Electrical and electronics
Getting into a client's bill of materials is hard, getting out of it is almost impossible
Those who make electrical components, electronic boards or switchboards work with projects that last years. When your component goes into a client’s bill of materials, it stays there a long time. The problem is that the choice is made at the design stage, months before the order, and there nobody invites a new supplier.
The starting point
The challenges we meet most often
Challenges 1
It Is Decided in Design, Not in Purchasing
When the request for offer reaches purchasing, the component has already been chosen. If you have not talked to the technical office beforehand, you are out.
Challenges 2
Long qualification cycles
Samples, tests, approvals. Between the first contact and the first series order many months can pass, and someone has to keep the conversation alive.
Challenges 3
Competition from large distributors
The client finds everything in the catalogue from international distributors. To get chosen you have to bring design and support. Everyone has the catalogue code.
The method in the industry
How we work in this industry
We work on the technical offices of companies that design products where your components or processes make sense: automation, medical, energy, industrial vehicles. We look for project triggers, such as the development of a new range or an end-of-life component to replace. The message proposes a technical discussion on a concrete problem, heat dissipation, compatibility, redesign for an obsolete component, and reaches the R&D manager by email and LinkedIn. We bring in purchasing when a sample is already being tested.
Who we talk to
R&D or electronic design manager
Chooses components and architectures. Interested in datasheets, quick samples and an engineer to talk through the project with.
Electronics buyer or commodity manager
They manage availability, lead times and obsolescence. After the years of semiconductor shortage they want qualified alternative suppliers.
Operations Director
They look at production yield and assembly costs. In companies that outsource boards, they decide together with purchasing.
The objection we hear most often
«Our clients buy from qualified suppliers, getting onto the list takes years.»
We know, and that is why we do not promise orders within three months. What can be shortened is the stage before qualification: finding who has an open project and getting the first technical call. The rest depends on your samples and your technical office, and it is better to say so at the start than to find out later.
Case studies
The method in this industry
Recommended services
The channels we use here
Account Based Marketing
Surgical targeting on a named list of companies you want to win. Multi-decision-maker, multichannel, zero waste.
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LinkedIn Lead Generation
Sequences of targeted requests and personalised, professional messages, from your company’s LinkedIn profiles. This builds your pool of potential clients, which we nurture over time to create connections with decision makers.
Discover the service →
Frequently asked questions
Questions about the industry
How to find clients for an electronics contract manufacturing (EMS) company?
We look for companies that design an electronic product but have no in-house line, or are saturating theirs. The right contact is whoever manages industrialisation, not the generic purchasing office. The message talks about prototyping times and component management, which is where clients struggle most.
Does outbound work for selling electrical panels and automation?
It works with machine and plant builders who today build control panels in-house or buy them from a single supplier. The typical trigger is an increase in orders that saturates the internal department: there, an external supplier becomes a necessity.
How long does a client acquisition project in electronics last?
We plan over twelve months, because qualification cycles are long. Meetings with technical offices come in the first months, series orders afterwards. Whoever expects revenue in the third month in this industry is disappointed, and we prefer to say so beforehand.
Your market is in the industry electrical and electronics? Let's talk.
In the Feasibility Study we tell you honestly whether it makes sense to get started in your industry, and how.