The 'life' of a casting salesman.

A trip to an OEM reveals the alternative side of metalcasting's legwork--before and after any metal is poured.

The salesman. When some of us hear that word, it conjures the ludicrous image of Fast Eddie at the used car lot. Sharply (or oddly) dressed, he's on the move, constantly flapping his gums and trying to "close" the deal.

Fortunately, manufacturing representatives--and those in the casting industry in particular--are a different breed from that notorious salesman. To be successful in casting sales, it takes a good understanding of foundries and their processes, excellent communication skills, and some innovative technical thinking to help customers find the most appropriate and cost-effective way to produce their cast parts.

Often taken for granted, the casting sales representative plays an important role in the success of the foundry. Without a talented sales team bringing in jobs, a foundry's quality and high efficiencies won't matter. There's got to be work to do.

To delve a little deeper into this side of the casting business, I recently joined Chuck Ramstack, Spring City Sales Assoc., Waukesha, Wisconsin, on a casting sales call.

7:33 a.m.--I pull into the Best Western Clock Tower Hotel parking lot in Rockford, Illinois. When Chuck arrives, I'll ride with him to J.I. Case in East Moline, Illinois, where he's meeting with an engineer to discuss a lost foam casting produced by Willard Industries, Inc., Cincinnati, Ohio, for use on a combine.

Another sales call fell through, so there's only one on ourschedule today. A few minutes later, Chuck arrives from Waukesha (about a 1.5-hour drive). We each grab a cup of coffee to go from the breakfast counter and head out on the road. The Quad Cities are about 100 miles southwest of Rockford.

8:01 a.m.--Chuck has been a casting rep for about five years. In addition to Willard industries, his nonferrous principals include Batesville Products, Inc., Lawrenceburg, Indiana, an aluminum and zinc permanent mold foundry, and Advance Die Casting Co., Milwaukee, Wisconsin, an aluminum and zinc diecaster.

He also reps Advanced Cast Products, Inc., Meadville, Pennsylvania, a green sand and lost foam foundry casting ductile iron and austempered ductile iron (ADI). "I hooked up with them because of customer interest in lost foam," he says. "ADI is gaining interest and Advance Cast also has an advantage with an in-house heat treating operation."

After working in production and purchasing for Waukesha Engine after college, he took a job with Advance Diecasting (one of its suppliers), where he worked for 14 years, the last eight as sales manager. When he went out on his own in 1988, he arranged to handle the diecaster's Illinois territory, including the Caterpillar account.

As we head toward the Quad Cities, he notes that his primary customers are the diesel engine and agricultural machinery markets, such as Caterpillar and Case. Other top clients include HydroGear, Sauer-Sundstrand, Harley-Davidson, Western Plow and Tecumseh.

8:11 a.m.---Chuck tosses 40 cents into the first tollbooth. When asked about an expense account, he chuckles. A sales representative doesn't receive any expense reimbursement from the foundry; his earnings are 100% commissions. No meals, hotel stays, miles or phone calls.

The Cadillac we're riding in today is one of many used cars he buys. "I put 50,000 miles on a car per year," he says. "I can't lease because of mileage limits, and new cars have no value after two years." Each of the foundries provides him with sales literature, but any additional expenses incurred are his own.

8:59 a.m.--"The mission of a sales rep," Chuck says, "is to get principals exposure at OEMs that fit their niche. It takes some time and persistence, but in the long run it's worthwhile if we're given the opportunity to quote on a project. Once the foundry quotes on the job, I follow up and service the customer. The foundry may also send an engineer or quality guy for me to take to the customer.

"My job is to close the loop between the foundry and customer. I find out if we were competitive on price, and if not, why we weren't. Through discussions, the foundry's and customer's engineers may realize that cores or tolerances need to be adjusted. Nine times out of 10, it'll be redesigned, requiring the project to be requoted."

It generally takes two weeks to quote a job to properly assess the cost of the tooling and patterns, he says.

He says once they get a new order, the foundry produces a casting and has the part sampled to send to the customer. If it isn't to print, it may be changed. There's still engineering going on.

Form, fit and function is also becoming more common, he says, in which they place the casting directly into the assembly. In some cases, you may have to go back and change the tooling again. Once everything is OK, the foundry goes into production--often a year after the job was quoted (lead time for tooling and patterns sometimes takes weeks or months).

