Why pre-sales technical collaboration is the smartest move you’ ll make
EDITOR’ S CHOICE IT STARTS WITH A CONVERSATION
AXAIR FANS
Why pre-sales technical collaboration is the smartest move you’ ll make
Andrew Jones, Technical Director, overseeing the pre-sales technical team at Axair Fans talks about the how getting technical suppliers involved in early can save time, money and lead to better air movement systems.
Let’ s be honest, far too many projects in our industry start backwards. Specifications land on desks, product selections are made based on habit or legacy knowledge, and by the time someone says,“ Does this even work?”, it’ s already too late. Fan systems are being retrofitted, money’ s been burned getting ideas and concepts together, timelines are under pressure, and everyone’ s scrambling looking at each other for answers.
And yet, there is a simple answer. Early input technical from the right people.
At Axair, we’ re not just a supplier. We’ re a technical solutions partner. Our pre-sales engineering team doesn’ t just know fans, they understand how air behaves under pressure, how a chemical-laden environment will degrade the wrong material choice, and how to manipulate performance curves to meet the actual need rather than the theoretical one. These aren’ t lessons learned in a textbook; they’ re earned through experience, hundreds of design iterations, and decades of solving real-world airflow headaches.
It’ s become popular to think that all engineering problems can be solved with a bit of clever selection software. It’ s a comforting idea, it protects the future of engineering given the increasing skills shortage,
We can all agree that speed is great, but speed without direction is chaos.
but in our field, It’ s dangerous. I see it on LinkedIn all the time, someone shares a fan calculation to showcase their projects, and one smart person replies,“ yeh but a software can just do this for you”. Really! Is this what’ s now classed as a flex over someone’ s raw skill in air movement and physics?
In reality, moving air isn’ t just about moving air. It’ s about understanding how ductwork, resistance, temperature, and ambient conditions change everything, and that understanding can’ t always come from inside your organisation, especially when your team is already at full stretch, wearing too many hats, or dealing with internal knowledge gaps( a story every company knows all too well).
What early technical input from an expert pre-sales team brings to the table, when they’ re invited early of course, is the ability to interrogate the spec, question the assumptions, and optimise the design before it becomes an operational headache. Isn’ t that the ideal?
We can all agree that speed is great, but speed without direction is chaos. Getting us involved early on means you don’ t waste time going down the wrong path. We’ ve seen clients cut weeks, sometimes months, off project timescales by simply opening the door to early technical conversations.
The irony is, involving external experts at the beginning used to be seen as overkill. Now it’ s becoming the smartest, leanest, and most future proof move a company can make, because the cost of getting it wrong later is tenfold. Internal teams can’ t know everything, and siloed working is slowly killing innovation. The best solutions don’ t come from having all the answers up front, they come from conversations. From those early moments where you say,“ Here’ s what we’ re trying to do” and we reply“ Have you thought about this?”
That’ s the sweet spot, that’ s where technical excellence, application knowledge and commercial performance all align. It’ s where teams get excited, not just to sell a product, but to co-create a solution that’ s a perfect fit for your project.
Let’ s put an end to“ it’ s what we’ ve always known”, and start believing in thoughtful, responsive engineering. And guess what? It always starts with a conversation. Get in touch when you’ re ready. Cheers for reading...
Axair Fans UK Limited
For further information, please visit www. axair-fans. co. uk
32 PECM Issue 75