-
- News
- Books
Featured Books
- pcb007 Magazine
Latest Issues
Current IssueThe Sustainability Issue
Sustainability is one of the most widely used terms in business today, especially for electronics and manufacturing but what does it mean to you? We explore the environmental, business, and economic impacts.
The Fabricator’s Guide to IPC APEX EXPO
This issue previews many of the important events taking place at this year's show and highlights some changes and opportunities. So, buckle up. We are counting down to IPC APEX EXPO 2024.
Getting to Know Your Designer
In this issue, we examine how fabs work with their design customers, educating them on the critical elements of fabrication needed to be successful, as well as the many tradeoffs involved. How well do you really know your customer? What makes for a closer, more synchronized working relationship?
- Articles
- Columns
Search Console
- Links
- Events
||| MENU - pcb007 Magazine
It's Only Common Sense: How Things Have Changed
December 20, 2010 |Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
Editor's Note: To listen to Dan's weekly column, as you've always done in the past, click here. For the written transcript, keep reading...My, how things have changed!
A few years ago, well I guess more than a few years ago when I got a Job as the New England Regional Sales Manager for General Circuits, I had to move from Maine to New Hampshire. This was a prerequisite for the job because I was going to handle accounts that were just too far to visit every day. That's right, every day. I had two major accounts and a bunch of smaller ones. The two large accounts were Computervision and Digital Equipment and I had to visit both of them every day because they had orders for me every day. Back then, the business was so critical that I had to stop at their locations, pick up artworks for new part numbers, drive to Logan airport, and go to US Air's delivery office drop off the artworks so they could get to Rochester, New York where General Circuits was that same day. While at the airport, I would pick up the boards that had been delivered overnight and take them back to Digital and Computervision immediately. Then I would stop by and meet with each buyer to get that day's purchase orders. I did this every day, 200miles a day, 1,000 miles a week. And that was living in New Hampshire, so there is no way I could have lived in Maine.
If I got that same job today I wouldn't have to move to New Hampshire. First of all, we don't carry artwork around anymore we send the data electronically. We don't have to visit the buyers every day because they e-mail their orders directly to your company. We don't have to pick up boards at the airport anymore because we have Fed-Ex and UPS to do that for us. Everything is just so much faster now that doing business today is certainly nothing like it was back in the dark ages when I had to move to New Hampshire. Add cell phones and apps and texting and CRM software tools and video conferencing, such as Go To Meeting and all other aspects of social marketing, and you've got a completely new way of doing business. Some would say that all of this has made doing business so much more efficient and easier on everyone.You think? I'm not so sure.There is something missing, something very important that has been eliminated and that something is human contact; the plain old face-to-face method of doing business. Walk into any customer service room in any company today and you'll notice that something is missing. Go ahead walk into your customer service office, stand there for a while and try to figure out what it is that's not there anymore. It will take you a while, but you'll figure it out...
It's the sound of the phone ringing. The phone doesn't ring anymore. If you listen carefully the only sound you will hear will be the clicking of computer and calculator keys. You'll also miss the sound of the human voice because everyone is so busy writing and sending quotes that no one is talking to anyone. They are not talking to customers and they are not talking to one another.
Although technology has made doing business much more efficient, it has also made it much more impersonal. And business being what it is this is not a good thing.
Remember the old days when I stopped in to see those buyers every day? Well, those days might have been more work intensive, but man I knew those accounts. I lived with those companies every single day. You won't believe this, but if I missed a day those buyers would actually call me up to see what was wrong! They actually wanted me there every day because I was their lifeline to the company. I was valuable to them and to my company. I made the deal work.
One summer, Digital was so unbelievably busy that they even abandoned the "sign in and badge" procedure; they gave all of the sales guys badges and told us we could just walk in! On any given weekday afternoon when I walked into their receiving department I would run into Glen from Hadco, Kent from Diceon and Pete from Industrial Circuits all sitting at the same table sorting their companies' boards. Because there was no time to return any questionable boards, we had to sort out the bad ones so they could take the good ones into production immediately. And once the sorting was complete, we took turns going from one buyer's cubicle to another picking up the purchase orders for that day. Talk about up-front and personal! I knew as much about what was going on at Digital and at Computervision as the people who worked there did. I knew those accounts cold. I knew the buyers, the Quality people the engineers and the managers. And it all worked--worked very well. I do not remember a time when communications were better.
And now, sadly, we have lost that. Buyers don't feel that need to see sales people. Inside sales people struggle to find a legitimate reason to pick up the phone and talk to buyers, buyers who do not want to talk to them anyway. In this age of electronic communication we have lost the true art of true communication.
Now it's much too easy for a buyer not to give you the order. It's all done via e-mail, she does not have to face you in the morning and tell you that you are not getting the business. He does not have to listen to your pitch on why you should get that purchase order. They can skip all that and just say "no" via mail completely impersonal and painless...for them.
But, for us in sales, although technology has made our job easier it certainly has not made it more effective. We struggle constantly with how to get in front of that buyer; how to tell her all the reasons why she should buy from us. The act of sitting across a desk with a decision maker and having a true business conversation occurs all too rarely. Doing business once involved making eye contact, reading body language and listening for that "yes" tone in the buyer's voice. We don't get to do that much anymore and that's really a shame.
It's only common sense.