"Almost every customer today specifies just-in-time (JIT) delivery," Chuck says. "Each has a different way of ordering, but usually, a blanket order goes out for the year, with a firm order amount for the first four months. The balance of the year is forecasted, with the foundry scheduling so many castings a month after that."

9:41 a.m.--We exit Hwy. 88 and cross through the city limits of East Moline, traditionally a heavily intensive manufacturing town. We pass the John Deere assembly plant, and Chuck says he's been trying to get his foot in the door there for years, but to no avail--yet.

"Developing new business is tough, and takes a long time," he says. "Everyone is reducing their supplier base. Purchasing managers may already work with eight or 10 foundries, and may want to reduce to three. They're not about to talk to a new kid on the block--they see it as an inconvenience."

Getting to see a potentially new customer is a matter of timing, he says, "like when another foundry has shot itself in the foot...or if the foundry has a trick--like lost foam--that is still kind of unique. Then you have the opportunity to introduce and explain the process. At least they'll listen to you."

9:50 a.m.--As we roll into the Case parking lot, several fire-engine red combines are placed strategically along the frontage road and in front of the visitor's lobby. Chuck explains that today's call is to troubleshoot a machining problem for the castings, which are gear housings for the combine's corn head. He says that there has been too little machining stock left on a Couple of the castings, and he wants to take a closer look.

9:55 a.m.--Case engineer Denny Kempt greets us in the newly remodeled lobby and takes us back to his desk. After some small talk, including the Hardee's Golf Classic arriving in nearby Coal Valley over the weekend, it's down to business. "The problem is the area where the gate was cut off," Kempt says. "We've got a couple out in machining right now."

Out in the plant, Denny stops at two castings in a bin next to a machining cell. The machinist walks over, and while pointing to an area circled on the casting, says: "There isn't enough stock remaining on these two castings for standard machining."

"When they cut the gate off on the band saw," Chuck explains, "the operator may not have cut it straight."

After Chuck, Denny and the machinist discuss what needs to be done, we walk over to look at a casting under pressurized leak testing. Then, Denny offers to give me a tour of the plant.

Denny says Case makes 4000 combines a year, and leads me through initial assembly, engine testing, heat treating, painting and loading onto trucks for delivery. Several maintenance and other workers pass us on three-wheel bikes, speeding their in-plant travel considerably.

After discussing other details with Tom Carius, purchasing agent, we're back at Denny's desk. Because the castings have been sitting for a while at the assembly plant (they were produced five months earlier), Chuck suspects the problem may have already been corrected. Denny nods in agreement.

"The more recently produced castings were fine," Chuck says. "But I'll talk to our quality manager and have him look into it."

11:09 a.m.--Returning to the car, Chuck confesses that as Denny gave me the tour, he was keeping an eye out for other opportunities on the assembly line for lost foam castings. Discussing the importance of building relationships, he says, "If you get a guy like Denny on your side, he kind of protects you. He knows Willard does a good job, and if there is a problem, he'll work with you."

Talking about how he landed the Case account, Chuck says two years ago he called on the corporate buyer at Case headquarters in Racine, Wisconsin, to develop interest in lost foam. "They were having a few problems with the part--which was cast in permanent mold--and lost foam allowed them thinner walls, and reduced weight and machining time. We brought in an engineer and toolmaker, and showed them how to save money. Case is aggressive about saving money."

11:18a.m.--We head back onto the highway to return to Rockford. From his car phone, Chuck calls his answering machine to see if there are any urgent matters he must attend to. As we cruise down Hwy. 88, which pierces vast Illinois comfields, he says he averages three days a week on the road visiting principals and customers--primarily in Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa. His longest drive is to Peoria--500 miles round-trip.

"I used to be gone for two weeks at a time when I was a direct salesman," he says. "This drive doesn't bother me--I just wish the scenery was a little better."

11:39 a.m.--Foundry reps have been around for a long time, he says, but gained in popularity in the 1970s and '80s. Because the automotive market went sour, there was a fallout of foundries. Many had regional customers, and because of competition, they had to sprawl out and look elsewhere for orders. For many companies, it was no longer economical to use direct salesmen only.

"You can't have a direct guy travel 50 weeks a year and expect to service customers properly," he says. "So you work with reps set up all over the country. It works great in the South--you can hire a southern guy who can talk their language. The same in California, where they do business in golf shirts--not ties.

