Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1539509
52 PCB007 MAGAZINE I SEPTEMBER 2025 T H E C H E M I CA L C O N N ECT I O N Foreign sales can be difficult and complicated, but like many U.S. companies, we deal with foreign cus- tomers through a series of authorized sales reps. We have one that covers Europe and several cover- ing various Asian countries. We have two technical coordinators in the U.S., one who oversees Asian activities and one who covers Europe and the rest of the world. The sales reps follow up leads and make initial contact with current and potential customers. Tech- nical coordinators make sure the proper people at the factory are involved and the right quotes are generated in good time. They also make periodic trips to their territories to meet personally with the more important customers. The advent of modern teleconferencing makes this a lot easier since we can have face-to-face meetings without the rigors of international travel. It's always nice to put a face to the people you are dealing with. For the most part, this works out pretty well, but it does put us at a disadvantage in relation to local competitors with presence and pricing. For some reason, many potential customers prefer to deal with someone who speaks the language and is close by instead of someone several thou- sand miles away. As a result, most of our foreign business is from our established customer base The Practice of Doing Business in Foreign Lands or large, expensive systems that the local compet- itors can't handle. Currently, there really isn't an economic alternative to using reps, but this hasn't always been the case. A Misstep in Europe That Cost Us Half the Market When I first started, we had an auxiliary manufactur- ing, sales, and service facility in Solingen, Germany. The manufacturing end couldn't build full systems from scratch, but we would send them the basic modules, and they would complete the wiring and plumbing to European standards. The system would then be assembled and water tested before ship- ping it to the customer. This was an ideal situation as we had a local pres- ence with people familiar with the equipment and the European sales environment. However, when a German conglomerate bought us in the early '80s, this soon changed. The management there decided that, since they had headquarters in Berlin, they didn't need the Solingen facility and shut it down. Within two years, our European sales fell off by more than 50% (we had two very competent competitors in Germany who soon took full advantage of the situa- tion). Reversing the problem was impractical as the company sold the building and most of the trained by D on B all, C hemcut