MC-Technologies is a major player in France in the field of IT, electronics and marine electricity distribution. With a product catalogue of almost 200 pages, the offer also includes renewable energies and comfort on board.
Thanks to its presence for more than 10 years in the boating industry, this Breton company based in Quimper claims to bring a complete expertise, appreciated and recognized by all its customers and partners
What training, what diploma, what skills to hold the position?
Understanding and monitoring the evolution of on-board electronics
After a BTS (HND) in Commercial Action followed by a few years of professional experience in mass distribution and then parapharmacy, Pierre Rivoal comes to the boat business and starts as an employee in a boat fitting and sales shop: Loisirs Nautiques in Morlaix, a dealer of well-known and recognised brands.
"It was at this dealer that I learned the tricks of the trade and developed my nautical skills," says Pierre.
"Very attracted by motorboats, essentially American fishing boats, and of course all equipped with electronics, I became interested in them and quickly realised that all the new features, including electronics, could bring an additional margin on the sale of a boat by their installation. This made me go further in my knowledge of electronic instrumentation in general."
"At the beginning of the 1990s, there was no sectorization as there is today. It was the time of the first GPS systems, with beautiful products: pure GPS, plotter GPS, cartographic GPS from Simrad for example, the Furuno Sounder product which was very popular with fishermen in Northern Brittany, and, for larger boats, sophisticated installations with radar, multi-station and later networking."
At that time electronics was in full mutation and transformed many yachting professions, Pierre was curious and willing to acquire new skills, if only to understand how it worked and to specialize in onboard electronics.
"In order to specialize, I went out and got the information and so I was able to acquire more competence in this field. And the more skills you have, the better your value on the job market. The more skills you have, the better your value in the job market."
Thanks to this experience, Pierre has had very close contacts with the world of on-board electronics and this relationship allowed him to join MC Technologies in 2011.
What daily life, what are the responsibilities of this profession?
Visiting, promoting, relaunching
"My first responsibility is to develop turnover, find new customers and retain them, maintain commercial relations with MC Technologies' hisotric customers and ensure the penetration of other distributed products. A range of products that can be used from small boats to yachts and sailing boats," Pierre explains.
"With the crisis, the market has shrunk a bit and has led some distributors to refocus and offer only a selection of brands. Furthermore, faced with the growing number of new boats pre-equipped with electronics during their construction phase, it is imperative to find new customers. The situation has therefore changed," he continues.
Pierre's role is therefore to find new customers, particularly for equipment dedicated to sailing, but also to collect user information and experiences, synthesize them and transmit them to the manufacturer in order to help improve the product, the way it is marketed and be able to meet new needs.
"It's a busy job, I go on the road on Mondays and sometimes don't come back until two weeks later, luckily my family gives me that latitude," insists Pierre.
Our technical sales representative is also on the front line when a product fails, and is involved in understanding the reason for the failure and finding a solution or implementing measures to recover the equipment.
What are the possible evolutions of this profession?
Pleasure, recognition and discovery above all
"The future of a technical salesman is simple: to take a commercial direction to supervise a team, or, to be always poached as a technical salesman by another structure according to your recognition or your desires."
"Boating is an environment that I like, I've been in it for 30 years and even if the work is demanding, I have great compensation: taking part in shows or exceptional events, discovering new boats... We're not at the factory. The mindset is open and innovative."
"Culturally the boating world is pleasant and to be recognised, it is crucial to be good in different fields and this job gives me a lot of satisfaction," concludes Pierre.
