Product Specialist Role

EQMS - 22 November 2016

By Daniel Cadoch, Product Specialist, SOLABS

The Product Specialist role is a multi-faceted one within any organization, let alone an already-specialized software company. Product Specialists are both technical (in that they are tasked with knowing their product inside and out), as well as sales-oriented. The role is, in essence, the halfway stop between sales and support.

Coming from a predominantly sales background as I do, I was first drawn to SOLABS when I had the opportunity to do a bit of research into both the industry and company. Before this, as with many laypeople, the term ‘EQMS’ (Electronic Quality Management System) was foreign to me. Nevertheless, after performing some research, it was clear that the SOLABS team had done a great job at both defining their target customer and market, while at the same time ensuring that they had an exceptional product to stand behind.

With my background in software sales, I know how important being passionate about the product you are selling is. There is almost nothing worse than sitting through a sales pitch and coming to realize, through the tone of voice, body language, and overall ‘vibe’ of the sales representative, that their passion and belief in the product they are selling is waning, or was simply never really there.

"I get to reassure the people I speak with that not only will our solution help solve their immediate issues, but that it may even solve 10 more problems they did not even know they had yet, down the road."

Daniel Cadoch

Product Specialist, SOLABS

My initial conversation with the CEO of SOLABS, Philippe Gaudreau, and the Director of Sales & Marketing, Ericka Moore, was exactly the opposite of lackluster. It was clear after chatting with them both that the passion they felt for their product was indeed heartfelt and a little infectious, in the great sense. It was not surprising to me, then, when after starting at SOLABS, I found that SOLABS had been named the winner of Frost & Sullivan’s 2016 Customer Value Leadership Award for Enterprise Quality Management Systems for Mid-Sized Biotechnology Companies. They both have a shared plan as to where they want SOLABS to be, and are moving forward by strategically targeting medium-sized life sciences organizations–and they are now being recognized for their exceptional work.

We live in an age where we seek new and innovative ways to cut costs, yet keep production and efficiency unaffected–not an easy task. An aspect that I found surprising initially was how reliant the life sciences industry seemed to be on outdated paper-based processes. Combine this with the idea that most companies are operating in a much more automated and, in most cases, entirely digital work environment, and this all seems to show that SOLABS is clearly in the right place at the right time.

One of the most rewarding components of my role is the positive reaction I get from a customer or prospect when they are shown just how many problems SOLABS QM10 can solve for them on a daily, operational basis. It is then perhaps no wonder that SOLABS has a 100% renewal rate for the 10+ years that we have been in business.

I am fortunate enough to be in a position of influence from both a sales and technical standpoint, which, in my eyes, is truly an invaluable component of any sales process. I get to reassure the people I speak with that not only will our solution help solve their immediate issues, but that it may even solve 10 more problems they did not even know they had yet, down the road.