Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

What’s Holding You Back?

Expand your horizons.

Go for it.

Who said you have to do things the same way you have always done them? Who said that you have to play by the rules you have always played by? Who made up these rules anyway? Who told you that you had to keep doing things the same way year after year, always staying the same, while the world is changing?

Look, 2015 is not 1985, so why do we keep thinking and acting the same way we did back then? The world has changed drastically. The hands we are being dealt these days are very different than the hands we were dealt yesterday, and we have to learn how to play them today in this new and modern world.

For example, we have to do whatever we can to grow our businesses. If this means trying new things, then by all means try new things. Don’t be afraid; don’t think that the sky is going to fall because you are doing something you have never done before. Au contraire, mon frere. This is the time to do it. This is the time to swing for those fences.

It’s not time to just start thinking out of the box, it’s time to burn that darn box!

Here are some ideas:

Find ways to expand your product offerings. If your sales guys are having a hard time selling what you build, then start building other stuff. Find out what your customers need, besides what you’re already selling them, and then start providing them with those products, or those versions of your products. You’ve already spent the money on attaining those customers, you are already on their AVL, and your salesperson is going there anyway, so give her something else to sell while she is there. No one said you had to keep to your old rules, so try something new, and remember to burn that box.

If you’re selling in the traditional way, then add website selling. More and more companies are doing it and achieving great success. In fact some of the companies who were only selling via their websites are now adding salespeople and selling traditional way…the way that you do. Turnaround is fair play, so start selling their way. There is nothing that says that one method of selling precludes another way. You need to be trying everything you can to profitably grow your sales.

Find out what else is selling. If it’s technology (it's always technology), then increase your technology. Once again, before you spend any time, effort or money, make sure that you add the right technology, do your homework, and research your customer base. Also, have your salespeople talk to the potential customers they have been courting for years and find out what it’s going to take to win some of their business…and then do it. Add that technology to your capabilities and win over those new customers.

Here’s a great way to expand your capabilities. Take out a partner, develop a partnership, or create a joint venture. Work with another company in developing a partnership that will benefit the both of you. Remember that a partnership is when two people get together to do something the neither of them could do by himself.  If your salespeople tell you that your customers want flex boards, then find a company who builds flex boards and work out a partnership deal with that company. Offer them something in return. This will make both of your stronger in the long run.

If you don’t have an offshore partner, then find one. The world has changed. It is now a global economy, the barriers are coming down, and so are the borders of parochial thinking. You have to be able to offer your customers whatever they need.

Your customers no longer look at you as a PCB quickturn shop, or military shop, or flex shop. No, they are looking at you as their PCB solution, their PCB experts, their go-to resource when it comes to printed circuits boards. They want to be able to rely on you to handle all of their PCB needs. Just as the world is going global and nearly borderless, so must you. You have to penetrate that brick and mortar that has been restricting you, expand your horizons, take a clear view of your company’s future, and start heading in that direction. It’s only common sense.