Information for Design Wins

Walt:  So, as a principal I’m sure there is a question you wanna ask. What do we do for you etc. but I want to ask you, what do you really want? You’re going to say design wins, business of course but what you really want is information, number one. You wanna know what the heck is going on at Northrop Grumman. You wanna know what’s going on L3. You really want to know what’s going on at Lockheed, because honestly you don’t really know. You might know some of the stuff, but you know all the stuff and you don’t know the new missile programs. But we know that. That’s what you wanna know first. That brings you to design wins. So we share that information with you willingly. Information is power. You get the information. We got the information. We discussed it and we talk about it. What’s your next step? What are you gonna do? What product you have, that has got to go in there. What’s gonna be your best opportunity for a design win? But now you know what you really want. This information, which leads to business, the design wins and slot designs. It’s very important.

It’s very important so we have all that local knowledge. We know who’s moving around what’s going on and we know the programs and we know where the programs are and where they’re going in the future and what new ones are coming down. The new satellite programs at L3 Harris, for example, what are missile program hypersonic, at Lockheed Martin? We know who those engineers are. As a principal, it’s very difficult for you to find out who they are. Almost impossible, in some cases because they’re secretive. It’s the same thing with corporate contacts. You’re going to find it very difficult to find corporate contacts at the corporate locations here in Florida, but we know who they are. We learn new ones all the time. Because we don’t know everybody, but we’re always finding new people to talk to.

You will never hear us say to a principal, “We know everybody in Florida” because we don’t. There are always new people, new things, new changes, and a new tiger team at Harris. Someone will say, “We have a new Tiger Team for this problem”. When asked who is their Tiger Team, I’ll go see him. Because we have a part for that problem. So as a principal you would never know that. So we bring that to the equation. Plus, you don’t pay us until you ship something. We are all commission sales. So, we are like a free salesforce until we ship something to you. Plus with our visit reports, our visit reports are great they are really good we’re very proud of them and it’s better than your salesforce. You’ll get information that you will never get from other people from other Manufacturers’ Reps.

Detailed Visit Reports

Terry:  We are told all the time by our principles, they don’t get this from other Reps. Once again, our visit report are very detailed. Because we’re working with several thousand technically trained people, you can’t come in there unprepared because everyone’s time is money and they don’t have time to just chat with you. So we understand that we better bring something to the table when we meet with these engineers. When we do, we write very detailed visit reports and we share them with our principles so they will know what’s going on. The information that we share, helps you prepare for the future so you know what you need to develop to support these defense contractors. If you just come in and you get an immediate hit that’s wonderful, but without information to prepare for the future, you won’t have the right product. So you’d rather make this a long term development. You could come in and get business immediately, yeah that’s great but you want to be there for years. By being there for years is the information that we give you, so that we can say, we need to develop this, so that you can get business for the future. You know where they are going and where their future design plans are. That’s where we want to be.

Walt:  So we all know where they are with the principal and it’s something new or something we might be able to apply at one of our accounts and that’s important. We are a very tight-knit group. We’ve all been together for a long time.

Eliminate Overhead Cost

Terry: Also, a couple of the other benefits for the principles is, like Walt said, there’s no overhead with us. You’re not paying healthcare, you’re not paying for a car, you’re not paying dental, you’re not paying bonuses. You only pay us once the design is done and product ships. so it’s a huge cost savings to you. If you feel it’s in your gratitude, you can increase our commission. We will take a higher rate, but that’s all. We get paid when the product ships.

Walt:  I think that’s important to know, and cost means something. I know a lot of the principles have a lot of significant costs, travel costs, which have gone away in the last few years. So they’ve relied a lot more on their Reps and their Reps bringing them opportunities and they’ve graded Reps on how many opportunities they bring them and their value. Because with Covid, that’s the only way into accounts and that’s through the Reps because their Regionals were not traveling at all. So, it’s made it a little more difficult for them. Plus, there’s nothing for them to replace. One of us going into the L3 Harris lobby or Honeywell or Raytheon or Northrop Grumman walk into the lobby to see someone and another engineer walks down the steps and says, “Walt, you got a minute”? Nothing replaces that. No principal will ever experience that, because they are not there all the time, as we are. Or you go in to see the reception, at these accounts and I love Terry over at L3Harris. I walk in and they don’t even say hello to me, but they Love Terry. Their response to Terry is, “Let me get him for you”. Yeah, will you come down to see Terry? He’s here to see you. I go and get a cup of coffee.

Terry:  Case in point, Walt and I literally have a meeting set up for a principle that is coming into town for a convention and we were able to set something up at L3 Harris and once again it was initially set up via text then the gentleman went off and he got authorization so we’re gonna have a meeting next weekend. It’s personal, it’s relationships. Try to call into a major principal today and see what you get on the phone. You’ll get, push this button and push that button. You’re not going to get anybody. Good-luck. And, good-luck trying to get an engineer to pick up the phone. Good luck. So, it’s important to have someone there who knows who you are. As a principle, if you want to interview us and ask us questions, we’ll send you a presentation. You can ask us about accounts, we will give you examples and samples of visit reports. will tell you of some new programs to see if that’s something you’re interested in. If we could meet and come together on that, you’ll find our relationship very successful and you’ll be with us a very long time. You’ll be surprised, pleasantly surprised with FLA Technology Sales, Inc.