Industry technical expert and inventor Robert Tarzwell turns the tables on consultant and interviewer Dan Beaulieu and asks, what makes him tick?

RT: Well, this is a little different for you, isn’t it? You’re usually the one asking the questions. Dan, you and I have known each other for a long time now and I still don’t really know what it is you do, exactly. So let’s start there. What do you do?

DB: Bob, a lot of people want to know that and I’ll be damned if I know. But seriously, here is what I do. I am sort of a catcher in the rye for board shops. I try to help them to succeed in any way. I look at my job as helping them to survive and thrive, in all times, but especially in these hard times. I help them to figure out a way to get more business, whatever that takes. RT: Okay, that sounds like a good philosophy and I respect that, but you still are not answering my question. What is it you do actually?

DB: I do whatever it takes to help companies. I particularly focus on their strategy. Companies just do not spend any time at all on their strategy. They want to talk about technology, or selling even, or manufacturability, but when it comes down to the direction of their company, they just do not have the inclination to spend a lot of time. In order to succeed, every company has to define itself. It has to develop its brand, what it does best, and then find the people who want what they do best and tell them about it.

RT: How do you work with the shops specifically? Give me some examples.

DB: Go into a shop looking for what they are doing right now and how they could do better. I spend a couple of days going over everything and talking to all the key individuals using a questionnaire I developed a number of years ago. By answering all the questions carefully you get a pretty good idea as to what the company is good at and what they should be selling in the marketplace. Actually, I am always looking for something unique, something they are outstanding at and, of course, something that will be marketable. Thus, beginning the brand development that will be so important to their success.

RT: Like what?

DB: Rigid flex for example. That’s a technology that is in very high demand, especially in this country. There are just not enough companies doing a good job at this technology so companies that need rigid flex boards are always looking for a new and good supplier. I guarantee that if you go into a buyer’s office and tell him/her that you can do rigid flex, chances are that they’ll pull some whale of a tough package out of their desk and ask you to quote it. That’s a technology that just does not have enough good suppliers.

RT: Why do you think that is?

DB: Because it’s hard, that’s all. Building good rigid flex boards well is very difficult. A lot of people say they can do it but in the end, they have a hard time and give their customers a big problem. I have a theory that if we had enough good suppliers for this technology, there would be many more requirements. Designers just do not design as much of the rigid-flex technology because their buyers groan every time they see regs for that technology drop on their desks.

RT: I looked at your literature and it says you do a whole bunch of things from marketing to account plans to coaching sales people. Do you really do all of those things?

DB: As I said earlier, I do whatever it takes to make a company successful. This includes everything from niche definition to branding to getting the most from their sales team, if they have one, to building one for them if they don’t. One of the most important things I do is help companies with their reps. If there is one big issue that most companies have, it’s getting the most from their reps. Most companies have terrible relationships with reps when it is so easy to have a good, productive relationship that yields excellent results. I show them how to do that. I also often act as the personal advisor to the company owner. You know, many of these guys have nowhere to turn. They can’t talk to anyone in their own organization about their problems. They often need to confide in an impartial, but knowledgeable outsider who they can trust.

RT: Isn’t it hard? I know that, just like you, I work with shops as well and most of the time they are so self involved that they have a hard time accepting other plans and solutions, even if they know they are going to work. How do you handle that?

DB: Yes, of course, most companies have a single, huge problem—they do not have enough sales and, to make it worse, they, the owners, do not have the slightest clue as to how to increase their sales. That’s not in their DNA. They were either engineers or production guys who started a company back when there were plenty of customers and sales to go around and now, when things are tough for them, they have no idea what to do. And that’s where I come in. If I can convince them to trust me, then I can take over responsibility for developing and managing their sales and marketing effort for them. Once I have their confidence, once they turn over that authority, we start getting things done.

RT: What are your feelings about the market today? I especially want to know what you think of the market here in North America. Are we going to make it?

