Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1505694
86 PCB007 MAGAZINE I AUGUST 2023 3. Always be innovating. What can you do better, build faster, and with better quality? Of course, make sure you are doing this for your customers. What do they want from you? 4. Invest in your employees. Make sure they are happy. Better yet, make sure your employees are passionately moti- vated. Create a culture where they are always focused on doing things better, and especially doing them better for your customers. 5. Develop strong branding. What is your brand? What do you want to be known for? When people think of you, what do they think of ? Even better, when they think of a certain technology like flex and rigid-flex, for example, do they think of your company first? Are you the "Kleenex" brand of your technol- ogy? 6. Build partnerships. You should be known for your collaborative partnerships with your customers. A good cus- tomer-vendor partnership will guarantee an outstanding relationship with that customer. ey are looking for suppliers they can trust and count on in the long run. Make sure you are always focused on the long game of strong partnerships with your customers. 7. Do market research. To be outstanding you must know your mar- ket and what it takes to be outstanding in that market. Always be studying the market. is should be a constant part of your effort to stand out in your industry. 8. Make data-driven decisions. Please stop with the gut reactions. ey don't work, they're not real, and they will put you on the proverbial road to perdition. Don't assume you know everything about the world. Don't listen to politicians about the state of the econ- omy in this country or the world. Do your own research, collect your own data, and come to your own decisions. e worst thing you can do in business is assume. Study the data and base your decision on that. 9. Engage in marketing and PR. Halleluj ah! Now we get down to it. If you do get involved in marketing, all these other things will fall into place. True marketing and the development of a marketing plan includes all the things we have talked about so far: from defining the market, to bringing your customer to the table, to studying the data. You must do all these things if you want to develop an effec- tive marketing plan that will work. All that marketing encompasses is the way you get your name out there. It is the way to tell your story. You can be the greatest, most outstanding com- pany in the industry, but if no one knows who you are and how to beat a path to your door, well, what's the point? 10. Listen to your customers. ere's no one better to tell you how to be out- standing than your customers. ey know what they want, especially in an outstanding PCB supplier. Don't be afraid to ask your customers what they need both today and in the future. One of the key elements of being an outstand- ing supplier is to listen when your customers talk about what they consider an outstanding supplier. Simple enough, right? In the spirit of under-promising and overde- livering, here's number 11: Be authentic, real, trustful, and genuine. Make sure your com- pany has respect and regard for the market as a whole and that will go a very long way to mak- ing you an outstanding supplier. PCB007 Dan Beaulieu is president of D.B. Marketing Group, and an I-Connect007 columnist. To read past columns, click here.