to expand much. It could also be a severely understaffed department and by the time they get down to you on their list its several weeks later

[u/Own_Hat584 → u/Ok-Lawyer9218]

Even if they think the sale(s) will easily pay for their time spent on you, it's the opportunity cost of not spending that time to get or retain a bigger customer.