When was the last time you asked 10 customers by phone:
“What else can we do for you?”
In response you might get:
“Good question, what can you do for us? What kind of jobs are you looking for?”
Maybe then you’ll give a response:
“We make all kinds of things, feel free to send in some requests.”
…, but that won’t help the customer (and certainly the work planners) much.
Besides, it sounds a little unprofessional.
Who is good at everything? We know that generalists are not specialists.
So you need to know exactly what you are looking for if you want to work effectively.
How to determine what you are looking for:
Here are some questions every entrepreneur should know.
Take a sheet of paper and try to answer as accurately as possible, keeping in mind:
If 10 new customers or large orders could come in tomorrow, what would they order, how would they order and why do you want them to?
- Do you prefer clients with simple or complex products? Work on the edge of manufacturability, or turning volumes?
- Do you only want to provide sheet metal work or do you not hesitate to provide turning, milling and 3D printing services as well?
- Does the finished product include assembly and/or welding? Or just individual parts?
- Thin or thick metal? Special materials, or just “vanilla” steel, stainless steel, aluminum?
- With or without coating and packaging? Arranged in-house or externally?
- How does the client deliver the work? STEP files? Native files (SolidWorks, Inventor etc.) or .DXF?
- Prefer everything through a portal, or personalized engineering advice as well?
- Why do you want this work? Above all, what don’t you want?
- Why do you and the client fit together? What makes your partnership profitable?
The point is:
If you know these answers as a team, you will find that the work gets better.
You talk about it more, put it on the website, on social media, and your team actively seeks out the work. Plus the customer knows who to contact. As a result, you just get more of it.
And best of all?
It also gives insight into what technical solutions you need for the IT systems, making digitization go more smoothly!
Need help with this?
Make an appointment with me now to find out what your ideal clients and assignments are and what digitization challenges and opportunities lie ahead of you. I help you find the best way to grow your business.
