IMPROVING UNDERPERFORMING ACCOUNTS: ADVICE FROM THE TRENCHES
By Liz Stevens, contributing writer, The American Mold Builder
Kis critical to the bottom line of any business, AMBA offered a
nowing that creating and implementing a successful sales strategy
new event centered on the sales process. The AMBA Sales Process Forum was held on February 27, 2020, in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. The forum featured presentations from best-in-class mold builders on sales management strategies, processes and best practices. AMBA members Hillary Coombs, vice president, sales and marketing at Westminster Tool, and Charles Daniels, chief financial officer of Wepco Plastics, Inc., shared strategies for improving underperforming accounts. The American Mold Builder talked with Coombs and Daniels to learn about the insights they discussed at the event.
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run plastic injection molding for medical, industrial, aerospace, consumer goods, construction and more. Wepco’s tool room also can provide job shop machined metal parts, custom sinker EDM work, 3D printing services and stereolithography. COMPONENTS OF A ROBUST SALES STRATEGY In the presentation that Coombs and Daniels delivered together, they began with an overview of key sales strategies. For each customer, they explained, it is important to first identify what is of value to the client.
Westminster Tool, located in Plainfield, Connecticut, has been in business since 1997, when Ray Coombs began manufacturing mold components in his basement. Now expanded to a large facility and with another location in the works in nearby Sterling, Connecticut, Westminster is a complete injection mold builder serving the medical, automotive, aerospace and defense, consumer packaging and industrial markets.
Coombs explained that “value” is quite distinct from “need,” and that value is often a moving target. “What is valuable to the client,” she said, “is different for each customer and sometimes for each order. At the end of the day, we are providing a mold (that is the client’s need). The value that we can provide is what differentiates us from our competitors.” She illustrated value with a comparison. “For some clients, the pertinent value is a really tough tolerance that they have to hit. For other customers, the value might be lead time.”
Wepco Plastics is located to the west of Westminster Tool, in Middlefield, Connecticut. Wepco started out in another basement – that of Wally Parmelee – in the 1980s. Now in a 10,000-squarefoot facility, the company specializes in rapid prototype and short-
Daniels concurred, and offered another example of differing values. “If you are selling based on price, and customers really just care about lead time,” he said, “you will not be able to provide what they need and want.” Both speakers clarified how to capitalize on the highest
the american MOLD BUILDER | Issue 2 2020
