Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1080843
32 PCB007 MAGAZINE I FEBRUARY 2019 Johnson: That's interesting. As a customer, having a pre-existing relationship with the per- son who's going to be your sales rep, and being familiar with NCAB and taking you seriously is huge. Let's look at familiarity with NCAB part for a moment. What is NCAB doing from your perspective that makes it much easier for you to close this kind of business? Antal: Overall, NCAB has a tremendous foot- print. The only thing that recently has held us back is name recognition now that we're here opening offices throughout the United States and coming up to speed on the five of - fices that we have. That was the only throttle back for us. Now that we're out there and have the marketing, we have the name rec- ognition. It's about trying to find those cus- tomers who we best mesh with from a val- ue-add standpoint. What I mean by that is taking customers who don't necessarily have the critical mass to go to the quality factories offshore, and they just don't have the buying power to stay offshore. That's where we would come in and have more of a leg up on that area. One of the things we do is give access. We also have engineering support directly stateside and offshore and de- sign support offshore. There are other factors such as warehousing and the like, but our main thrust is being local to the customer by having offices throughout the U.S. and being local to the factory by having a presence in China and people in the factories in China. Then, we le- verage our $150 million spent in circuit boards only to get the best terms and conditions out of the factories that we work with. That's been a golden statement for us, and it's going in- to finding these customers who would benefit most from that platform. Johnson: So, you're in a place where you're more selective. Antal: Yes, they're somewhat selective. If you look at even some companies who are doing direct offshore purchasing, we still may play a role somewhere in their supply chain. Being in the circuit board industry and knowing that some larger customers have less than high vol- ume, which may be considered high volume to us, but high volume offshore to them. They look to have some mix on the high-mix low- volume side, which is where we would come into play as well. We have some part to play in both large and mid-range companies. The mesh comes down to how well the com- pany understands what their needs are. If the company is looking for transactional, we may not be the best fit for them, but if they really look at what they need and say, "We need to hire somebody or bring somebody in—a sup- plier. Who is the source for that?" In our case, it's circuit boards. Then, we will fit very well with them because my particular sell to cus- tomers is, "We are an extension of your manu- facturing." When a problem arises at a custom- er site, I want them to be able to pick up the phone and call me as if they were calling their own circuit board or manufacturing group and say, "This is what we need." It needs to be that clear. That dialogue has to be established very early on. Part of my success is that I make sure there are no barriers in the way of providing that service. Johnson: I'm starting to get a picture from this conversation, Wayne. If I just look at the ma- jor companies like Apple and Amazon with their hardware designs and product reach, they will obviously be doing a lot of manu- facturing work with overseas firms where they set up long-term strategic partnerships. In that case, there will be Apple or Amazon employ- ees handling the communication on both sides of the ocean—China as well as here in the U.S. They'll handle that within their own company It's about trying to find those customers who we best mesh with from a value-add standpoint.