"When you have a local guy, the response time is almost immediate. When customers have a problem, they expect that. They don't want to hear 'let me check on airfare.'"

Also, he says, there's no cost of sales, since foundries don't pay the rep unless he produces. A house guy can cost the foundry $100,000 in salary, travel and car expenses, Chuck says. But with reps, the burden falls on them.

11:51 p.m.--Chuck says he reports to the foundry's vice president of sales or district sales manager, and his commissions are paid monthly for work invoiced the month before. "Your relationship with the principal is permanent," he says. "But reps don't have a whole lot of protection. If you're inactive or don't produce, they can dump you."

It's unethical to rep two foundries on the same process and metal, he says, and some agencies work for principals in several industries. An agent who sells castings may also be repping firms that sell stampings, etc. "I'm strictly in casting because it's what I know and would have more success in than selling something like fasteners," he says.

12:03 p.m.--if foundries are going to work with reps, he says, they've got to do it right. A foundry can hire a rep in every state of the union without enough engineers to handle inquires generated. This doesn't do the sales rep or the foundry justice.

Chuck says foundries need to educate sales reps in terms of what type of casting to look for. You can have a rep that sends in all kinds of inquires, but they're junk because the foundry's capability doesn't suit those parts. Through osmosis, reps will learn, but they need to be smart with the type of niche the foundry wants.

"Obviously, a rep can't be wasting his time trying to get an order for a 700-lb casting for a foundry that has a 16 x 20 high-volume automatic molding line," he says. "It's not going to be productive."

12:36 p.m.--He notes that initializing a foundry-rep relationship is something of a careful marriage.

When you're developing principals, the good foundries usually already have an established rep base. Finding good principals is a slow process, but because he worked in the casting industry for 15 years, he networked to find quality foundries.

Besides the fact that the foundry must have potential work in your geographic area and its niche must fit with current customers, there is the quality issue.

"There are still some shoddy foundries out there," he says. "If you're calling on a Caterpillar, Case or John Deere, you need a foundry that will meet certain expectations. If they aren't quality shops and don't have certain capabilities, you can jeopardize other accounts."

When asked about the foundries he represents, he said he's happy. He said they all have above-par quality and seldom have any rejects.

"You don't want to spend your sales time on quality problems," he says. "Today, quality and delivery are a given. You can't say anymore 'we have great quality and JIT delivery.' The only thing left is price."

1:09 p.m.--We stop at the Lone Star Steakhouse & Saloon for lunch. After notching enough miles on the road, a salesman can become a connoisseur of off-highway restaurants.

According to Chuck, one word describes what it is like starting a rep business--hell. "To get started you need two things-a good bankroll and a lot of credit," he says. Using a portion of his pension, a second mortgage and about 15 credit cards, he got his business off the ground.

"It took three to five years before the business was up and running," he says. "Three years to see daylight, and five to be successful."

When he started, he knew diecasting well, but didn't know who was buying permanent mold and sand castings. "So I hired a woman to telemarket. We went through an industrial directory and she called everyone we thought might be buying castings."

She made 700-800 phone calls, and the best 200 leads was where they started. He adds: "I learned that when you have a woman making the calls, the purchasing manager is more likely to stop and talk."

He has since upgraded his computer and its software. He enters prospects in a database, and uses it to track orders, invoices and customer activities. He talks to his foundries almost every day, and says the computer is a good forecasting tool.

1:46 p.m.--"From my perspective, the biggest thing foundries can do to improve sales is more effective marketing," he says. "Some people think marketing and sales are synonymous. But marketing is a full time job, and it's important that foundries decide what their niche is going to be.

"They need to do more marketing outside of the foundry and categorize their niche in size and weight, as well as the markets served, such as agricultural machinery, automotive, hydraulic valve, etc. Foundries need to know what they're good at and competitive with."

He also says telemarketing to develop leads for reps is important. Foundries can help sales by simple telemarketing and communicating with reps--both on who's buying castings in territories as well as what to look for based on other agents' successes.

Personally, he likes to visit trade shows to find potential work--especially agricultural machinery shows. "All the big boys have equipment on display, and I'll show up and crawl around their machinery," Chuck says. "Also, a rule of thumb is that those sales guys love to talk, and I can find out about new products they're planning."