Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/759357
December 2016 • The PCB Magazine 15 A few notable comments: • "Be careful of customers who are too easy to convert." • "The larger the longer." • "…the day of the first meeting to 2 years." 6. What advice/strategy would you give a salesperson in this market? Most of the answers were covered by these comments: • Treat your job as a career • Be serious about it • Know the product • Shut up and listen • What your customer says is more important than what you say • Tell the truth always • Know your prospects and understand their needs And one person said, "Find another indus- try." 7. Do you have sales training programs for your salespeople? • Yes: 44% • No: 56% A sampling of the comments: • "A good salesperson does not follow a canned approach." • "Some inside training and some outside training depending on the individuals." • "No sales department." • "We have a PPT training program covering every aspect of the sales from lead generation to…the first sales call… to winning the first quote, etc." 8. How did you develop your sales plan? The responses included: • "We don't have one." • "Our plan is to sell more." • "It's confidential." • "President comes up with an idea of what to sell…. the rest of the team comes up with what the customer really wants." • "Doing a line by line analysis with the right people." • "Many years of experience." 9. How do you target or select your customers? We got quite a range of answers: • "Poorly" • "Develop ideal customer profile and use it as a filter" Figure 3: Length of time to convert from prospect to customer. 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 MUCH ADO ABOUT SALES AND MARKETING