Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1080843
22 PCB007 MAGAZINE I FEBRUARY 2019 stead you're in it for a process. The first meet- ing gets me this, the second meeting gets me this, and you have individual goals for each of those customer touches. Matties: It's been stated that it takes somewhere on average of five contacts to close a sale. Beaulieu: Yes, and it's becoming more. Matties: If you're lucky enough to get a face-to- face appointment, that means that someone is really serious because time is so limited, and people are extremely selective as to who they are willing to spend their time with. Beaulieu: They need something. They need you to be there. They don't want you there because you want to be there, they want you there be- cause they want you to be there. Matties: So, the best kind of appointment you can have is one that they call and invite you in rather than you calling in. Beaulieu: Right, and that leads you back to mar- keting your story and content, telling people about your capability. You started this conversa- tion by leading with delivery and quality. Every- body says that they have the best delivery and quality whether it's true or not. Meanwhile, we know that the quality and delivery of our Ameri- can shops average 83%, and yet everybody has 98% quality. I don't quite understand that. Matties: Here's another selling strategy that I recently witnessed at GreenSource Fabrication. Granted, the company started with a greenfield site in New Hampshire, but they've set up a manufacturing facility to produce the highest technology available at a low cost with zero waste—they're green. They also have the most control over process because it's complete- ly hands-off and digital. GreenSource has so many positive attributes that they're creating a line of customers saying, "We want you to build our products." I would call this a leap-frog strategy because everything else has become irrelevant with this adaptation of PCB fabrication. Those that are left in the "red ocean" are just battling it out over those platitude attributes, whereas at GreenSource Fabrication, you walk in and measure everything. Things are being dealt with in a way that we've never seen before, at least in PCB fabrication in America and pos- sibly in the world. What does it take for a factory that's a brown- field site still working with cell or island manu- facturing? You have plating department in one room, imaging across the hallway in another room, solder mask in another, and so on. How do they compete against a strategy like that? Beaulieu: It's a very difficult thing to do. Even with trying to adapt some of those techniques, it's almost better to rip the whole thing apart and start over. Some equipment of the future is coming in—changes from the laser direct im- aging (LDI) to the legend machine, to changes in the handling machines. To do that, it's going to take a while if you're talking about how to compete on a smaller change scale. There are probably things you can do, but they're more tactical than just starting from scratch. To an- swer your question, how does a 30-year-old shop compete against that? I'm not sure. It's almost overwhelming. We all have friends in the industry who are chomping at the bit. I talked to a couple last week about GreenSource, and they said, "Why can't I do this here? Why doesn't any other owner have the vision to let me go at this?" One started talking for 20 minutes about all the things they could do. There is talent out there to do it, and maybe GreenSource will lead the way. Matties: It also looks to GreenSource's roots, which started as a captive facility; as far as I know, it was the first captive shop opened in some time. Due to their results and capabilities, they are moving into an independent or job- shop model. Granted, they're not in full-pace production yet, but they're producing boards over there, and I think that many OEMs may find that staying at the captive facility might be a better way of going.