Julien, sales engineer  [ Return towards  Our employees' stories  ]

Being responsible for my customers’ satisfaction and my accounts’ profitability

What has your career path been at Air Liquide ?
I started as sales manager in the Industrial Merchant sector. I was in charge of developing a portfolio of about 120 customers, with a revenue of 13 million euros! Then I went to another job, developing a portfolio of large industrial sites and nationalwide customers. Two years ago, I went to work as a sales engineer. I market industrial gas supply contracts for the Floxal product line, which encompasses the installation of nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen or compressed air on our customers’ sites.

What are your daily tasks ?
I support the local sales teams, from the upstream phase, with customer input and the study of a technical solution, to the negotiation and contractualization of the project. I am also responsible for the balance sheet of the contracts in progress. My time is divided among many different activities: visiting customers to discuss their needs, looking for new commercial opportunities, following up contracts and studying tracks to improve their profitability, preparing commercial offers,… A work with many facets!

What motivates you in your profession ?
From a human dimension, working in project mode brings together a very diverse group of people, both internally and externally: sales teams, engineering and operations departments, our customers’ process specialists… As for know-how dimension, I’ve learned to develop a broad range of expertise, from guiding technical solutions to negotiating with the customer, requesting approval from the executive committee for investment projects. I’m in charge of my projects from A to Z, and that’s what makes my profession so exciting!

Julien, French origin, based in France