Here’s an unpopular opinion: a supplier who says “we don’t do that” is worth more than one who says “we can do everything.”
I’ve been handling sensor orders for industrial automation clients for 8 years. In that time, I’ve personally made and documented 14 significant mistakes—roughly $32,000 in wasted budget. Most of them happened because I pushed past the boundary of what I actually knew. I’m not proud of that. But it’s why I now keep a checklist that starts with two questions: Is this our product? And if not, who’s the right person to help?
Last week, someone landed on one of our product pages searching “thermometer sick fever temperature”. They wanted a thermometer. SICK is a German industrial sensor company, not a fever thermometer brand. We had to tell them, “Sorry, not us.” And honestly, that’s a perfect example of what I mean: knowing what you’re not is part of knowing what you are.
Why I now defend “we don’t do that”
When I started in 2017, I thought being helpful meant saying yes to every request. If a customer asked for something, I would figure it out—or at least try. That’s how I made the classic mistake of promising a full measurement solution when I only understood the sensor part.
The wire-draw disaster happened in September 2022. A customer needed a wire draw absolute encoder for a long-stroke position measurement on a packaging line. They explicitly needed position feedback after a power loss, so a multiturn SICK absolute encoder was the right choice. I picked the model, checked the electrical interface, and nodded happily at the IP rating. But I didn’t check the cable exit direction. I didn’t ask about the pull force. I was too focused on the output signal to think about the physical installation.
Two weeks later, the draw wire snapped because it was rubbing at a bad angle. Three hours of downtime, $2,700 in wasted material and labor, plus a very awkward phone call. The sensor wasn’t the problem. I was. I had crossed the line from sensor selection into mechanical design without admitting to myself that I wasn’t the right person to make that call. A specialist in wire-draw mechanics would have caught the angle issue immediately.
Here’s the thing: if I had told the customer, “I can spec the SICK absolute encoder, but the mounting and cable routing need to be reviewed by someone who understands wire draw mechanics,” we would have saved a lot of pain. The customer would have trusted me more, not less. That experience is why I stopped thinking of “I don’t know” as a failure and started treating it like a proper technical answer.
The confocal microscope lesson
A few years earlier, a research engineer called asking for a confocal microscope recommendation. We make sensors for measuring position, distance, and presence—not optical imaging systems.
In the past, I probably would have waffled. “Well, we have some experience with optics...” But we don’t. Not at the level needed to recommend a confocal microscope. There are suppliers who do that every day, and pretending otherwise would have been a disservice to the customer. A confocal microscope needs the right objective, scan head, and detectors; it’s not something you hand-wave when the caller is a PhD.
So I said: “This isn’t our specialty. I’d rather point you to a supplier who does this daily.” The engineer paused, thanked me, and then asked about a linear encoder for the microscope stage. That was our product. We ended up winning a small order for a wire draw encoder that fit his Z-axis setup, simply because I gave up the part I didn’t own.
That’s the counterintuitive part: when you draw a boundary around your expertise, the line becomes clearer on both sides. The customer knows exactly what to come to you for. They also know that you’re not going to waste their time.
Knowing your tools: megger insulation testers
Let’s talk about the search query “how to use a megger insulation tester”. A megger measures insulation resistance. It’s a somewhat simple instrument to operate, but interpreting the results correctly matters. The widely cited rule from IEEE 43-2000 is a minimum insulation resistance of roughly 1 megohm per kilovolt of rated voltage. That’s a rule of thumb, not a replacement for reading the actual standard.
We have a megger in our workshop. An electrician uses it to check the cables going into our sensors. And here’s a recurring mistake: applying the megger’s test voltage to an encoder’s output lines can destroy the driver electronics. I’ve seen it happen more than once. The tool is fine; the boundary is real.
So when a customer asks me how to test a high-voltage motor with a megger, I’m not the best person to give that advice. I can quote the standard, but I’m not an insulation-testing expert. The honest answer is, “This is outside my lane—here’s who can help.” In safety-related tasks, pretending to know can be dangerous. Good suppliers know when to hand off.
Now we have a simple three-line checklist. First, does this request fit what we actually build and test? Second, if not, do we know a specialist who can own it? Third, does the customer understand that we’re handing off? It sounds basic, but writing it down stopped a lot of silent heroics. Before the checklist, people would say “I’m pretty sure we can handle that” to be nice. Now they say “Let me check the lane.”
But what about one-stop shops?
I can hear someone saying, “That’s all nice, but I want to call one vendor and be done.” I understand. I’ve been under time pressure too. I once had two hours to decide on a replacement encoder before a line restart. Normally I’d verify shaft size, electrical interface, and mechanical mounting, but there was no time. I went with the usual supplier based on trust alone. That’s a real scenario where one call matters.
But here’s the thing: a one-stop shop only works when the shop is genuinely competent in all the areas it claims to cover. It doesn’t work when a sales team says yes just to build a quote. We had a $3,200 reorder of 47 custom cable assemblies once because the vendor said “no problem” and then discovered they didn’t have the right connector in stock. That’s not versatility; it’s reckless.
I’m not against suppliers expanding their offerings. I’m against expanding faster than competence. The vendors I trust most are the ones who’ll tell me, “This isn’t our strength—here’s who does it better.” That sentence has saved me more times than any discount ever did. And honestly, it’s usually the specialists who say that, because they understand how much there is to know.
Draw the line
So here’s my conclusion: be honest about your boundaries. If you’re a supplier, saying “this is outside our specialization” will cost you a few leads—and it will save you a thousand headaches. If you’re a buyer, look for that sentence. It’s a green flag.
SICK makes industrial sensors, and we can talk all day about SICK absolute encoders and wire draw encoders. But if you need a fever thermometer, we’re going to point you elsewhere. That’s not a failure. That’s what competency looks like.
