Start here: goals and limits
When a customer says “We need a robot”, you should understand the shop-floor language, ask for the key parameters, map the pain point to the right product category, and explain value and risk clearly.
On the shop floor, “robot” covers many forms: industrial arms fixed at a workstation, collaborative robots working next to people, SCARA and delta robots for fast pick-and-place, mobile robots moving goods in warehouses, and the humanoids that have drawn so much attention in the past two years. Get the type wrong and payload, reach and safety certification will all be misaligned.
Your job as a salesperson is needs diagnosis and scope communication. Payload checks, electrical design, cycle-time simulation and safety assessment belong to pre-sales or application engineers. Never promise verbally anything that is not written into the contract scope.
Understand · ask · map · explain
Understand the terms, ask for needs, map them to product categories, explain value and risk, and write down the scope.
Out of scope here
Kinematics, PLC programming, detailed electrical design, cycle-time simulation, formal risk assessment and certification.
- Never say “it's enough” verbally: until engineering has checked payload, cycle time and accuracy, write subject to engineering review.
- Never promise “we do it all” verbally: the scope of a turnkey project must be written into the contract or SOW (Statement of Work).
- Never say “perfectly safe”: cobot applications need a risk assessment too. Safety is the result of an assessment, not of a model number.
How a robot deal runs from start to finish
Robot sales are rarely “cash on delivery”. A typical project runs through inquiry, needs diagnosis, solution and quote, contract, production and factory acceptance, shipping, installation and commissioning, site acceptance, and finally years of service and spare parts. The whole process takes from two or three months to more than a year. Sales is not only there at the start: every phase has something sales must drive or check.
The chart below maps project phases against the roles involved. The darker the cell, the heavier the responsibility. Sales leads the early phases but is still the customer's first contact during acceptance and service: when something goes wrong, the first call usually comes to you.
Shading shows involvement: dark = leads, medium = takes part, light = kept informed.
Newcomers make two mistakes most often. The first is skipping discovery: quoting as soon as the customer asks for a price, for a solution whose payload hasn't even been confirmed. The second is walking away after the order: handing delivery entirely to engineering, so at FAT or SAT the customer finds it “isn't what we discussed”, and only sales knows what was discussed. Most of the chapters that follow are about avoiding these two mistakes.
The learning path: seven modules
After the market overview, seven modules build on one another: types → robot specs → tooling and sensing → control and safety → application screening → the commercial close → component sales. First learn the types and the value chain, then datasheets and subsystem questions, and finally quoting, acceptance and objections.
- Types and value chainEight common robot types; what robot makers, component suppliers, integrators and end users each sell and commit to.
- Robot specsDegrees of freedom, rated payload and load diagrams, reach, work envelope, repeatability vs. accuracy, IP rating, mounting.
- Tooling and sensingGrippers, vacuum cups, torches, tool changers; 2D/3D vision and force control; why you never quote the bare arm alone.
- Control and safetyControllers, teach pendants, programming methods, line communication; the four collaborative modes and safety standards; RACI scope.
- Application screeningKey specs and commercial watch-outs for machine tending, welding, grinding, assembly, palletising and logistics.
- Commercial closeTCO and ROI, export terms (power supply, certification, Incoterms, FAT/SAT), acceptance criteria, objection handling.
- Selling core componentsServos, reducers, controllers, encoders and sensors, vision, EOAT; the design-in process, sizing essentials and how to displace a competitor.