In a recent column I talked about board shops making money and how upset our customers were at the very thought of their board shop vendors making money. Many times over the years I have heard our customers complaining bitterly about how much money we make. They seem to think that all the shops […]
APEX 2020: A Great Time To Kick Off Your Marketing.
Here we are again. We’re just a week away the IPC APEX Expo in San Diego. This is our time, this is our show, this is it, time to get together with everyone else in the industry and get a quick overview of what’s going on out there. No matter what your year has been […]
Are Your Customers Speaking For You?
Most people will tune out when you tell them how great your company is. The will even turn you off if you spend too much time talking about all of the great things your company can do for them. And they will practically throw you out of their office when you start to pull the […]
The Paid Audition
I read recently that 48% of all customers feel that the most critical time for a company to gain their loyalty is based on the first order. So, half of your customers are going to decide if they want to keep working with you based on that first order. Man, is that pressure or what? […]
Selling On Price Is A Losers Game
If you prospect for price you are going to get price oriented customers. You are only going to “buy” your way into an account and yes, you are going to set the precedent for the life of that account. So says Mark Hunter in his classic book High-Profit Prospecting published by Amacom. And allow me […]
PCBs, PCBs, Everywhere You Look!
It was the holidays, and everyone was out buying presents and gifts. A great time of the year! On Christmas morning as we sat by the roaring fire and opened our gifts, I started to count the number of printed circuits we received. For twelve people, 65 gifts had printed circuits in them. Just our […]
Do You Have Prospects Or Just Suspects?
Do you ever feel you are barking up that proverbial wrong tree? Do you keep seeing the same people and getting nowhere? Do you sometimes wonder if you are in the right state? Or at the right company? Or with the right person? Scary thoughts aren’t they? Especially if any of them apply to you. […]
Tear Down the House! 2020 is the year of disruption
Are you ready to make some noise in 2020? Are you ready to kick things around, throw out the old and in with the new? Are you a “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it” kind of person? Or are you a “If it ain’t broke… so what? We can make it better!” kind of […]
Developing Homegrown Sales People
We all know that finding and hiring good sales people has become a problem. There are just not that many good ones out there right now. They are either retired, gone to work in other fields or like the old general himself just faded away. So what are you going to do? You need […]
It’s A Brand Spanking New Year!
Making 2020 the best year of your sales career. Ten surefire steps to make sure you have a successful 2020! Even if you didn’t do your homework in Q4, it’s not too late to set yourself up for a great year. All you need is two days of planning and then a lot of hard […]