Want to Grow the Business? Here's a Tool That Does Just That
You've got a great fab shop. All the latest technology. A very good local reputation. But how do you get out of the "local box"? How do you reach a broader audience, make it aware of your presence and capabilities—in short, grow your customer base? Step one: Start with the computer on your desk
PICKERING, ONTARIO—Andy Pavletich, founder and owner, A.P.S. Metal Industries Inc, says his company specializes in stainless steel fabricating and forming of a variety of products (food processing equipment, hoppers, chutes, mixers, conveyor system parts, environmental products, packaging machinery parts, electronic enclosures and cabinets, display units, lighting fixtures, product holding fixtures, medical equipment, furniture and appliances and so on). The company employs 60-70 in a flexible two-shift schedule and operates out of a 30,000 sq ft facility.
Production capabilities include complete metal fabrication from raw material to finished parts and precise and versatile laser cutting to large capacity requirements up to 1/4" in aluminum, 3/4" in mild steel and 5/8" in stainless. Typical finishes range from 2B to Mirror, says Pavletich. Materials processed include mild steel; 304, 316, 410 and 430 stainless; aluminum and some special alloys (titanium, astalloy, spring steel, 4130, etc.)
"Our three Trumpf L-3030, 4000-watt laser cutters offer a productive mix of speed, versatility and precision," Pavletich says. "Flying optics allow the cutting head to move while the material stays flat on the table. Dual 60" x 120" material beds on each laser and state-of-the-art nesting software provide faster material handling and maximum material yield."
Production capabilities are rounded out by numerous welding stations, a complete machine shop, nine press brakes, hardware inserters, shearing and notching capabilities, single station punch presses and a well-equipped clean-up area complete with deburring machinery.
"We opened in 1986," Pavletich says, "and we've built our business on a reputation for quality, quick turnaround on delivery—sometimes in a matter of a few days to a few hours—and a fair and competitive price. But we knew we had to tap new customers and markets if we were to grow. We'd done no advertising or promotion, didn't have a sales staff, and most of our work came through repeat business or word of mouth, one satisfied customer telling another about us.
Both I and Rob Zakojc, Purchasing and Materials manager, felt we needed to reach out and find a way to get our name out before potential customers who knew nothing about us."
An information highway?
Zakojc says he'd used the Internet off and on to find new customers, but the problem was in identifying a prospect that might be outsourcing metal fabrication or have fabrication/forming requirements. It was on just such an exercise that he came across MFG.com, an online production-level solution for OEMs and suppliers of engineered-to-order components, which instantly and intelligently matches buyer requirements with potential suppliers possessing the right expertise, credentials, and capacity for the job being sourced.
"When I came across the site," Zakojc says, "and took it for a test drive, I thought this might be the tool I've been looking for. We signed on and MFG.com created a profile for us, which they posted on their site and helped us get toward the top of certain search engines. Coincidentally, we had just received a shipment of corporate brochures, and I quickly put up a Web site, a kind of electronic version of the brochure, so that when a prospect checks our profile, he can link back to our site to get a better feeling of who we are and what we do."
While the Internet may be known as the "Information Highway," Zakojc says that for his purposes the MFG.com site is that and more. "I'm able to check at any time of the day what RFQs are out there," he says. "And the real plus is that when I see an RFQ for fabrication or forming, I know that company has the work, wants it done, and wants it done now. If they match our capabilities and capacity, I'll bid. And it's so easy. I can't even begin to tell you how much time I've saved over traditional means of finding prospects and new customers. I can easily pull down and process 50 RFQs a day. When I get here in the morning, I turn my machine on and the site comes up. It stays on until I turn my machine off at night. Sales have increased by 4.5 percent in the last four months, and we're just getting our feet wet."
Using the site
Zakojc says that using MFG.com is in at least one way like using any other new tool: The more you use it, the easier it is to use. "The first couple of times we used it," he says, "we really didn't understand where we were in the bidding hierarchy. It was like taking a risk, which is true of most things in business. But soon I became very familiar with the site. Our profile has been hit a thousand times, and I check it out daily. When I see that a company has hit our profile for a second or third time that tells me that more than likely they're interested in us, and I simply call them up and discuss how we might fit their needs. After a while, the site becomes very intuitive, very, very easy to use."
Zakojc notes, for example, that there are two kinds of buyers on the MFG.com site. There are the ones that are only about price, and it doesn't matter what you do, what services you offer, what you provide. If you're a few pennies more than someone else, these buyers will go for the lower price.
Then, he says, there are buyers who use the site to find quality suppliers as contractors. These buyers are looking at long-term relationships with suppliers they can rely on for a quality product, a timely delivery and a reasonable cost.
"A lot of the jobs we're getting is subcontract work, basically on parts a company would ordinarily make themselves, but due to capacity issues at the time, or perhaps there are components on the part that they'd have to subcontract anyway, they just let us do the whole part instead sending us just the fabrication part of the job," Zakojc says. "And it's not always about price, because we're not always the lowest cost. As a matter of fact, our pricing is something we keep consistent. We're looking for repeat business, and being the lowest cost bidder isn't going to get you that. You get that by developing a strong relationship with a customer, one where they know your quality and your willingness to meet tight deliveries when necessary. They come to know what to expect and the value they place on that often obviates the cost issue."
Zakojc says the first thing he does when we sees a potential customer on the site is to check out their profile—to see what kind of work they do, how large they are, how long they've been in business, what industries they serve and how other suppliers have rate them. From this exercise Zakojc says he can pretty well tell who's looking at price alone. If the RFQ is for 500 pieces of this or that, for example, you can be fairly sure it's a one-time job and one that you'll probably not see again and will generally go to the lowest bidder.
A consulting role
Although Zakojc says he uses MFG.com to find repeat business and new customers who for one reason or another are regularly outsourcing fabrication/forming jobs, he has on occasion worked with companies with no metalworking experience at all. "These companies will have designed a part and then suddenly realize it requires some forming," he says, "and they don't know anything about sheet metal. So, we'll do he job, and very often these companies come back to us with additional forming needs."
In these types of cases, Zakojc says, the customer just knows what he needs but doesn't know much more. "This gives us the opportunity to go in and advise the customer about the best way to make the part," he says. "The RFQ may specify a particular material, and I'll call and ask why he wants to use that particular material, and if the choice was made just because someone said it was a good material, we may be able to select an alternative material that will do the job just as well but will be more cost effective, lowering their costs. People really appreciate that you're sharing your expertise, and it lets you get a little closer to the customer, gives you an edge and opens the door to potentially a long-term relationship."
Extending your reach
Zakojc says that clearly one of the reasons A.P.S. Metal Industries joined MFG.com was to spread its reach and broaden its exposure to potential new customers. And apparently it's done just that. "The fact that we're Canadian," Zakojc says, "a lot of these customers would not have even thought to look here. At the same time, I wouldn't have thought to look at some of the smaller areas in the U.S. or even assume that I could work for these companies. But today freight is not really an issue whether your shipping from Toronto to Tennessee or Chicago, and NAFTA has opened the trade doors. What companies have to deal with now is really nothing more than some minor paper work issues."
Before MFG.com, for example, Zakojc says he had a handful of US. Today, he has 15 US companies and that number is growing. "What the site really does," he says, "is make everybody my neighbor, regardless where they are. Everybody is a company right down the street, and how great is that?"
For more information, contact:
A.P.S. Metal Industries Inc, Pickering, Ontario, 905/831-7698
www.apsmetalindustries.com
MFG.com Inc., Atlanta, GA, 770/444-9686, www.MFG.com
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