Elizabeth “Liz” Rasking, Phoenix Mecano’s Technical Sales Engineer, is sailing through uncharted waters in her role; she is the first female at Phoenix Mecano to hold this title in the sales department. As a Sales Engineer, Liz is providing a technical side to sales by uncovering specific customer needs, collecting the requirements to meet those needs, and ensuring the customer’s desired results are on time and within budget.
This role of Technical Sales Engineering at Phoenix Mecano involves many levels of responsibility, including immediate technical response, solving problems, having discussions with customers as new opportunities arise, and focusing on customer support. Liz finds herself working up cost estimates, submitting orders, preparing reports, and identifying and fixing issues for her customers and company stakeholders. Her role keeps her in close communication with Phoenix Mecano’s customer base, explaining cost reductions and operational improvements while offering the training and technical support necessary to support them. Liz keeps on top of trends in her position by attending workshops, reading industrial publications, and networking which all contribute to finding new ways and new approaches to help both her teammates and Phoenix Mecano customers.
Being a Sales Engineer involves a lot of problem-solving, and Liz wouldn’t want it any other way. “I sort of consider myself a Multiplier and Fixer,” Liz explains. “I love the business development side of things, and to meet the customer’s needs. I’m really a reverse engineer. I visualize what the results and deliverables should look like and work backwards to create an effective action plan.” This approach has laid the groundwork for her continued success at Phoenix Mecano by allowing her to fully understand a customer’s challenges and illustrate the best solutions to meet them.
In fact, problem-solving is her favorite part of her role at Phoenix Mecano. “I am looking at the company and identifying opportunities to support expanding infrastructure across all industries, specifically water treatment, electric vehicle markets, manufacturing, and education. For instance, in addition to redesigning workstations to serve as learning hubs for vocational programs, I am also working with my team to develop a Learning Lab within our facility. The idea is to use the products and ingenuity at our disposal to teach and lead by example.” Liz is also very passionate about finding ways to improve diversity in STEM fields. “I want my work make a meaningful impact,” she explains. “I am proud to be a part of INROADS, my continued support and outreach are my ways of giving back to help women and underrepresented people of color succeed in careers that were historically out of reach for them.” She finds that Phoenix Mecano’s values align perfectly with INROADS by encouraging diversity and inclusion and giving women a chance to excel in STEM fields.
Liz spent 19 years in Germany while her husband was stationed there as a contractor for the US government. As a foreigner with a Chemical Engineering degree from the US, Liz found breaking into traditional male dominated engineering roles in Germany to be very difficult and unsatisfying. Instead, she chose to join the dynamic FedEx family in Germany as an Industrial Engineer, dealing with global logistics in support of airport operations. “I really loved finding new and innovative ways to create original, customized solutions, especially our Fortune 500 customers. I’d explore how we could tweak standard packages and service offerings to meet their unique challenges and needs.” This curiosity and problem-solving skillset is something that she continues to embrace for her customers at Phoenix Mecano today.
Along with her interests in STEM fields, Liz spent time honing her creative and artistic side when her life took an interesting and surprising turn during her stay in Germany. Following her departure from Fedex, she opened her own art gallery in 2011 but found she had to make a hard choice. “I realized quickly that you can be an artist, or a gallerist, but you can’t be both at the same time.” She chose to excel at being the latter, focusing on exhibitions, representing over 40 international artists, building her brand from scratch, and managing the day-to-day operations of a brick-and-mortar shop in Frankfurt. “I handled everything,” she recalls. “I was responsible for: imports and exports, creating the website, branding and marketing, event planning, sales and bookkeeping, customer service…namely, every aspect of the gallery. My exhibitions were scheduled up to two years in advance.” Once Liz moved back to Maryland in 2019, she chose to pursue her own art, including painting and sculpting, while still determined to restart her engineering career in the US.
Her creative side is not on the backburner with her role as a Sales Engineer, which her colleagues can attest to. In fact, it is her creativity that sets her apart from other candidates and allows her to fuel her analytical mind to solve problems and handle complicated situations. Her aptitude for handling large amounts of responsibility as her own gallerist reflects highly in her ability to support Phoenix Mecano customers throughout their entire customer journey, while her aptitude for art and creativity made her the perfect candidate to visualize and create solutions for them.
Liz has found a true home at Phoenix Mecano. “I love this team atmosphere,” she says. “Everyone has a helpful, can-do attitude. Since I am new to manufacturing, I love that I have the support I need, whenever I need it.”
Liz’s position as Sales Engineer was a first for Phoenix Mecano’s Sales Department, but it’s been an incredibly successful addition for both Phoenix Mecano and our customers. Phoenix Mecano continues to add additional technical support for the sales team. If this sounds like the perfect opportunity for you to be part of the Phoenix Mecano dream team, contact us now!