DB: I am very bullish about our market right now. I think that those shops that are willing to really pay attention to their business, who have a great product and who are willing to invest the time and the money into sales and marketing, as well as develop a good, winning strategy, are going to do fine.

Here is how I see things. First of all, for whatever reason, and not all of them good, we have lost a lot of shops in the past several years. We are down to around three hundred companies right now, which bodes well for those who are left. This is getting to be quite Darwinian, but, hey, that’s the way business works. The shops that are left should do fine if, and that’s a big if, they pay attention to their sales and marketing. If not, then they will go the way so many others have gone.

Now, another factor that people never pay attention to is that even though people say that the market is about 3.5 to 4.0 billion [dollars] right now, that’s not true at all; that might be what is being fabricated in this country right now, or in North America, I should say, but it is not what the market is. The market is what is bought by companies in this country. For example, our clothing market is not stated by what dollars worth of clothing are produced here in North America, but rather by what is bought here in North America. That is the market. The same applies to certain consumer electronics. I don’t believe that there are any DVD players being built in this country anymore, but there are sure a lot of them being bought and that makes up the market. The same thing applies to PCBs. And as far as that goes, PCBs are going to be around for a while. If you look at your kitchen, your den, your car, our PCB usage is not declining, but rather rising drastically. This means that more boards are required for just about everything in our lives. Then there is another factor, sorry this is taking so long, but it’s pretty important. We are still the world’s innovators. More new products are developed here than anywhere else in the world. This means that were are still deeply involved in product development. This means, of course, that in the early stages of a board’s life—proof of design, prototype, pre production and small volume production—that board is staying here. When a company is developing a new product and they are going through a number of iterations, fast, they want to have those boards built nearby. They want to have those boards built here. Later, when the product is fully developed and they need tons of them, they will go offshore. So, a growing domestic market, new product development done locally, and fewer shops is going to lead to some very good years focused here in North America.

RT: That sounds good to me, but back to you, now. Are there other guys out there doing what you do?

DB: No, not really. There are a lot of technical consultants, as well as manufacturing experts, out there, but not really anyone who is helping companies with their sales and marketing effort, like I do.

RT: How long have you been doing this?

DB: I have been in this business for over 30 years and have been doing consulting work for about half of that time. During those 15 years, I have worked with well over a hundred companies

RT: Why do you think you’re qualified to do this?

DB: I am one on the few guys in this industry that is qualified to do this. I study marketing all the time. I read four or five books a week on sales and marketing, not to mention magazines. During my consulting career, I have worked with more companies than anyone else in the industry. I have seen just about everything that has to do with sales and marketing. I have experienced every trend, up and down, and have shown my clients how to live through it. I have had more sales and marketing experience than anyone else in our industry. I live and breathe this stuff. I study it and, most importantly, I love it with a passion. This is not a job to me, this is art, man. This is my life. I think it is fair to say that I have worked with more printed circuit board companies, for example, than anyone else in the history of the industry.

RT: You just can’t seem to hold down a job, can you? You do a lot of writing. I see your name all over the place. That must take a lot of time. Why do it?

DB: I love writing about sales and marketing. This is my validation, if you will; this is a great way for me to get my ideas and concepts out to the marketplace. Look, if by writing something I can help just one sales guy in one company to do better, then I have succeeded. I love to study sales and marketing and I love to write about it. Another great benefit is that it is my way of getting my name out there, it is my form of advertising, of being known, of getting people to call me and hire me…and it works.

RT: What size companies do you work with?

DB: I work with companies of all sizes. I have worked with companies as large as $300 million a year to companies that are about ten million a year to some small companies who are shipping $100K a month and want to get to two hundred K. It’s all about the same thing, just on a smaller scale. Find out what your customers want and give it to them. Make sure your current customers, and the companies you want to do business with, know who you are, what you do, and how they can reach you.

RT: Do you work with other companies besides board houses?

DB: Yes, good question. I work with assembly companies as well as vendors, such as Taiyo America, one of my favorite clients. I also work with a lot of civic organizations, helping them with their strategy and fundraising.

