By Jay Milender, Director of Sales
Jay Milender hard at work keeping up with Lampin and MITRPAK clients.
Most regular customers of companies like Lampin have established long-term relationships with people in the organization with whom they regularly communicate. Primarily these people are the individuals that perform a purchasing, customer service or engineering role. Often these relationships develop and go beyond the everyday function of getting from point A to point B on a new order or project and evolve into friendships. These friendships can even survive job changes and improve communication and trust between customer and supplier.
I head up Sales and know when customers get a call from me there is sometimes a certain amount of dread. They see my title and automatically assume I am calling to put the hard sell on them for additional business. While this thought constantly crosses my mind, I find that the best way to ensure future precision manufacturing business and opportunities is to become a real partner to our customers. One way I create a partnership with my clients is to take a real interest in their business. I want to know what motivates a customer to work with us. Let’s be honest, price is always a factor, but I also want to know what roles quality and value play. Are there other suppliers, maybe not even in the precision component business, that have best practices we should adopt and emulate? Are other suppliers letting you down? Are we letting you down?
I typically do my homework before initiating a call, the internet is a wonderful thing. I can find out about customer’s news, explore industry trends, and identify challenges to their business. My research allows me to begin a conversation by asking intelligent and probing questions to evaluate your status with regard to product life cycle, competitive pressures and new product design.
The best of these conversations are two-way. At Lampin, we see customers in every stage of product development and have solved issues for them such as reducing noise, adding longevity to parts based on use and expedited manufacturing and assembly practices to keep a plant online. We’ve developed precision machining innovations for clients through custom components and assemblies, as well as through use of our MITRPAK line of gearboxes. Often, good ideas come out of in-depth discussions with our customers because we’ve taken the time to stop and examine points that would not have been covered in other ways. We have taken the time to think about the questions and really understand the answers. This is the root of innovation.
Taking a call from me does not have to be a painful experience. I really am a nice guy once you get to know me. Who knows, I may even help lead you to some new ideas that will improve your business.
To see what Jay and the other employee-owners at Lampin can do for you, contact us.
