Instead of sitting down to quote the part, we turned traditional contract machining marketing methods upside down. We picked up the phone and called the customer with questions like:
Do you currently use this part?
How many do you use a year?
Do you currently make it yourself or buy it?
Why are you seeking a quote?
(If the chooch said anything remotely resembling, "Just checking the market." We replied, "Sorry, we only deal with folks who need the product. No quote. Goodbye!")
If it was an existing part, the one answer we wanted to hear was that they were unhappy with their current supply, either for price or quality. We then went into our concurrent engineering mode and asked them to elaborate. If it was a quality problem, we asked them to send us samples of the nonconforming parts with their inspection sheets so we could "diagnose" the problems. Our whole stance was to position ourselves as "partner" first, before WE ever quoted.
If price was the issue, we'd ask, "How much do you need to buy it for?" Then we said, "That might be doable. If not, we'll tell you straight out that it isn't. If we suggested some design changes which would make it less expensive to manufacture, but still have same fit and function, would you be able to work with that? Are there mating parts which would be affected? Can you send us the assembly drawing and the drawings for the mating parts so we can look at that as part of our analysis?"
Usually, by the time we were finished with the introductory give and take, we had several phone calls, talked to design engineers and manufacturing managers. Soon, the problem of "price" was the furthest thing from the mind of anybody at the prospect's organization. We were busy establishing ourselves as the "go to" folks.
If it was a new part, never made before, we asked about potential real use (we didn't quote a blind spread of quantities and price breaks.) We asked about mating parts, end use, etc. Finally we asked the big question, "What do you think you need to buy this for to be able to have a marketable product yourself?" Then we went into our pitch, "That might be doable . . ."
If we spent as much as an hour qualifying a prospect, it was much more cost efficient than sending quotes out on the fax like oysters spawning in the ocean. We had names, extension numbers and "rapport" established. We would call up before we sent out a formal quote with the oral one, telling the recipient to go to his fax machine and pick it up, stay on the line and then tell us if it came through clearly. Our quotes NEVER got lost in the shuffle. We asked for a target date when he would have the answer and the order. We followed up, eager to help if there was a glitch at their end.
By our third year, our regular customers would call us first, ask if we had time to look at a drawing, then send it over by fax while WE waited for it to arrive. Often, they said, (before we went into our interrogation):
We currently use this part.
We use ____ thousand a year.
We've been buying it from John Doe, tell us if we're getting a good deal or not. We currently pay $_____.
We're asking you to look at it - if you can come close on the price, we'd rather deal with a known quantity like you. Sometimes these guys act like they don't need us as a customer.
What more do you need to know?
Sometimes, just sometimes, the plan works! Our plan was for our customers to think of us as partners with whom they could share confidential information. It worked because we never betrayed the confidence. Many times, we'd tell them they were already getting a good deal. If the quality was a minor problem, we'd offer to consult with their current supplier to help him overcome the obstacle to good quality. Our pitch to the "competitor" would be that we were partners with them in satisfying the customer. A happy, satisfied customer was easier for everyone to deal with. We sometimes used these "competitors" to outsource some of our overflow once we got their quality systems up to snuff. Our point was, "If you have similar machines, you should be able to do similar work. Let us help you tackle the quality and service issues."
This was probably way more than you needed to know, but I am passionate about running a business smoothly and profitably. In my mind the strategies involved in Business Management Systems and Quality Management Systems are interchangeable. They all revolve around making yourself indispensible to your customers.
