As a sales engineer based out of our Erie, Pa. office, Ian Porter plays an important role in delivering injection molding and vinyl solutions to our customer base.
Since joining the Caplugs family after his graduation from Penn State two years ago, Ian has quickly gained valuable experience—first as a junior sales engineer, before being promoted to his current role as sales engineer this January.
Ian has trained under several more seasoned team members that have helped him learn the company inside and out. He worked closely with sales engineers in our Southeast division during his initial time with the company, learning the intricacies of the aerospace division, before transitioning to the automotive industry and ultimately taking on his current role.
“In my day-to-day, I have a lot of interaction with automotive customers, either over the phone or through email, and I go visit them in the Michigan territory a lot,” said Porter. “It's great getting to talk with these people because it’s really the customer that knows what they want. Sometimes we don't exactly know what they’re envisioning right off the bat.”
These interactions are especially helpful when Ian passes along critical project information to internal teams.
“We’re the bridge between our customers and the production side—working with the engineers, the toolroom and the internal quality teams to make sure everything is aligned,” said Porter.
On a given day, Ian will be jumping on video calls, visiting and collaborating with engineers to keep projects moving.
“It’s really helpful to bring our internal experts into the conversations,” said Porter. “The customer may know exactly what they need, but other times we work together to develop the right solution. That collaboration is where the magic happens.”
While Ian is getting settled into his new role, he has found great enjoyment in the challenges it presents.
“Every day is a new day with multiple different puzzles that need solved,” said Porter. “Some are easier, some are a bit harder, but there’s nothing we can’t solve.”
One such puzzle was a project he assisted with that recently got to the finish line.
“We had a project with 15 different parts that took about a year and a half to get finalized,” said Porter. “The team worked hard on it at the beginning, and things kind of slowed down due to certain customer constraints. When they were ready, we were able to turn it around really quick at the end because of the initial leg work. That was a big win for us.”
When asked what it takes to achieve these success stories, Ian again credits the team he has supporting him.
“The people I work with are really great and really help me with projects like this,” said Porter. “I’m footsteps away from people that are able to help with any situation that comes up. The same goes for the team up in Buffalo. They’re just a phone call away, and we communicate a lot—that's how we get things like this done.”
Ian also notes these types of wins are what motivate him. “I like success stories. I like being able to get those wins for some of the projects. Even if the project takes a while, seeing it through to the end and seeing a happy customer at the end is always great.”
Thanks, Ian, for the energy and enthusiasm you bring, and for always going the extra mile for our custom injection and vinyl customers. We can’t wait to see what the future holds for you!