Stuff You Need to Know to Become a Material Handling Specialist

As I previously mentioned in my introductory blog, there is a lot of STUFF a material handling specialist must know.

Side Note: I work for an awesome company who spends a lot of resources to send their salesmen to Sandler Sales Training. On my first day, they told me not to refer to my "products and services" as "products and services" on my sales calls.  They told me to call it "stuff" because it makes me more personable.  Works, huh?

Stuff you need to know:

What material handling is - Luckily, I discovered that yesterday and shared it with you. We are getting closer to becoming experts. 

What a forklift is - You don't need to know how to drive one, but you have to know what they are. This seems trivial, but the day I left Arkansas one of my co-workers wished me farewell by saying, "Good luck selling forklifts! The farmers are going to love you!" Face palm. Fork lifts are not tractors. They are machines with forks that move pallets in a warehouse. (Pallets, by the way, are the crates that go under the products...err, stuff… that are stored in a warehouse.) 

Racking- This party word can go on for days. Say the word "racking" in the Raymond corporate office and you will have ten type A personalities running up to you to bore you all about it. It is quite literally one of the most boring things to talk about to outsiders, but I personally think the best part about my job. Over the past 4 months I have learned ALL about uprights, beams, beam levels, wire deck, b-deck, base plates, anchors, seismic calcs, sprinklers, permits…ZZZzzzzzz. I know it's exhausting, but it is my job and I love it.

Even more about racking - I just started this blog though and I want to keep you as a follower so we can continue more on this exciting topic in later days.

Warehouse design - These people you are selling your stuff to want to pay you money to design their warehouse to make it efficient. If you do your job right, they will make even more money that they will want to give to you to buy more stuff. When we are experts, we set ourselves apart from the competition, build credibility, and look incredibly awesome.

Application of the forklifts - Not too sure what this applies to, but it sounds technical.

Dock and Door Equipment - This is a new department that Raymond Handling Solutions developed to make ourselves more of a one stop shop. Dock levelers, dock locks, shelters - These are all words you should know. You can go to Germantown, Wisconsin and learn a whole bunch about them. Not only the land of the cheese head, but where dock and door equipment was established. Quick fun fact for the ladies/fashion savvy men - The color "Kelley Green" actually came from dock equipment. 

What the market is doing - Luckily, I have a father and husband who are in the commercial real estate business so I can go ahead and check this one off my list of things to learn. What is important for new, and even old reps to understand is that your real estate brokers in your area are SO incredibly important to your business. Just think, there is a guy/girl who is SELLING the empty buildings that you so desperately want to fill with the stuff you sell. Why wouldn't you  make friends with some of those people? Duh.

How to pick up the phone - This is an important thing for all salesmen to know. It is a simple thing to do that believe it or not, sets you apart from other salesmen. It drives me absolutely insane that I call fellow salesmen for help and they don't answer the phone and then don't call me back. Flakey people in our business are going to have a really hard time hitting the big bucks. I work with a girl who absolutely kills it in our field. She will tell you she is not a natural salesman. But she answers her phone, follows up and stays organized and that has taken her far in sales. Learn something, sales people. Its not just your cunning smile and ability to make people love you. Answer your phone.

I really just scratched the surface on stuff a material handling specialist needs to know. Follow along people, like I said it takes forever to become an expert in this field. If you work for a great company like Raymond, you don't have to know anything going into the new position. They will train you to become dangerous in the field. We will get into MUCH more detail once I get my hands dirty, make mistakes, and learn new lessons in my material handling adventures.