Mark Osterman, VP of Technical Sales and Pre-Sales Engineering
“Our process is robust and relies on collecting the required customer information to produce a quote, and technical sales engineers asking all the right questions. Through that process, a lot is uncovered, so it's not rare that we're actually able to point out a lot of things to our customers and educate them. And the hope is that they rely on us for that expertise.”
Meet Mark
I’m Mark Osterman, vice president of technical sales and pre-sales engineering. I’m responsible for three different departments at Xometry: the solutions engineers who work with our customers, partners, and sales teams on technical issues; our quote specification team, which sets up and organizes the quotes; and the pre-sales engineering team, which provides the cost estimates for all of our manual quotes.
I have a chemical engineering bachelor's degree from Purdue University and an Executive MBA from the University of Oregon. I've been in this profession for 23 years now, and prior to Xometry, I worked for two large manufacturers who are over 100 years old and dominant in their space. I've always been around the manufacturing environment and sales engineering, working in roles very similar to what we do here at Xometry.
Tapping into a Network of Experts With Mark’s Team at Xometry
Our customers design things. They might be experts at designing a rocket, but they're not necessarily experts at injection molding. Our folks are experts in injection molding — that's how we provide an elevated customer experience.
Our process is robust and relies on collecting the required customer information to produce a quote, and technical sales engineers asking all the right questions. Through that process, a lot is uncovered, so it's not rare that we're actually able to point out a lot of things to our customers and educate them. And the hope is that they rely on us for that expertise.
Streamlining Workflows for Large Projects
With larger orders, it can become very complex. For instance, a customer might be looking for products that take a CNC technology, or sheet metal technology, and then they might also need different products that take an injection molding technology. To be an expert in one of those areas is one thing, but to have expertise in and the ability to source materials using all of those processes is a different matter.
The benefit of working with Xometry on larger projects is the ability to immediately have access to the sourcing relationships and knowledge, so you are ordering from one spot instead of filling out multiple purchase orders for each process. We also have regional and global flexibility because we work with so many partners. If there's a part of the world where there's an issue – a canal is blocked, a war breaks out, a hurricane hits somewhere, whatever it is – we're prepared to react and make a change.
Work with Space Companies Blasts Off
One of the most satisfying customer experiences for me has been seeing our relationships with space companies evolve. Maybe we started with projects for the infrastructure of space companies, where they might have a charging station on the ground or a storage facility or something like that. And then we got into actually working on the projects and the products that go into space. We’ve been able to be a part of a couple of cool projects with different companies that go up into space and be a part of those launches. And I think that's the most exciting thing I've seen here at Xometry, which is really cool. Read more about one of these projects in our Intuitive Machines case study.