Courtney Francis, Territory Account Manager, LEMO USA, Inc.
Courtney Francis is an accomplished Regional Sales Manager with considerable experience in the sales industry and expertise in electronic and fiber optic connectors and cable assemblies. Having a background in auditing, training, and sales & marketing, Courtney has spent the last 6 years tailoring herself to one day inspire and lead others. In her current role, Courtney travels extensively and oversees seven state territories, where she handles a diverse range of customers, distributors, and representative accounts. She is responsible for budgeting, developing, and maintaining sales plans to meet sales goals and collaborates across territories. One key responsibility is providing technical support and facilitating the design of products into new and existing customer applications. Courtney is an active liaison in all negotiations, managing incoming leads, assisting with quoting, expediting, policies, and contracts. She represents her company at tradeshows, sales-related trade organizations, and customer events, and is dedicated to promoting her company’s products and services and building strong relationships with potential and existing customers.
What makes your company’s culture inclusive or supportive of diversity in engineering?
LEMO operates in more than twenty countries and values diversity as a strength! With a vigorous interviewing and onboarding process, LEMO hires only those who embody the very core of the LEMO group — Passion with respect to the individual, Excellence in performance, Efficiency in our reliability, and above all the Know How, unsurpassed quality and innovation. These core values start with our employees and trickle down into our products.
Describe a recent company project (in which you were involved) that went particularly well. How did you and your team go about ensuring success?
In a recent company project, my team and I embarked on distribution rounds to provide brief product training and company overviews to new hires. To ensure the success of the project, we adopted a meticulous approach. I took the responsibility of extensively preparing for the trip by identifying the LEMO products that were most relevant to each distributor’s customer market segments. This aided my team in tailoring our presentations. Our thorough preparation, careful planning, and strategic execution resulted in positive feedback from the participants. Furthermore, our distributors have experienced increased awareness and sales of LEMO products because of our efforts.
What first drew you to engineering and the manufacturing industry?
I was looking for a change from the medical industry. Through networking, I found electronic components. Having started in inside sales for a distribution company, I began a hybrid role with exposure to the field. Once exposed to the application side, the ingenuity and masterminds behind our ever-evolving world of electronics, I knew exactly where my passion was. From downhole to outer space, and everything between, I suddenly wanted to be the lady with the answers, a solution-oriented trusted advisor in all thing’s connectivity. It has been uphill ever since!
Describe your biggest career challenge and how you learned from it. There are points in your career where being a team player and overextending yourself for too long can stagnate your professional goals. Learning to find my voice and becoming more diplomatic opened new doors for me. By finding the right balance between collaboration and personal growth, you can navigate your career path more effectively and achieve your goals more efficiently.
What career advice would you give to your younger self?
Find something that challenges you! Discipline is the true key to success. Never be the smartest person in any room. Establish relationships at all organizational levels and always seek out a mentor. Create short to long-term goals to hold yourself accountable.
Filed Under: Engineering Diversity & Inclusion