Latest EMT Worldwide Column: U.S. Insourcing—Trend or Empty Campaign Promise?

My latest EMT Worldwide column is out. Looking at all the presidential campaign activity focused on glorifying manufacturing these days–factories make such wonderful backgrounds for speeches, I thought it might be time to focus on what I’m seeing as the real drivers of insourcing/reshoring. It also discusses some of the cost drivers that likely limit a massive resurgence in U.S. manufacturing. Feel free to comment. I suspect anyone who owes their job to a manufacturing company has thoughts on this one.

Program Management and Effective Email Use

One of my clients and I were talking about effective and ineffective email use in EMS program management and it seemed like a good column for my blog. So, here are some thoughts.

From an EMS program management standpoint, email has several advantages including:

• Provides written documentation of customer conversations related to a project
• Provides a timely and convenient way to communicate with customers, the project team and other relevant stakeholders, particularly when distribution lists are set up
• Provides a fast way to look up past history on account decisions.

But email also has some potential negatives:

• Can create information overload when distribution lists aren’t appropriately tailored to topics or when list members continuously hit “reply all”
• Doesn’t provide tone and may appear insulting or abrasive to some readers
• Allows for creation of endless feedback loops that might have been better resolved with a quick phone call
• Can ”enable” avoidance behavior on tough issues
• May create archives that are out-of-sync with internal records retention policies
• Disorganized message storage may make critical information hard to find
• Poor backup discipline combined with too much reliance on email as documentation may result in permanent loss of critical information

So what can make email a more effective tool?

• Think about distribution lists and create lists that are tailored specifically to relevant subgroups of the project or customer teams vs. the entire team.
• Consider use of collaborative computing software with shared folders for recurring meeting information such as agendas or pre-meeting information distribution, rather than sharing via email. Use of “pull” systems for this type of information can cut down on overall email volume and ensure the team has a central point for keeping up to date on each customer.
• Make sure project team members understand records retention policy and have an organized method for storing email related to each project. Work with IT to ensure adequate backup is in place. If a collaborative computing strategy is in place, make sure new team members learn how to use it as part of orientation.
• Before starting an email consider whether or not a phone call with email backup would be more efficient.
• If you find yourself emailing to avoid a difficult conversation, make the phone call.
• If you find some customers are overly sensitive to abrupt emails either change your writing style, or interface via phone with email backup.
• Be sensitive to communication misunderstandings when emailing to people who may have limited comprehension skills in your preferred language. Also, recognize that sometimes people who speak a different language actually prefer emails because a written document may be easier for them understand than a phone conversation.

Properly managed, email is a huge timesaver. However, while some people are intuitively brilliant at using email efficiently, others use it without developing good organization strategies. That latter group creates information overload. If you fit in that latter group, start thinking about how you can improve. Your email recipients will thank you and you just might find you have a little more free time on your hands.

By the way, if you have thoughts to add on this topic feel free to comment. Email organization is something that many people have good thoughts on.

Invest or Cut Back?

Many of the EMS companies I work with or talk to are considering the question: invest or cut back? My February 2012 Circuits Assembly column discusses the possible areas of investment focus.

Valuing Diversity-Part 2

Circuits Assembly broke my original article on diversity into two articles. Part 2 ran in January and focuses on mentoring opportunities for women. If you’ve got a daughter in high school or college who is looking for a great start in a technology career, this is a must read: http://www.circuitsassembly.com/cms/component/content/article/159/12231-focus-on-business.

Circuits Assembly Column on Diversity

My latest Circuits Assembly column is now up. It discusses the value of good diversity programs in helping top talent succeed. As a woman in the electronics industry, I’ve seen both good and bad approaches in this area. Here is the link: http://www.circuitsassembly.com/cms/component/content/article/159/12143-focus-on-business. Part II will publish in January.

If you find this topic interesting, here is an older article wrote for EMT Worldwide: http://www.emtworldwide.com/article/28463/The-Evolving-Role-of-Women-in-Engineering.aspx. That article was done at the request of a female engineer in the UK.

Feel free to share comments on either.

Lean Principles Also Apply to Sales & Marketing Processes

I’ve been working on a lot of Lean manufacturing articles lately, so the topic is on my mind. Pull systems and efficient throughput are key premises in Lean Manufacturing. So are the concepts of elimination of non-valued activity and variation. Yet, companies who embrace these principles on their manufacturing floors may not embrace them in their account acquisition process.

In uncertain economic times, marketing budget is often the first thing to be cut. The assumption is that if the sales team works a little harder, they will still get in doors. In EMS, a long sales cycle contributes to the popularity of this premise because it can be difficult to track the relationship between advertising and the sales that result from it, since those sales may be occurring over a year after the campaign runs.

But if we look at account acquisition as a process (as is done in my book Find It. Book It. Grow It.), it becomes easier to see how marketing drives a pull system. A company with a solid brand identity and a strategic plan for regularly delivering content that reinforces that brand to the target market is actually “pulling” best fit leads from the total target market. It is also minimizing variation in prospect perception of the brand by sending out a very consistent message. These prospects have been attracted to the company because they are shopping for a supplier and identify with the solutions presented through ads, white papers, articles, webinars, short videos, conference presentations or e-newsletters. A good marketing program will link content to which require registration for access to the material, and will have a strong lead qualification and follow-up mechanism.A salesperson’s job is simple in these cases. Call on a the lead who is in sourcing mode, qualify the account, figure out what keeps the decision team up at night and present the solution.

