I can truly empathize—perhaps sympathize is a better word—with Steve Gold. In his December editorial, “The Way We See It,” he vented his frustration with all too many fabricators in the PC industry. “Stop whining and start helping,” he wrote, referring to those who complain about Chinese trade practices, and their devastating impact on PCB competition. Yet those same complainers fail to attend events like Capital Hill Day, which lobbied against the unrealistic Chinese currency evaluations. And those same complainers refused to support technical conferences designed to provide valuable information for making boards faster and cheaper.

I’m sure my empathy, or sympathy, stems from the same frustration as Steve’s. For a couple of years now, I’ve been propounding the concept and techniques of Value Selling—that is, selling on the basis of satisfying customer requirements at the lowest total cost of acquisition, ownership, and use. This concept and its supporting techniques are not theory. They’re practical, pragmatic, tried and proved. They have worked, and continue to work, in a host of industries, particularly in those that can offer something more than merely low price.

When I started writing this column, I really believed that PCB fabricators filled that bill. I wrote, almost ad nauseum, that boards are not a commodity. They’re not standardized and produced to common specifications. They’re not produced for inventory or in anticipation of some future demand. They’re clearly not off-the-shelf items. They are produced to specific design and application requirements, which vary from customer to customer, even from order to order. They’re critical components in electronic, appliance, automotive, military, medical, and instrumentation products, and can make or break an OEM’s ability to compete effectively where performance, reliability, and availability are the criteria for marketing success. The response to my preachments have been, sad to say, underwhelming.

Now let me say that I fully appreciate the pessimism, if not defeatism, of PCB fabricators, who have seen their ranks depleted by half since the recession started in 2000. And I know it’s not easy to adopt a more positive attitude in the face of price competition, which reflects Chinese cost advantages of 50-60 % over North American producers. But the fact is that business is reviving. According to the IPC Book-Bill findings, year-to-date rigid PCB shipments have increased 21.2% and bookings have increased 12.5% compared to the same period in 2003. For flexible circuits, year-to-date shipments have grown 74,4% and bookings have grown 103.1% compared to the same period in 2003. These are not shabby statistics, and ought to dispel some of the apathy and gloom that, sadly, seems to permeate this industry.

This improving business environment is providing a real opportunity for fabricators to think positively and act proactively to improve their fortunes. The steps they must follow are ones I have addressed before:

• Distinguish between marketing and sales. Marketing provides the guidance and direction for sales activity. It identifies opportunities and dangers, and provides the information and insight for dealing with them Specifically, it tells you where the business is, which technologies are evolving, and the companies who will be leaders in those markets and technologies.

• Know your markets and the customers and prospects who comprise those markets. Know them in intimate detail. Who are their customers and their customers’ customers? Remember that their requirements drive the requirements of your immediate customer or prospect. The more you know what they are, the better you can frame a true Value proposition.

• Think cost – customer cost. This is not an easy thing to do if you think about cost strictly as an accounting concept. Rather, think about cost as expenditure of resources – time, material, capital, information resources. Then think about how your offering can reduce, avoid, or offset cost to the customer by increasing his revenue, or improving her cash flow,

• Develop meaningful Value proposals for customers and prospects with favorable sales potential. You do this by relating your capabilities and resources to your customer’s requirements, and then demonstrating, cost benefits to your customer by that relationship, This approach does not ignore price. Rather, it puts it into perspective with other costs.

• Develop and employ a Value-focused vocabulary. Frame your marketing and sales language to the concept that boards are not a commodity, and price is only one cost of the purchase. Indeed, it may be a less significant cost than the cost of failure in quality, delivery, or pre-and -after-sale support.

This improvement in the business climate has been a long time in coming. Take advantage of it. If I can help, let me know.