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12 SMT Magazine • December 2016 by Jay Gorajia MENTOR GRAPHICS CORP. The PCB assembly industry is going through interesting times. In addition to the traditional price pressures from overseas partners and rap- id consolidation that has plagued the indus- try for decades, digital transformation presents new and unique challenges to today's PCB as- sembly industry. Whether you are a software solutions provider, hardware equipment ven- dor, or a contract manufacturer, these challeng- es are prevalent and must be addressed to im- prove growth opportunities. Sales and market- ing exists to provide growth for an organization and must navigate around these challenges to ensure the success of their organizations. An effective sales and marketing program at any organization comprises three factors: peo- ple, process, and technology. Missing any one of these as part of a sales and marketing strate- gy represents opportunities to improve. In ad- dition to these three important factors, sales can be built around "hunting" and "farming" strategies. Hunting represents looking for "new kills," that is, new opportunities. In most cases, this approach may include opening new doors, land- ing new logos, and mining contact databases for accounts in which no previous sales have been successful. Farming entails expanding business at existing accounts and clients until strategic partner status is achieved. Organizations should be doing both hunting and farming to achieve growth; however, key characteristics particu- lar to the PCB assembly industry need to be ad- dressed, including future-proofing, the digital thread, RFP to quote velocity, transparency and visualization expectations, and leveraging ana- lytics and the cloud. The Basics From Hunting to Farming All client/vendor relationships start with a hunting exercise. Effective strategies for hunt- ing are different than those of farming. Most hunting starts with effective marketing. Some of the key facets of creating an effective and compelling marketing campaign, especially re- FEATU RE