Comparatively, with no marketing presence a salesperson does all the work. Typically, getting into an account that doesn’t know your company involves several calls to determine who makes outsourcing decisions, determining whether or not the company is currently in a new supplier search, convincing an overworked sourcing manager to schedule an appointment, introducing the company, and finally building enough of a relationship to get the decision team to be candid about what really keeps them up at night. The consistency of your “brand” may vary based on the skill of the salesperson in describing your company’s key points of value. In short, there is much more time and effort involved when the company you are trying to make contact with has no idea who your company is. If you add the cost of salesperson cold calling time, extra trips to simply introduce the company and lower win percentage because your brand is lesser known than companies who are strongly marketing competencies prospects are looking for, and you have the budget for a good marketing campaign.

If you are still not convinced, here are some symptoms of an inefficient sales process:

• Quote-to-win ratio at 20% or less
• Prospects tell your team they aren’t looking and then source to a competitor three months later
• Many accounts with little forward movement beyond a sales call or initial RFQ
• Prospects want detailed pricing breakdowns but won’t share information on the competitive playing field
• No understanding of why your company loses business
• Only win accounts when you deeply discount price.

If you are interested in exploring ways to improve your account acquisition process or better train your team, contact me directly at smucha@powell-muchaconsulting.com or visit: www.powell-muchaconsulting.com.

Latest EMT Worldwide Article Posted

My latest EMT Worldwide column discussing trends I saw at SMTAI 2011 is now available.

Do You Know Where Your Decisionmakers Are?

When I was growing up, a popular TV public service announcement directed at parents used to say, “It’s 10 pm, do you know where your children are?” For conscientious parents, that reminder was unnecessary. But it was running because there were a lot of parents who apparently couldn’t answer that question.

In today’s blog, I’m asking the question, “Accounts are vulnerable. Do you know where the decisionmakers in your existing accounts are?” Conscientious teams develop detailed account plans and carefully build relationships with members of the decision team at each account. But, the reason I’m asking the question is because all teams aren’t that conscientious. In some cases they are resource constrained and in other cases the recession environment has simply burned people out.

There are predictable behavior patterns with changes in economic cycles. Two to watch are job hopping and supply base rationalization. Decision teams are changing. New people are coming on board and old people are leaving. Conscientious sales and program management personnel are building relationships with the new team members and keeping relationships with the team members who leave. The upside of a decision team member who changes jobs is that they may open the door to new sales opportunity if the account relationship is maintained.

The trend of supply base rationalization is in part driven by changing needs. Conscientious teams are listening to their customers and modifying their service options to better fit these new customer needs.

Here are some suggestions for ways to better position your company in this area:

• Make a list of key contacts at each customer. If any have moved be sure to track them down. Linked In is a great tool for tracking decision team migration and learning more about new team members—just remember to appropriately manage your account privacy settings while doing that. If there are new team members, develop a plan for building relationships. Otherwise, new senior team members may have preferences for other suppliers, especially if those suppliers have tracked them to their new job and are trying to get the door.

• Take key members to lunch to discuss their company’s goals and needs. The goal isn’t to sell them anything, just to learn more about what is keeping them up at night. Then turn that feedback into an internal corrective action plan or use it as justification for expanding your company’s service offerings. While automated surveys can do this, a periodic lunch meeting may provide significantly more feedback.

• Make a point of regularly sending packaged information to the decision team. Whether it is a newsletter, link to an article on your Company or a press release, this type of communication helps you both maintain mindshare and keep the team informed of new capabilities.

Just as knowing where your children are helps them to mature to successful adults, building strong relationships with the decision teams in existing accounts can help you grow a strong customer base. It isn’t rocket science, you just need to do simple things consistently. For more ideas, read my book: Find It. Book It. Grow It. A Robust Process for Account Acquisition in Electronics Manufacturing Services.

Circuits Assembly October Column

My October Circuits Assembly column answers the question, “is the sales funnel really dead?” Here is the link: http://www.circuitsassembly.com/cms/component/content/article/159/11747-focus-on-business.

Upcoming SMTA Webatorial: Market Trends–Learn to Predict the Future and Help Your Company Lead the Pack

Do you ever wish your company could be offering services just as the market starts to recognize a need for them?

The electronics manufacturing services (EMS) industry is still relatively young, yet demand patterns are established. This course will teach participants ways to identify external factors that may signal market change and suggest strategies for adapting to changing demand patterns. It will also teach participants to apply common sense and industry knowledge in ways which help their companies lead the pack instead of struggling to keep up with changing market dynamics.

This online event is scheduled for Two(2) 90 minute Sessions Thursday, November 10 and 17, 2011 1:00pm to 2:30pm Eastern Presented by: Susan Mucha, Powell-Mucha Consulting, Inc.

To register, visit:

http://www.smta.org/education/presentations/presentations.cfm