Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/757488
10 SMT Magazine • December 2016 to convert a prospect, cautioning against cus- tomers who are easy to convert. (By the way, you can read more about the results of that sur- vey on page 44.) My point is, during those six to 12 months of talking to your prospects and finding out their needs and challenges, and then working closely on solutions that could help them ad- dress their manufacturing issues—friendships will be formed—and deals will be closed. That is, unless you are strictly trying to hit your quota, when I am sure it will take one helluva time convinc- ing prospects to buy your product or service. One more thing I've learned when it comes to sales and market- ing is that you must be well-versed in your product lines. Accord- ing to our survey, when it comes to salespeople, one of the serious chal- lenges employers have is the lack of technical knowledge. From my per- spective, it is important to have someone with the tech- nical knowledge to explain the innovations included in products and how these developments may help customers address their greatest challenges. This month's issue is focused on sales and marketing strategies, and features the challeng- es for sales and marketing executives in the elec- tronics manufacturing industry. This issue aims to highlight the key attributes of a salesperson, and provide effective sales strategies to use to be successful in this industry. We find it apt to talk about such issues to make sure that as we enter 2017, you will have some insights on how to adjust or further improve your sales and mar- keting process and make the new year an even better one. First, we have Jay Gorajia of Mentor Graph- ics Corp., who discusses the larger involvement of a younger generation in the workforce, the digital transformation in the industry, and how the move toward smarter manufacturing are all presenting new and unique challenges to today's PCB assembly industry. He notes that while many of the common sales and market- ing best practices apply to the PCB assembly in- dustry, deep manufacturing and electronics de- sign expertise is required to truly drive custom- er interactions from one-off transactions into long and sustaining relationships. Next, we have our new columnist, Craig Ar- curi, an EMS industry veteran, writing about real sales, which, according to Craig, are "not pop sales ideas, not sales jargon of the day, not flavor of the month tactics." Ar- curi provides simple steps to build a sales founda- tion, and how organi- zations can generate more sales out of hav- ing that solid founda- tion. After that, we have Dan Beaulieu provid- ing a review of the five new books that can di- rectly influence the way you think about sales, marketing, customers and customer service. I was also able to interview Matej Krajnc, of National Instruments, about sales and marketing challenges and strat- egies. He said sales strategies always have to change because you only have a sales strate- gy according to the situation and requirements one currently has. Next, we have NEA's Shannon Allard, with her perspective on what makes a good salesper- son when it comes to pre-owned SMT equip- ment. Susan Mucha of Powell-Mucha Consulting Inc., meanwhile, explains why sales and mar- keting strategies vary widely in the EMS indus- try. She provides sort of a case study of four EMS firms and their approach to the sales and mar- keting process. We also have a couple of interesting arti- cles this month. First, we have Thomas Wenzel and Enrico Zimmermann of Goepel electronic writing about some fundamental aspects of the SELLING SUCCESS IN THE PCBA INDUSTRY