RT: Do you work with off-shore companies?

DB: Yes, I do, but mostly European companies. I have worked with companies in Ireland, Israel, and Germany, helping them to sell their products in North America.

RT: What should board shops do to be successful? Make it short.

DB: Focus on their sales and marketing. Is that short enough?

RT: I saw a flyer from you that said you could make board shops famous? Really/ I have a hard time believing that. How can you make board shops famous?

DB: Aha, frankly, you just have to know what to do. There are many venues out there to get your name out in public, but for the sake of brevity, here is what you do: First develop your story, what is your niche? What are you selling? What are the benefits of what you are selling and who wants what you are selling? Once this is complete you have the basis for your publicity message and you just come up with ways to get it out there. This includes press releases, trade shows, white papers, seminars and webinars, and interviews, such as print, audio, and video. The point is to focus on your message and create a timeline plan to get your message [brand] out there, all the time. After a while, people start to notice you, they start to pay attention to your story, and, yes, you become famous. This is what I do.

RT: I know that the PCB industry is a really bad NIHI, not invented here industry. How do you handle that?

DB: Of course, it is. There is no denying that. And it makes it hard sometimes to get things started with companies. I would guess that there are many right now on the brink of disaster. They are just about out of money and they are just about out of sales and they have no idea, and I mean no idea, what to do about it…so they do nothing. Or even worse, they do what they have always done, and that which has not worked, of course. I’m not sure what enters into this equation—if it’s ego, or fear, or a little bit of both. I think they feel that they are smart guys, they started their own companies and succeeded, for a while, a pretty long while, maybe, so why can’t they get it right now? They think that if they just stay at it for a while things will be okay. But you know that it won’t be. You know that, sooner or later, they are going down and that’s a damn shame, it really is.

RT: And you feel that you could prevent this?

DB: Of course, if it’s not too late, if the bank doesn’t meet me at the door coming out as I’m going in. Look, these guys know about boards, they know about technology and they might even know a little bit about business, but they, most of the time, know next to nothing about sales and they sure as hell do not know anything about marketing…

RT: And you do?

DB: Yes, of course I do, this is my life! This is what I do, what I breathe, sleep, and eat. I read everything I can get my hands on. Most people in our industry have not read more than three books in years and those only because they had to do with manufacturing, like on lean manufacturing or some stuff like that, which is okay, but is not going to get them one single order in the long run. They don’t care about marketing, they don’t care about sales, they could not be less interested in these subjects. When they should be reading books about sales and marketing, they are reading books about what they do care about, which is technology or production, which is fine, but will not help them with their real problem, which is always sales. But this is what I do. I care about sales, about their sales. Look, I want them to succeed and, if they let me, I will make them succeed. I take care of the sales issue for them.

RT: How can you say that? How can you possibly say that you can save these companies?

DB: If they let me, I can. The entire sales process is just that, a process nothing more or less something that I can quickly outline right here, in about five minutes. First, you build a good, unique product with benefits customers want. Find those customers and convince them that you can deliver what they need to meet their objectives to be successful, and that’s it.

RT: That’s it? That’s all there is to it?

DB: Bob, it really is as simple as that.

RT: Then why doesn’t everyone do it?

DB: Because they either do not know how or do not have the discipline to get it down. Look, all of us know how to lose weight, right? You eat less and exercise. Do this and you will lose weight. They know that intellectually, but they just can’t seem to get it done. But how about those guys in Hollywood, they lose weight and gain weight at will, what is the difference? I’ll tell you the difference, they have a personal trainer who comes to their house with a program and works with them every single day to make sure that they follow the program. And that’s what I do with my clients. I not only develop their sales and marketing program, but I implement it as well. I am like their own sales and marketing personal trainer. And that is how I get them to succeed.

RT: I get it, Dan, this has been very interesting. I’m glad we’ve had this chance to talk. I hope that you found being the interviewee instead of the interviewer wasn’t too painful.

DB: Not at all, Bob, you did a good job. Thanks for giving me this time to talk.