Maintaining mindshare in EMS: does your firm have a formal program for sharing customer information?

Is miscommunication or lack of visibility among your OEM prospects costing you business? Have any of these situations occurred in your company?

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* A potential account says it isn't seeking additional EMS partners. Six months later, a competitor is added to its supply base.

* An existing customer outsources a new product line without giving you a shot at the RFQ. One of your product development engineers mentions he heard rumors about the new opportunity but assumed you knew.

* You add RoHS manufacturing capability. Six months later, an existing customer outsources all of its RoHS product to a competitor. Your contact says he didn't know you had RoHS capability.

The company names and situations may change, but these types of disconnects happen more frequently than most EMS sales teams would like to admit. The lack of marketing resources inherent in many EMS business models drives part of the problem, but lack of formalized systems for regular mindshare maintenance in prospect and customer accounts drives is another. A formal program need not be complex or expensive, just deployed consistently.

Direct mail. Good database management is important in ensuring a strong mindshare maintenance program. While email is the most expedient form of communication, it is also the mode most easily ignored or deleted. "Snail" mail with relevant content may be more effective and even filed for future reference.

For EMS decision-makers, relevant content is information that helps them do their jobs more effectively. It may be a trade article reprint discussing a key technical or business issue, a newsletter with a problem/solution analysis relevant to their needs, a white paper, or even an invitation to a Webcast or informational seminar. An effective mindshare maintenance program at the prospect level asks: "What can I mail quarterly that decision-makers will read and keep?"

This phase helps eliminate losses resulting from bad timing of sales calls and prospect misperceptions about provider capabilities. Done right, it can build respect and affinity for your services, as decision teams may value highly the information they receive.

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Public relations. This is the most effective mindshare maintenance tool and often the least used because of resource limitations. Good EMS PR isn't simply issuing press releases on certifications, new capabilities and contract awards. Instead, it is a series of articles, conference presentations, Webcasts and white papers defining your company's brand by outlining challenges and solutions addressed within your business model. Reprints of articles and white papers provide valuable content for direct mail. Webcasts and conference presentations display your team's technical competencies.

The goal here isn't to "sell" your company through hype; it is to establish a series of relevant messages reinforcing market perceptions about your competencies. Done right, it can help decision-makers focus on your company by discussing your track record with similar projects.

Focusing your team. Often the people first to learn about potential projects aren't in sales or program management. They may be in engineering or procurement and either observe trends in customer forecasting behavior or hear brief mentions of new projects. Because they aren't in sales, this information may go unrecognized.

Training the team to identify and communicate potential new opportunities is a great way to overcome the chronic resource limitations typically found in EMS. At the most basic level, new business contributes to increased job security, so it makes sense for team members to support robust communication of potential opportunities. Companies can also offer employees incentives for opportunity referrals through bonus programs or extra vacation days when new business is won. Most important is creating an environment where all employees understand the need to share what they hear relative to potential business opportunities.

Formal account review process. Most large EMS providers have a quarterly review process with most or all their customers. Companies in the mid-tier may have less-frequent reviews or have regular reviews with only a small percentage of customers. Smaller EMS providers often have no formal review process and rely on supplier scorecards or weekly status meetings as their primary feedback process.

The best review format addresses customer issues, but also looks at agenda items set by the EMS provider. These added items can include:

* Customer order performance-to-forecast.

* Accounts payable status.

* Review of action items related to component qualification, joint cost-reduction initiatives or new business opportunities.

* Overview of capabilities added in the prior quarter.

* Discussion of project success stories.

The value driving a regular formal review process with this level of discussion is that it sets a tone of partnership that looks at customer and contractor issues in a nonjudgmental way. It also opens the door to discussions about new business and new capabilities. A written review package ensures the story is told consistently to customer team members.

Susan Mucha is president of Powell-Mucha Consulting Inc. (powell-muchaconsulting.com), a consulting firm focused on optimizing EMS account acquisition processes, and developer of the EMS Integrated Marketing[TM] and EMS Concentric Selling[TM] training programs; [e-mail].