Circuits Assembly - April 2008 - (Page 58)

Program Management and systems vs. continuing to promote prototype expertise as Why should someone pick up Find It, Book It, Grow It, your core business. instead of the large number of broader-based management If you are on the block or a company that is acquiring, you and marketing tomes available? In other words, what’s your need to talk to the decision teams and give adequate assurdifferentiation? ances because they are going to hear the rumors. And you This is focused on the EMS account acquisition process. need to be crisp in communicating. At one company I was I see a lot of companies try to model account acquisition employed by that was undergoing significant restructuring, after distribution, which is more of an activity-based process our communications strategy for customers and key prosbecause someone is always buying something. EMS is differpects included frequent messages from senior management ent. It has a large geographical customer base. It has large doland mailing copies of all press releases. Sales and program lar sales with multifunctional decision teams. It’s a complex management also followed up after a release to see if customprocess. This is what I’ve seen work – and not work – over a ers had questions. The best strategy 27-year career in EMS. really depends on your disclosure When you get down to it, most policy. Internal staff needs to know EMS companies claim the same what can be publicly released and skills: “more responsive,” “better when. Companies in play, for examreach,” “turnkey supply chain manple, can have trouble closing deals, agement,” etc. In the book, you especially when rumors start. The note, “The quality and fit between right thing to do is have a very good project teams is often the only disclosure policy and make sure the major difference between EMS prokey contacts in accounts near close viders.” What do you recommend to are informed in line with SEC rules clients insofar as differentiation is and other disclosure policies. concerned? And do individual EMS Chapter 4, on Account Acquisicompanies over-focus on marketing FIND IT. BOOK IT. tion Dynamics, plainly states, “size those traits? A Robust Process for Account Acquisition in Electronics Manufacturing Services I think many EMS companies matters.” But how big does a comover-focus on what their nearest pany need to be before size doesn’t matter? competitors are advertising and do What it boils down to is that something almost identical instead some decision teams feel picking the of looking at what customers truly value and can be pitched into a point biggest is a safe choice. And maybe of differentiation. What I preach is the top three to five players get on a to learn about what keeps your cuslot of bid lists because people look SUSAN E. MUCHA tomers up at night, and what your for the biggest. An experienced corteam needs to address in the plant porate decision team might undertour. Your marketing and sales teams, stand there are other things to look Find it, Book it, Grow It – A Robust Process for Account then, should do the legwork and rein- Acquisition in Electronics Manufacturing Services at. If you want factories in all regions force those ideas. in the world, you can get that from 235 pages We talk in the book about sales March 2008 most of the Tier One EMS compamodels and what would work best Available from Amazon.com nies. But, as a customer, will you for different organizations. If the really use them all? And if not, do salesperson is doing their homework you want to pay for that overhead? and the operations people can put on their best faces when Smaller EMS companies start to look better when OEM teams the customer comes in, well, that’s the core of what this book really look at their needs and match capability and business is about. It’s a process just like SMT. You need to focus on focus against their requirements. When a company goes from, say, less than $20 million results, not just sales calls. You want to target a select number in sales to, say, $100 million to $500 million in sales, of prospects. Marketing should help narrow the focus. How should a company in acquisition mode or that is would they almost inherently need to rework their program notably changing size over a fairly short period of time commanagement approach? municate this to its customers or the market? Not necessarily. They may have to rework the kinds of If a company is changing its focus because of the length of accounts they focus on. This will fly in the face of some trasales cycle – typically 12 to 18 months – its marketing stratditional Tier 1 wisdom that says you can be all things to all people. But if you’re a $10 billion company, you’re still being egy needs to reflect the company it is going to be, not the one judged on your ability to grow. If a company is going from it is. For instance, if you are migrating from a job shop to a $100 million to $500 million, what they really need to focus turnkey EMS provider, you want to market turnkey services GROW IT. 58 Circuits Assembly APRIL 2008 circuitsassembly.com http://Amazon.com http://circuitsassembly.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Circuits Assembly - April 2008

Circuits Assembly - April 2008 Contents Caveat Lector Industry News Market Watch Talking Heads Screen Printing Better Manufacturing Design and Modeling of High-Speed, High-Density 3-D CSPs and Memory Modules The ‘Big Brush Off’ Revisited Impact of Soldering Atmosphere on Solder Joint Formation Beyond Moore’s Law ESD Control For Class 0 ESDS Devices Growing Your Brand This Year’s Model Tech Tips Reflow Soldering Process Doctor Pb-Free Lessons Learned Getting Lean Equipment Advances Apex Product Preview Ad Index Assembly Insider Technical Abstracts

Circuits Assembly - April 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.