Do You Ever Have Difficulty Collecting Final Payments for Projects?
November 15, 2023
Selling
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Last month, we discussed the need for clear and concise definitions of what constitutes acceptance and transfer of ownership to be included in quotations. The need for these clear and concise definitions becomes apparent at the end of a project when you, as the supplier, are trying to collect the final payment. Unless the customer and the supplier clearly understand when the project is complete and the customer has accepted the project, there can be confusion, disagreement, and unneeded argument, all of which are avoidable if we implement this simple process of clear definition. I am sure that anyone that is ...
Do Your Quotations Clearly Describe Customer Acceptance and Transfer of Ownership?
October 20, 2023
Selling
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Over the last few months, we've been writing about the communication chain from the customer through the manufacturing function. As important, if not more important, is the understanding between you and your customer of “what constitutes the customers’ acceptance of your products or services and when transfer of ownership takes place”. We believe that it is imperative that the understanding of when the customer accepts your product or service and when they assume ownership is crucial and not one that should be verbal. During our careers we have seen many companies rely on handshakes and loosely worded quotations and as a ...
How Good is The Good Communication Between Sales and Applications Engineering?
September 28, 2023
Selling
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Over the last few months we have been writing about the communication chain from the customer through the manufacturing function. We have noted that communication of customer expectations is critical, and often, not done with excellence. The first essential element of communication for customer expectations is the communication from the customer through the salesperson to the people that do the quoting. In many organizations this function is called Applications Engineering. How smoothly does this communication go in your organization? Are your salespeople sufficiently trained to be sure that they can communicate customer expectations accurately to the Applications Engineering group? Do your ...
How Good is The Good Communication Between Engineering and Manufacturing?
August 22, 2023
Selling
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The topic last month was: How good is the communication between Sales and Engineering? We pointed out that this is important as engineering needs to understand “what was sold”. The same can be said for the communication between engineering and manufacturing. If engineering understands what was sold, and in a quantitative manner, including customer expectations, then it is up to engineering to communicate “what was sold” to manufacturing in a manner that manufacturing can understand and produce assuming that manufacturing has the capability to produce. Knowing manufacturing’s capabilities is crucial knowledge for engineering. Without this knowledge and the understanding that that knowledge ...
How Good is The Good Communication Between Sales and Engineering?
July 19, 2023
Selling
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We feel it's imperative that communication between the sales and engineering functions be excellent because engineering needs to know exactly what was sold. If engineering doesn't know, quantitatively, exactly what was sold, they will not be able to engineer to meet customer expectations! In many companies there is a “wall” between sales and engineering and in many cases the wall is almost impenetrable. In many companies sales and engineering do not get along to the point where there is real strife between the functions. The goal, and it is possible, is to have sales and engineering not only get along but ...
Do Your Design Teams Perform Service and Startup Calls?
In our previous newsletter we observed: “An engineering staff that is not capable of going to the field and working with your customers is an engineering staff that, we feel, is operating at 50%.” This observation is based on many years of experience working with engineering staffs in various businesses." We have worked with engineering staffs that never went to the field and other staffs that were required to start up and service systems that they designed. It is no surprise that the engineers that started up and serviced their systems were much better qualified and productive than those that did not. It ...
Are Your Engineers Engaged with Customers?
Maybe a better question is: are your engineers capable of meeting with your customers? Many times, we feel that engineers are not sufficiently trained to meet with customers. If this is the case, we suggest that we create some kind of training so that they can meet with customers and contribute. An engineering staff that does not connect with the market, your customers and your customers’ processes, really will not contribute to the success of your business at the level they should. We believe it's critical that your entire engineering staff is literate in all your products and systems and how they are ...
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